Spotted In The Wild – Teutonia Fun System

New York City:  Bryant Park.  The Teutonia Fun System.  It’s probably a 2008  model, the Fun System with Rad (wheel) 60:

You can’t see the features very well in this shot because I was hurrying to a Japanese bookstore. (Kinokuniya, and it’s fantastic, by the way.  Directly across the street from Bryant Park.)   The unusual chassis caught my eye as I zipped past.  Speed was of the essence; naturally, quality suffered.  Here’s a better look at the Fun System  (but these are Rad 50 wheels, not Rad 60s):

The seat is reversible, so it can face whoever is pushing the stroller.  You can’t see it easily, but the bar that supports the basket in back is sturdy metal.  The heavy-duty footrest is common in better European strollers, and that wedge-shaped seat side (kind of racy, don’t you think?) is not an uncommon motif.  A lot of 1940s USA strollers had similar, though exaggerated, swoops on either side of the seat, too.

And here’s a 2009 European version, with fancy trim:

That’s a lift-out carrycot inside.  This image is from Baby-Shop, a German site.  That enveloping, over-sized hood is common in better European carriages.  Babies still tend to go out in all weather in Europe, and to really get walked.  These vehicles aren’t for mall-hopping.

If you want something similar in the US, you’d customize your model through the TeutoniaUSA website, and order the t-100 chassis with the metro 60 wheels and the t-stroller seat, in your choice of color.  I can’t show you what it looks like, though, because, although Teutonia’s fancy-schmancy website offers tons of choices, and a neat customization tool, it never shows you a completed picture of “your” stroller.   Go figure.

Weirdly, the German site DOES let you see the stroller you’ve designed, so here it is, in dark blue, with the Rad 60 wheels:

A carrycot is available in the US, making the t-100 into a pram-like carriage, but it’s not as nice (or as pram-like) as the one available in Germany.