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 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 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.  

A trip down memory lane:

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.