Bugaboo, beware!

Come this October, the Bugaboo Frog won't be the only designer stroller option for hip (and wealthy) parents. Meet the new stroller on the block: The $750 alien-like Stokke Xplory.

By Rebecca Traister

Aug. 9, 2004 | There's a new stroller on the block. Looking like the product of an unlikely union between the office chair, Segway, and Big Wheel, the Stokke Xplory is actually the newest luxury buggy to invade city sidewalks in the wake of the white-hot Bugaboo Frog frenzy. Priced at $749, the Xplory will not be widely sold in the United States until October. But a handful of prototypes and European models have showed up in New York, and the stroller's eye-popping design, air of fashion-forward exclusivity, and sprog-friendly functionality (in that order) have guaranteed that wait lists are already filling up. Bet that when it hits stores this fall, it will go head to head with the Frog as the world's priciest and most sought after transport device for humans under 4.

Welcome to the world of X-treme strolling. The past two years have seen the birth of a new niche market for parents willing to fork over 700 clams for a souped-up pram. That's about $400 more than the next-most expensive carriage, the Maclaren. The price-tag-busting Bugaboo made its media debut in 2002 when "Sex and the City's" Miranda chose to haul her tyke around in it; it was no time before the device had found a home in the hearts and foyers of celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow and Debra Messing. Call it a rip-off, a fad, a status symbol for spoiled yuppies. But then listen to satisfied owners crowing about the Bugaboo's durability, maneuverability and all-terrain capabilities. Sense the late-night heart-of-darkness jealousy emanating from even those who turn up their noses with disgust. The Bugaboo -- all $729.99 of it -- is here to stay. And this fall it gets pricey company in the slightly alien $749.99 Xplory.

First the basics: Bugaboo is a Dutch stroller company launched in Amsterdam in 1999. The Frog, which became available in the U.S. in January 2002, looks like a brightly colored riff on a traditional stroller. It features huge tires in the back, two small swiveling wheels in front, a detachable front stroller bar, and a suspension system that acts as a baby-shock-absorber for curbs, stairs, or gaping sidewalk potholes. It's a convertible; its fabric seat (which can be removed from the chassis and carried to the beach or to bed) transforms from a bassinet for newborns to an upright stroller for toddlers, ideally eliminating the need to buy more than one carriage during the first four years of your child's life. The seat can be switched so that your kid faces the person pushing the stroller or toward the street; it also reclines. It weighs around 17 pounds. Its fabrics are machine-washable; it comes in colors like safety orange and fire-engine red; it has a five-point harness, a storage bag, sun canopy, rain cover and mosquito netting.

What, no paper shredder?

Despite their similarity in price, the Bugaboo looks nothing like the Xplory. The radical notion behind the newer stroller is that its munchkin passenger seats are elevated several feet above the ground, at least 30 percent higher than any other stroller on the market. Kids perch above the tailpipe-level exhaust fumes of city streets, away from canine butts and face-whapping tails, not to mention the dust-kicking shoes of pedestrian traffic. Stokke USA's marketing manager, Vincent Donroe, said that he has an infant son who enjoys riding high. "He's just lookin' around like this is the best thing since sliced bread," said Donroe. "Not that he knows what sliced bread is, but if he did ..." Donroe said he enjoys the familial intimacy of the elevated seat. "It gives me the ability to look directly at him, talk to him and further develop a parent-child bond," he said.

The whole contraption looks intergalactic. But no. It's just Danish.

Next page: It won't be out till October - but a boutique on the Upper East Side has already sold a dozen