50 years of happy babies
Passion for the next generation - since 1961
This year marks the 50th anniversary of BABYBJÖRN, and we want to celebrate it with you!
We love babies and small children as much as parents around the world love their little ones. With our products we want to simplify everyday life for you and your little child, and make it more enjoyable. This has been our goal ever since we started in 1961. ”Happy baby, happy parents”, is our motto.
Close to the heart – the first baby carrier
A big step in the company’s history came at the beginning of the 1970s. New research from Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, showed that early attachment and closeness to their parents plays a vital role for the continued development of newborns. Pediatricians all over the world quickly adopted this idea. At Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm, Dr. John Lind was one of the first to inform new parents how important physical contact is for creating an emotional bond between babies and their parents.
Björn Jakobson, who now had three small children of his own, was inspired by pediatricians’ hopes that parents would carry their children close to their bodies. He developed a baby carrier that made it possible for parents to have this important physical contact with their babies and their hands free at the same time. The baby carrier, which was called "Hjärtenära", was tested with great success on the Jakobson family’s fourth child.
Since then, tens of millions of babies have been carried close to their parents during the first important months of their lives. And over the years we have never stopped working to improve our baby carriers, always in close collaboration with medical experts and the parents of small children. This has resulted in the unique design that makes today’s models so comfortable and easy to use, with clean, classic lines.
It all started with a bouncer
Babysitting can have unexpected consequences for a young student. In Björn Jakobson’s case, it became the impetus for his life’s work, the company BabyBjörn AB. During a trip to the USA in the beginning of the 1960s, a bouncer caught Björn’s eye and he brought it back for his nephew, Nils, who he often babysat. Nils immediately liked the bouncer. So much so, that he actually used it until he was a year old.
Since bouncers could not be purchased in Sweden at the time, Björn started a company with his sister-in-law Elsa (Nils's mom) to manufacture a Swedish equivalent. In Gnosjö, he found a supplier who could make the frame, while the seat was made from store-bought scraps of fabric. Production began, but sales were pitiful. Reviews were very positive, however, which resulted in several articles in Swedish dailies. Finally, demand picked up.
The bouncer became a hit in Sweden, as well as in the rest of Europe. In time, it also became a bestseller in the USA.
BABYBJÖRN in 50 countries
Did you know that...
...our products are sold in around 50 countries all over the world?
...95% of our sales are exports to other countries?
...in Japan our bouncers (Babysitters) are our most popular product?
...in Finland the Potty Chair is our most popular product?
...in Australia BABYBJÖRN Baby Carrier Synergy is our most popular baby carrier?
Medical experts and BABYBJÖRN products
For us, children’s safety and health always come first. That’s how it’s been from the very beginning. Very early on, we started collaborating with Professor Bengt Hagberg at Östra Hospital in Gothenburg. This collaboration lasted for over 23 years, and came to guide our work in developing new products.
A trip down memory lane:
From idea to product
The road from an idea to a finished product is a long one. Developing our plate and spoon, for instance, took four years! We design and develop all of our products in intensive collaboration with world-leading pediatricians, industrial designers and parents with small children. And we do not give up until the product truly lives up to our high requirements.