Phil & Teds Sport pushchair review

My daugh­ter was about 18 months when we moved to Ger­many with a rea­son­ably good pushchair, the Graco Mosaic. It never was what I wanted, but it ticked all the boxes I needed ticked when we first got it – a good all-rounder. Well, within 3 months of use on the cob­bled streets in our new home­town, our pushchair’s wheels were worn down com­pletely. No spares available…

So, we started the search for the next good all-rounder. We wanted some­thing with inflat­able wheels, bet­ter sus­pen­sion, enough stor­age space and some­thing that would be easy to use. We didn’t want to spend a lot of money, but we wanted some­thing that would last. We were not exactly plan­ning to have another baby at the time, but after see­ing the Phil & Teds Sport in the UK, I wanted to at least look at it as an option. It won, although it doesn’t come first in all the categories…

This is the things I really like of the Phil & Teds Sport:

• The pushchair could be con­verted to carry two chil­dren, with­out mak­ing it any big­ger. A double’s kit attaches to the front when the seat needs to be in the low­est posi­tion for an infant, and then to the back once the infant can sit. This addi­tional seat could also be used to cre­ate a “bouncy chair” for kids with the addi­tion of a sep­a­rate base.

• It comes in var­i­ous colours: Apple green, Black/Charcoal, Red/Charcoal, Navy/Charcoal, Beige, Pink and Blue. The Apple, Red and Blue now also come with “Graf­fiti” mixed colour pan­els and accessories.
• There is a clear plas­tic back for view­ing the infant when in the seat is in the lower pos­si­tions and a “peek-a-boo” flap in the hood with a small stor­age pouch.
• It has three inflat­able wheels. The tyres and tubes are read­ily available.
• The front wheel swivels, but can eas­ily be locked in place when needed.
• The pushchair folds pretty flat with the push of a button
• All wheels remove from the chas­sis with the push of a but­ton, allow­ing the buggy to fold even smaller: 77cm X 51cm X 23cm
• The bug­gies’ han­dle­bar height can be adjusted – my hus­band is pretty tall, so this is handy
• The seat in its high­est upright posi­tion sits nice and comfy, but it can recline com­pletely flat.
• There are great acces­sories avail­able – The double’s kit, Sleep­ing bag/ cosy toes, a cus­tom fit rain cover and UV Shade (also for dou­ble), Sev­eral dif­fer­ent lin­ers, Attach­ments to con­vert the pushchair into a travel sys­tem, stor­age bags and a baby carrier/cocoon.
• As my daugh­ter is pretty tall for her age, we needed some­thing that would clear her head with enough room when we put the “hood” up. Maybe not so much when she sits in the sec­ond seat on top…
• It can be used for kids up to the age of 5 – heav­i­est child always in top seat…
• There is a 5 point har­ness on both buggy and double’s kit for safety and a bumper bar, mak­ing the buggy quite safe.
• The pushchair manoeu­vres really eas­ily, even with one hand.
• The pushchair is very man­ual. The seat posi­tions is adjusted with zip­pers and safety clips. There are few that could go wrong.
• Spare parts are read­ily available
• The buggy comes at a very good price in com­par­i­son with other higher end brands. Roughly 680 euro; with­out acces­sories; although I have seen them sell­ing for less.

Now, there are a newer ver­sion of the Phil & Teds on the mar­ket; with lots of great advan­tages; called the Vibe. I really like this one! It has a more mod­ern build and other great acces­sories, but I just could not bring myself to splash out on this one. The fact that it only comes in Red, Black and Char­coal, didn’t entice me any fur­ther… My old pushchair was Red and Black – I was tired of this com­bi­na­tion!
Unfor­tu­nately, there are some things I just have to live with:

• This pushchair has a steel  frame, mak­ing it pretty heavy: it weighs 10.5kg, with­out accessories
• The foot break is pretty stiff – I have man­aged to kick myself quite hard, tak­ing it off! Wear­ing san­dals, I take it off with my hand.
• The footrest is cov­ered in the same fab­ric as the seat, so it gets dirty very easily.
• The buggie’s front wheel is a bit “clanky”, when run­ning on our cob­bled streets.
• The base is a lit­tle low and the stor­age bag scuffs as I steer it up our two front steps. I have seen ones with scuffed through fab­ric… This doesn’t cause any trou­ble, but I would have liked an outer shell in pos­si­bly some­thing a lit­tle harder wear­ing. I have seen replace­ments for these too.
• The double’s kit needs to be removed when col­laps­ing the buggy or for access to an infant. I heard the Vibe can be col­lapsed with­out tak­ing this off…

Over all, I think the buggy has a good, mod­ern shape and my daugh­ter sits and rides com­fort­able in it. With­out adding any of the addi­tional stor­age bags, there is plenty of stor­age. I use the pan­nier bags when I go shop­ping and the sleep­ing bag in the win­ter. It is fleece lined, but the zips sit on the sides, so not always easy to do up. The rain cover fits tight and clips securely over the pushchair, it folds up quite small. I like this buggy. Yes, I like some of the other ones on the mar­ket too, but now our sec­ond is on the way, I can get the dou­bles kit so my daugh­ter could have a ride if she wants to. I have seen peo­ple using buggy boards although it isn’t recommended.

If I have to pick again, I think I will still go for this buggy.
The web­site: http://www.phil-and-teds.de/xt/  Take a look. There is plenty of info on the other ver­sions too.

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Tagged as: Phil & Teds, stroller accessories, Strollers