We are excited to announce something special we’ve been working on for all you babywearing moms who want the perfect outer layer for you and babe to enjoy cooler weather comfortably (and stylishly). Boba Vest has arrived. This high quality, thoughtfully crafted baby carrier cover fits over you, your little and your Boba Carrier just right and provides that extra layer of warmth for early morning walks, later afternoon adventures, and outings of all kinds, regardless of dips in temperature. (Check out the Boba Vest press release below).

To celebrate this exciting release, we’re giving you a chance to win a Boba Vest in a Boba Prize Pack complete with new Boba Carrier 3G and Baby Carrier Stuff Sack (print of your choice), and our organic cotton teething pads. Enter below now through February 28 (ends March 1, 12:01 am).

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Contact: Bethany O’Donnell                                                                           FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tel: 888-567-9727

Email: bethany@bobafamily.com

DESPITE COLD WEATHER, PARENTS AND KIDS CAN CONTINUE TO EXPLORE THE WORLD TOGETHER

Avoid cabin fever with these cold-weather safety and comfort tips

BOULDER, COLO., Feb 25, 2013.— As families around the country settle into a cold and snowy winter, parents of young children are finding ways to get out and explore despite the freezing temperatures. Children’s need for outdoor time doesn’t change with the seasons, and with certain safety and comfort precautions, the outdoors are just as accessible in winter as in any other time of year.

One way to keep young children warm and protected in the elements is to share body warmth through babywearing, such as with wraps or baby carriers. But babywearing parents are often deterred by lack of outerwear that will fit over the baby.

“My son’s first winter, I only took him for a walk one time in the snow,” says Abby Armijo, Senior Project Manager at Boba (www.bobafamily.com), a Boulder, Colo.–based company that creates award-winning baby carriers and related products. “When we had to run errands, I would put him in the carrier, wrap myself up in a warm blanket, and speed walk into the store to avoid frostbite.”

But this winter will be different for Armijo and other babywearing parents, since Boba has launched its new line of vests designed to fit snugly and warmly over baby wraps and carriers. Boba Vest is the result of Boba’s acquisition of Peekaru, a company that has been making popular baby carrier covers since 2006. The covers are not only more fashionable than blankets or oversized coats, but they also close the gap between parent and child to keep out the cold.

In addition to sporting outerwear specifically designed for babywearing, Armijo offers these safety tips for venturing out with baby in the cold weather:

1. Dress appropriately. Little ones are especially sensitive to the elements, so make sure to dress them in layers—and don’t forget the hat.
2. Keep the airway clear. It is very easy to get lost in layers, so it is critical that fabric never creeps up around the baby’s face or anywhere that could compromise an open and clear airway.
3. Protect baby’s neck. Babies are wiggle worms. Avoid any potential strangulation hazards by making sure no fabric could get tangled around their necks.
4. Get comfortable first. Make sure your baby is in the carrier properly before putting your cold weather cover on. Although you can still make minor adjustments to the carrier with the cover on, it’s much easier to do beforehand.

About Boba
Boba (www.bobafamily.com) designs thoughtfully crafted products for active parents who want the time and freedom to create a real and caring bond with their child, while living life to the fullest. We care deeply about what we do, and our customers’ happiness is our highest motivation as a company.

Introducing our newest look! Boba Carrier 3G, Stuff Sack and Boba Mini are now all available in Safari, our great shade of light, cool khaki. Perfect for long hikes, short treks or just running in and out of the grocery store, Safari gives you the same 3G you love with a sandy kick.

Win the whole Safari line and more with our Boba Safari Giveaway!

To celebrate the launch of this outdoorsy trio of new products, we’re giving away a fantastic Safari prize package! Enter now through Sunday, November 11 to win all three Safari products, one of those great Melissa & Doug giant stuffed giraffes, and the children’s book Starry Safari. Enter here:

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Last year, after the big launch of our Boba Carrier 3G, we were finally able to prioritize product development for something our baby carrier customers have been asking for from us for a long time – a carrying sack for their carriers. People told us of all the creative ways they were storing their carriers, but that they wanted something that was really easy to use and that matched their Boba Carrier print. So, in 2011 we went to work on it.

We decided that a very basic, economical fabric carrying bag would be best, like those we use for our sleeping bags. When we looked around for examples of this classic “stuff sack” (a term popularized by the sleeping bag industry; “stuff” being a verb, mind you), we found a lot of standard examples with the drawstring on one end and handle on the other – the same orientation you’ll now find on the Boba Carrier Stuff Sack. We were excited that our search also led us to a working mother with a popular baby carrier accessories shop on Etsy.com selling her version of the classic stuff sack, made especially for soft-structured baby carriers like the Boba 3G. Charlotte Kaufman runs the Etsy shop Red Charlotte where she sells a variety of pretty and functional custom fabric pieces including stuff sacks (she was the first to gear a stuff sack towards baby carriers), teething pads, and more. Unfortunately, after much conversation and earnest wishes to work with another mom-led company, and after running the math of sizeable production and distribution needs, we weren’t able to source our stuff sacks from Charlotte due to volume and pricing obligations. However, her experience and devotion to babywearing, and her strong support of carrier companies continues to be an inspiration to us! In fact, we’re featuring her in our upcoming Babywearing All-Stars series where we pay homage to the people, companies and places that have inspired a growing movement in regions where babywearing had long been forgotten as the best way to move through the world with baby (in the meantime, check out Red Charlotte on Etsy – we know you’ll love it and we’d love to show her our appreciation with the traffic to her store).

Well, after several rounds of designing and redesigning our would-be baby carrier stuff sack, reviewing seven different prototypes and then sourcing production, the Boba Carrier Stuff Sack finally arrived to market this month and wow, were we surprised at the response! Though we knew the people who had been asking for them for so long would probably jump at the chance to get them, we had no idea how fast they would sell out (most of them went in one day!). As of this blog post, we’re waiting for our next shipment to meet back-orders and have even re-worked our production schedule to help prevent these kinds of sell-outs in the future.

All in all, new products like the stuff sack offer us a world of opportunity to experience the excitement of our customers, hone our abilities to answer requests and meet new needs, and grow as a family and business. We continue to thank all our Boba fans for their love and use of our products. We can’t wait to include you in our next new product launch (hint, hint: there’s a big one right around the corner)!