Baby Jogger
Baby Jogger started as a maker of jogging strollers and expanded into compact-folding strollers (the City series) aimed at urban and suburban parents.
Baby Jogger was founded in 1984 by Phil Baechler who invented a stroller to enable him to pursue his passion (running) by marrying air-filled bicycle tires with a stroller frame. He recounted the company's founding in an interview with the Seattle Times in 1994[1]:
Phil Baechler, 46, said he derived the stroller's slant from Double A Fuel dragsters. The Baby Jogger allowed Baechler to quit his copy-editing job at the Yakima Herald Republic seven years ago. He started the company in a rented garage. "I had no intention of going into business," he said. "I was just trying to figure out how to get my daily run in."
By 1993, Baby Jogger was selling 29,000 strollers per year, mostly to bicycle shops and specialty baby stores. The stroller's high price ($545 for the entry-level model in today's dollars) limited their appeal, although the company racked up $6 million in estimated sales by its 10-year anniversary.
The company ran into financial difficulties in the early 2000's amid the economic recession and declared bankruptcy in 2002. Baby Jogger was bought out of bankruptcy in 2003 by Dynamic Brands, which also owned several golf brands.
Dynamic Brands reinvigorated the Baby Jogger brand by adapting the quick fold of its golf bag products to the baby stroller and launched a series of smaller strollers aimed at urban parents. In 2014, Dynamic Brands sold Baby Jogger to Newell Brands (owner of Graco Baby Products) for $210 million.
In the 2010's, Baby Jogger had a run of best-selling strollers, thanks to the boom of three-wheel strollers that quickly fold. Ironically, the company found the most success with small wheel, compact models that strayed from its roots as a stroller for runners.