What a parent wants, what a baby needs. In 1965 in rural England, a former test pilot and aviation engineer famous for his work on the Spitfire aircraft, Owen Finlay Maclaren used his knowledge of lightweight load-bearing airplane structures to create a new type of folding stroller inspired by visits from his daughter and her baby wheeling around a bulky pram of the time. Maclaren recognized the n
eed for a pram that could fold compactly and was lightweight and convenient for travel for a new generation of active families. Famous for his work on the undercarriage landing gear of the Spitfire aircraft, Maclaren adapted his aeronautical invention of folding landing gear to create the world’s first folding stroller. The new Baby Buggy® folded like an umbrella with lightweight por ility that appealed to a new generation of active parents on the move. Where previous strollers folded in half, Maclaren’s patented frame folded in half and in on itself – like an umbrella – smaller and lighter than any product that came before. The one-step umbrella-fold design allowed busy parents to quickly fold the stroller with one hand, while holding the baby in the other - forever changing the world of baby transport. The principles of our patented 1965 design have remained essentially unchanged to this day – an innovation so revolutionary, Maclaren was honored by the Queen as a Member of the British Empire. Affectionately branded and trademarked as Baby Buggy®, the name has become the popular eponym to describe the entire category of umbrella folding strollers all over the world, similar to Hoover for vacuum cleaners, Kleenex for tissues, or Google for online search.
