Grainne Kelly is the mastermind behind the BubbleBum inflatable car booster seat, the invention taking both carpool and family travels by storm. The BubbleBum is the first of it’s kind, a light-weight inflatable seat that folds up into a portable bag. Weighing less than half a pound, it takes the frustration out of lugging around a bulky booster and instead becomes the coolest new accessory that your kids will love to carry around.
New York Family sat down with Kelly to hear about the thought behind the BubbleBum design, more about the product and what we can expect to see from BubbleBum this coming year.
What details did you feel were essential to include when you designed the booster seat?
The most important part is convenience. It was a major inconvenience for me because I could never find car booster seats at a car rental desk. They didn’t keep them was because they didn’t have space to store them. I know that for a lot of parents inconvenience is a major factor and so I needed to design something that would be portable and foldable that would be easy to carry and easy to transport if you were going on vacation or even picking your kids up from school. So that was the main point.
There were two other important aspects. One problem that I had faced was that I found it really difficult to fit three booster seats across the rear seats in my vehicle. Then when I discovered that my friends were all the same and that we could only fit two booster seats in the back row, I made sure to make it so the design was narrow enough that you could fit three car booster seats across the back. That’s why we removed the arm rests. They don’t serve any purpose other than to position the lap belt and so we removed the armrests and put on the lap belt positioning clips on either side and they do the same job the armrests would do but they save four inches in space.
One of the other aspects of the design is the resistance of children to ride on a booster seat. Something that was really important was that they no longer wanted to sit on a baby seat. They never call it a booster seat, they call it a BubbleBum because it’s much cooler for them.
In regards to safety, how does the seat compare to regular booster seats?
BubbleBum meets and exceeds the US and European regulations and safety requirements.
We aim to introduce our readers to safe, convenient and kid-friendly products. If you were talking to one of our parent readers, how would you sell the product?
Our company vision is to see a booster seat on every journey and I understand how difficult it is, particularly for parents living in the city, to have a booster seat with them on every journey. The design of the BubbleBum is such that they can carry it in their backpack, they can carry it in the bottom of their stroller, they can carry it so easily. The kids can actually carry it themselves because once again, its their own product. Its something thats desirable now, its not like carrying a regular booster seat with them. So from that perspective its a much easier product for them to transport and its easier for the child and its easier for them [the parents] to sell the idea to the child because its a desirable product. They don’t have to force their child to use the booster seat.
What’s the lifespan of the seat? How does the product deal with wear and tear? How do you clean it?
It’s surface washable and the lifespan of the seat is four years. A booster seat is typically in the region of four years and the reason we have a four year lifespan is because a lot of people use the product for travel. While the materials will not degrade, we’re not sure people are going to take good care of it the way they would if it was in their back seat. So its just going to be subject to a lot more traveling than a regular booster seat would.
Can we expect to see any new products from the company in the coming year?
We have four new products coming out. We have one already in manufacture and its called the “Thingamybob.” One of the things the child will ask when they’re sitting in the back of the car is ‘Can I turn the light on?’ And of course the light on in the back is a real distraction to the driver. We’ve incorporated a light so the child can use that light in the back if they want to play with their toys or read a book. Then, they can take it off of the seatbelt in the car and put it on the shoulder strap on their backpack. There’s a reflective patch on there as well and the light then becomes a strobe light so its a safety feature, as well. There are three other products that we haven’t announced yet that will be coming in January of 2015. They’re all innovative solutions for families on the move.
For more info, visit bubblebum.co/us!
