May 17, 2013 Dana

Drool spotlight: UPPAbaby conquers Boston

When you sell strollers, stroller-spotting becomes a daily habit, and you notice which brands and models live in what parts of town. Here in Brookline, by our first store and our office, the Bugaboo Cameleon goes through its daily transformations, and the Donkey patiently traipses the aisles of Trader Joe’s, laden with toddlers and produce. Downtown, by our store at the Prudential Mall, you’ll see glamorous iCandy Peaches and stylish Stokke Xplorys pounding the pavement. In this writer’s native Jamaica Plain, the versatile Baby Jogger City Mini and the athletic BOB Revolution dominate, along with every kind of bike trailer and a tiny army of tricycles.

But one stroller is absolutely inescapable in every part of Boston, from Southie to Somerville and everywhere in between: the Vista, made by UPPAbaby, whose headquarters are just a stone’s throw away in Hingham, MA. Walk down any city block in the afternoon, and you can count a dozen UPPAbaby Vista Strollers in half an hour; they’re easy to pick out from the pack, with their tall profile, which boosts baby up high, and the inward V of their elegant frame. Go to the Aquarium on a Friday, and you’ll be surrounded by Vista Strollers, with their cozy bassinets occupied by snoozing babes, or eager toddlers pointing at the penguins from their Piggyback boards. Promenading in the Public Gardens, frolicking at Fenway, hobnobbing in Harvard Square – Vistas, Vistas, and more Vistas!

UPPAbaby-MESA-Infant-Car-Seat-with-Vista The Vista wins on all-in-one capability, along with its obvious beauty: in a single purchase, you get a stroller that you can use from birth through the toddler years, and add capacity for up to three children. And that’s not all that UPPA has to offer, of course: there’s the cool and compact Cruz, and the G-Luxe and G-Lite umbrella strollers (which are, by our entirely unscientific observations, the UPPAbaby strollers you’re most likely to see on a Boston subway).

And when UPPAbaby discovered that fully 60% of Vista owners were purchasing infant car seat adapters so they could use the Vista as a travel system, they set to work on conquering a whole new product category, creating the ultra-safe, ultra-easy Mesa Infant Car Seat, which we profiled in detail in our new spring issue of Surprises. Not only does the Mesa have superb crash-test ratings, fantastic ease of installation, and great Side Impact Protection, but it can ride on your Vista or Cruz stroller without a single additional purchase – it includes the adapters for the Vista, and requires no adapters for the Cruz.

While you can certainly get an eyeful of UPPAbaby just by leaving your apartment, if you’re looking to purchase, you’ve got a unique opportunity to get a closer look coming up soon. You can meet Boston’s most popular stroller at Boston’s best baby expo on May 21 – get your tickets for the Drool Baby Expo today!