Mountain Buggy

The rugged trails of New Zealand inspired the founding of Mountain Buggy in 1992, part of a wave of "all-terrain" strollers with air-filled wheels that were born in the 90's.

Founder Allan Croad started Mountain Buggy in Whangaparaoa, New Zealand when he saw a picture of a Baby Jogger stroller and thought it should be adapter to New Zealand.

In 1992 Alan Croad was thinking about a child's buggy or pushchair that could go wherever he wanted, when he saw a picture of a buggy in an American magazine. It was a three wheeled buggy that American joggers used to push their children in while they ran.

He recognised it as something close to what he wanted and headed off to the garage to knock together a rough version of what he had seen. He made his first buggy out of a child's car seat and an old golf trundler that had been bought for $5 at the school fair. It worked well enough to encourage him to design a more elaborate version and he had soon begun work on his first proper mountainbuggy.

Mr Croad worked on modifying the American design he had seen to better suit New Zealand conditions; the first thing he did was to install smaller wheels. He says he was pretty sure that if he could make a working model then people would buy it, and besides he still wanted one for himself.

The result was the Mountain Buggy Urban Jungle. Designed for hiking, Mountain Buggy's Urban Jungle tri-wheel design with 12" tires was among the brand's biggest hits.

The company was sold in 2004 to Tritec, a New Zealand manufacturer that also makes theater and auditorium seating.

The Mountain Buggy's reputation for ruggedness was underscored in 2005, when surveillance cameras caught the stroller (and its baby passenger) surviving a building collapse in Manhattan. The New York Times recounted the story:

It is impossible to say with certainty that the Mountain Buggy Urban Double Stroller—which costs roughly half the monthly rent of a small Brooklyn apartment—actually saved Abigail Lurensky, 7 months old, as a Manhattan building collapsed around her on Thursday.

But it didn't hurt.

As word spread yesterday of the stroller's role in protecting Abigail, the building collapse added even more cachet to the carriage, the $600-plus Hummer of the Sidewalk S.U.V. set. With their maneuverability and inflatable tires providing a smooth ride over potholes, cobblestones and sandy sidewalks, the Urban Double strollers are popular with the affluent, especially those with beach houses.

In 2009, Mountain Buggy was acquired by fellow kiwi baby gear brand phil & teds. Prior to the sale, Mountain Buggy had filed for bankruptcy amid slumping sales and ballooning debt:

Mountain Buggy's parent, Tritec Manufacturing, "had some significant debts" and suffered from the economic slowdown (in 2008-2009), seeing its sales fall by a third in the past year. In recent years, Mountain Buggy increased prices—that made their flagship Urban stroller nearly $600. That left them vulnerable as demand for high-end strollers has fallen sharply in recent months.

While most strollers are made in China, Mountain Buggy kept production in their native New Zealand. Those higher costs were probably a factor in the bankruptcy.

Mountain Buggy racked up about $11 million (U.S.) in debt over the last few years, modernizing their plant, buying out their European distributor and investing in new marketing/packaging. When sales collapsed last year (an estimated 33% drop in sales) amid a souring economy, the debt service became overwhelming.

Mountain Buggy said they needed to raise prices when the American dollar slumped in recent years, making their New Zealand production more expensive to sell here. But jacking prices was a risky move—when the economy soured, sales tanked.

In recent years, Mountain Buggy expanded more into travel strollers, with the Nano stroller as the current flagship.

All Mountain Buggy strollers are made in China.