I must admit that my relationship to the German Fidella is a bit ambivalent – I literally fell in love with their flagship, the buckle-less Fly Tai, I was excited about their wraps, mainly thanks to their unusual width (you can read the review of the Outer Space Neptune wrap here and of the Outer Space Lilac ring sling here), but the all-buckle carrier, Fidella Fusion Toddler 2.0, was not a right fit for me at all. So what about the half-buckle carrier, basically a hybrid of my beloved Fly Tai and Fusion that I dislike?
In the beginning, I must mention something that still confuses (not only) me about Fidella carriers – the “numbering” of the sizes. In Fly Tai, it is Baby Size and New Size (New Size being the bigger one), in Fusion it is Baby and Toddler. In FlyClick, for a change, the smaller version is just “FlyClick” and the bigger is called “Plus” and just after you finish reading the looong full name of the carrier (comprising also of the name of the wrap) you find out (in parentheses) that it corresponds with the Baby and Toddler size . I do not really understand why, it does not make sense to me and I am quite sure that it is not confusing only for me, but mainly for the less experienced babywearers.
FlyClick Plus is the toddler version of the Fidella half-buckle carrier, recommended from 74 to 104 cm by the manufacturer (in case of Fly Tai and Fusion I was a bit unhappy about the recommended minimum age of 3 months for the “toddler” versions along with the realistic size recommendation; Babooca.cz corrects it to 9 months which is, on the other hand, maybe a bit too cautious in my point of view). Same as in Fly Tai, I would be okay with the minimum recommended size being a bit smaller (size, not age – as to the age, I would estimate about 6 months). I cannot judge the maximum recommended size but I think it is realistic because during the testing Emilka measured about 80 cm and she still had plenty of space to grow both in horizontal and vertical direction.
Combination of the buckle waist belt I did not like in Fusion and the wonderfull, nicely padded, long and wide shoulder straps I loved in Fly Tai? The result was very surprising for me – it was just great! The waist belt is very soft, the padding is not very generous and combined with the classical buckle shoulder straps, it made me suffer, to be honest. But in FlyClick, I appreciated the absence of the second knot and the second pair of the long tips of the straps (and also the bidirectional buckle with safety button I already praised in Fusion); the wide shoulder straps spread over the wearie’s bum fully compensated for its softness. Moreover, the wrap the carrier is made of is not slippery and therefore the straps stay where they should and do not have the tendency to wrinkle all under the knees of the wearie. During the testing, Emilka weighted about 11 kg and the wearing was very comfortable for me both in front and on the back. Talking about the wearing on the back, I have just recently begun to appreciate the mei tai type of carriers – for me, it is much easier to position the wearie into the back panel thanks to the long shoulder straps than in the classical buckle carriers and, moreover, it is easier to put the wearie high enough on the back so he/she sees over the wearer’s shoulder.
FlyClick is, without any doubt, my personal winner among all the Fidella carriers. I would definitely be able to choose from the patterns they offer (for example, have you seen the beautiful, elegant Mosaic Mocha Brown?). I will have a lot to think about when the second wearie comes into the picture!