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 in the early 1970s. New research from the Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio, in the USA, showed that early bonding and close contact with their parents was incredibly important for the subsequent development of newborn babies. These findings were quickly taken on board by paediatricians worldwide, and at the Karolinska hospital in Stockholm, Dr John Lind soon began telling new parents about the importance of physical contact in creating emotional closeness between parents and children.    

Björn Jakobson, who by this point, had three small children of his own, was inspired by the paediatricians’ desire to see babies carried close to their parents’ bodies. He developed a baby carrier that allowed parents to achieve the vital close physical contact with their young child, while simultaneously keeping their hands free. The baby carrier, which was called “Close to the Heart”, was tested with great success at home by the Jakobson family on their fourth child.

Tens of millions of babies have been carried close to their parents during the first important months of their lives since then. And over the course of the years, we have worked continuously to develop and improve our baby carriers, working at all times in close cooperation with medical experts and parents of young children. This cooperation has resulted both in the unique design that makes our current models so comfortable and easy to use, and in their classically simple styling.

It all started with a bouncer
Babysitting can have unexpected consequences for a young student. In Björn Jakobson’s case, it led to his life’s work – the BabyBjörn AB company. It was during a trip to the USA in the early 1960s that Björn came across a “babysitter” seat and took it back to Sweden for his nephew, Nisse, for whom he often babysat. The bouncer was an instant hit with Nisse – so much so, that he actually used it up to the age of 1.
 
Bouncer seats were unknown in Sweden at the time, so Björn started a company with his sister-in-law (and Nisse’s Mum), Elsa, to manufacture a Swedish equivalent. In the town of Gnosjö, Björn found a supplier who could produce the frame, while the cushion was sewn together using bought-in cloth remnants. Production began, but sales were dismal. No one wanted to buy the bouncer until Björn and Elsa had another bright idea – to ask doctors to examine the babysitter and say what they thought of it. They thought it was very good indeed, which resulted in a number of articles in the Swedish daily papers, and at last, demand began to pick up. 

The bouncer proved to be a success, both in Sweden and elsewhere in Europe, and over time, it also became a best-seller 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 talk about BABYBJÖRN products
Your child’s safety and health are always our top priority, and that’s been the case, right from the start. We began working in partnership with Professor Bengt Hagberg at the Östra Hospital in Gothenburg at a very early stage in our company history. That partnership has now lasted for over twenty-three years and has served as a guiding light for our new product development work.  

From concept to product
The route from a concept to a finished product is a long one. Developing our plate and spoon, for example, took four years! We design and develop our products in-house in extremely close cooperation with world-leading paediatricians, industrial designers and parents of small children. And we don’t stop until the product truly lives up to our very high standards and requirements. 

All product development starts with the production of a prototype. The prototype then goes through a long and extensive series of tests by parents and children so that we can be sure that the product is up to scratch when it comes to safety, functionality and quality. And if it turns out that the product does not meet our stringent requirements, we take it back to the drawing board – if we think it still has potential. If not, the project is cancelled. 

A trip down memory lane: