Shopperama  

Bugaboo pushchairs launched 10 years ago by an obscure Dutch design company, the space-age Bugaboo pushchairs did not become a must-have until its UK launch in 2003. As the first Bugaboos hit UK streets the brand went viral, ably assisted by a new paparazzi target: the baby-making celebrity.

Co-founder of Bugaboo, Max Barenbrug, a father of two daughters, recalls how he sketched the first Bugaboo pushchairs in 1994 as his graduation project at design school. “I found my inspiration in the street where I saw ugly, badly designed strollers. Somehow, after the 1960s, manufacturers lost contact with the consumer and made only ugly, stupid strollers. This is just my opinion,” he adds.

His aim was to design a product men would feel good about wielding: “You could put it behind your bike, you could use it as a back-pack, you could jog with it.” This macho, multi-purpose prototype never made it to manufacture, but something close to it became the Bugaboo Frog.

Now, says Madeleen Klaasen, Bugaboo's marketing officer, the company is all about “exciting people about being on the move.” (I defy her, however, to say this to a woman who has just spent three hours breast-feeding a newborn baby and realised she has to go to the shops because she has no milk left in the house and it is raining. But, still, the sentiment is noble.)

No amount of marketing speak is likely to put off Bugaboo fanatics, who are near-demented in their adoration. (Could this possibly be because they have shelled out so much money that they feel they have to justify themselves? I'm not saying anything. But I don't own one, by the way.)

Julie Wynne, 30, a retail supervisor from Hillingdon, spent £729 on a limited-edition Cameleon when her son Blake, eight months, was born despite admitting it's too big to fit in the boot of her car: “It's not really practical for somebody with a small car but I use it every day because I do more walking than anything.”

This is a common complaint with Bugaboo: nonetheless, the standard £620 Cameleon comes out as “best buggy” on Mumsnet with a rating of 8.1 out of 10 and reviewers gushing, “I love my Bugaboo!”, “Absolutely adore this pram!” and “One of the most expensive pushchairs on the market but absolutely worth it!”