It was last autumn when I got all excited about Bimbi (now it is GoBimbi 😉 ) – you can find the review of their wonderful Maxi carrier here. As you can read in that article, “Madame Bimbi” is Bronislava Froncová, a Slovakian mum of two. After we released the review we started chatting via Instagram and agreed on further testing of GoBimbi babywearing products. Hereby we want to thank her again for the exclusive opportunity to test the carriers and a wrap from her brand new collection as the first wearers from the Czech Republic.

The current trend among the carrier manufacturers is to make wrap conversions from their own original wraps – GoBimbi went no different way; I actually praised this brand for their effort to stand out when reviewing the Maxi carrier with a beautiful original folk embroidery. My impression is that nowadays there is some kind of hysteria about vivid colours and wild patterns, maybe under the influence of one of the most popular carrier manufacturers who chose to weave their own wraps, probably as the first one of the Czech and Slovak babywearing brands (yup, I am talking about Be Lenka). Therefore I must congratulate Broňa that she did not succumb to this trend and chose her own path – the part of subtle, elegant colourways and decent, adequately cute and non-infantile patterns. When the parcel with the testers came in the mail, I and Linda, we had no idea what to expect – and after opening it we instantly fell in love with the new GoBimbi designs!

Folium Wrap

Composition: 100 % cotton

Weight: 405 g/m² according to the manufacturer, 378 g/m² counted by us

Size: long 5 (442 cm measured by us)

Back wrap cross carry with a chest belt

I will begin with reviewing of the wrap. I must admit that it did not really catch my eye after opening of the parcel. A grey wrap with leaves, hm. Certainly the structure is interesting, but the weave is soooo dense – but okay, it is a “carrier” wrap, isn’t it? Why not, then?

Why not? I actually cannot say “no”, I can only start to name the many reasons why “yes”, mainly as a wearer of a toddler. As I already said, it is dense but not in the “jeans-like-luluna-style-unpleasantly” dense. It is more likely that one would say “well this is a hell of a chunky wrap” – chunky in many senses of this word. It is obviously a high-weight piece; certainly a lot to hold in one’s hand and to tame this beast one needs to have at least a little bit of experience and a big wearie. For a little baby, Folium is twice as heavy as an ideal newborn piece should be in my opinion; also a beginner would be very unhappy about this one, especially in case it was brand new and not broken in. On the other hand, this type of dense weave means that it is absolutely not prone to pulls which makes it a perfect candidate to be murdered and reborn as a wrap conversion.

When I got into the taming of this beast I suddenly realized it is not as complicated as I thought – grip and glide in good balance, tightening not that easy but nothing I could not handle. But in the carry! This one can truly handle three elephants without a blink of an eye! There must be some kind of magic woven inside because despite being so dense and heavy, it felt slightly elastic in the carry – which is something I certainly would not expect at the first sight and the first touch. It held in the carry even in one knot and I did not feel a thing when wearing my 12kg of pure love and boiling lava. In my eyes – first try of GoBimbi, first win!

Quite naturally, I have a problem with very light colored wraps – I am afraid that I would get the lighter side dirty so I tend to wear the with their dark side on the outside. As I already mentioned, I did not find Folium very intriguing at the first sight – “no charm, no offense” sense of way. But later, our fellow babywearers who tested the wrap, too, started to tie it with its white side on the outside and that totally changed my opinion! It is really beautiful and in the end, I like it from the three GoBimbi designs the most!

Bottom line – Folium is a terrific toddler wrap, including its pleasant width of 70 cm, just as I like it. And one little secret (maybe not that much of a secret after all) – I recently saw a blue-green Folium wrap conversion on GoBimbi’s Instagram! Aaah!

Mini Carrier (from the Silva wrap)
I liked the light grey forest with animal from the first moment – to be honest, nothing very practical for a carrier, but otherwise it is everything I imagine when you say “modern design for children”. Not infantile and probably wearable even by an adult (if it was on a piece of clothing) but cute enough to catch the children’s eyes. Moreover, the carrier is meticulously sewn, the wrap is thick and dense with a weave not prone to pulls – again, a perfect material for a conversion carrier. The straps and the buckles are firm and seem very durable and also the little details like the GoBimbi logo on the ends of the straps and even on the security elastic bands are a big plus. As to the looks of the carrier I have nothing to reproach (maybe the only thing that would make it look even better would be using matching straps and buckles instead of the black ones).
Regarding the recommended age/size range, there is no longer any information about recommended weight on the GoBimbi’s website as it used to be. Of course, even the weight recommendation can be misleading (just an example, Emilka and Linda’s Helenka are of the same age and same weight of 12 kilograms but Helenka is about 8 cm higher) – the recommendation height/size of clothes would be better. The manufacturers declares that the Mini carrier is suitable for babies from 1 month of age – I cannot confirm it by my own experience of course and I would also have to count in the factor of individuality of every wearie, but what I see as a big limit as to the back panel width adjustment is the hard waist belt (which is otherwise great) – if you try to adjust the width to the minimum, the waist belt has a tendency to bend in the middle part (as confirmed by several fellow babywearer from our regional group who tested the carrier, too). Personally, I would not be that optimistic and estimated the minimum size at about 62/68 cm of height. The maximum size is not indicated by the manufacturer (or better said, I did not find the information anywhere – if it is somewhere out there, I am truly sorry for overlooking it) but in this case I can claim with certainty that the carrier will fit a size 86/92 toddler without problems (i.e. Emilka’s current size). In case of many wearies this would mean the carrier would probably fit “from the beginning until the end”.
The above-mentioned waist belt is great – adequately firm, adequately wide; just the perfect fit for me. The shoulder straps are generously padded, with the possibility to wear them crossed and with the bidirectional buckles – great! If only the chest buckle was detachable, the carrier would be close to perfect. On the other hand, the hood is detachable to my liking, but there is, again, one little detail – the forest wrap has an “up” and a “down” – if you do not use the hood the pattern is upside down. Concerning the hood is made of two layers of wrap the solution would be very easy and elegant – to make the inner and outer side of the hood upside down in the first place. 😉 The little pocket attached to the side of the waist belt is something I praised GoBimbi for even in the previous review and I must praise it again – big enough for a cell phone and some change for a snack, easily reachable by the wearer thanks to its position (and not using Velcro to fasten it is also a great feature).
Maxi Carrier (made of the Apes wrap)
I will be briefer in case of the Maxi carrier, although it is different than the Mini carrier in more aspects than only its dimensions. The Apes wrap (not meaning “monkeys” but coming from the latin “apis” for “bee” in Latin 😉 ) is also beautiful – the gentle light pink for girls, minimalist bees that could not offend anyone in my opinion. The black straps could be not-black, but again, this is just a detail.
The main difference between the Maxi and Mini version is only visible if you put the two carriers next to each other – the cut of the back panel is different. Here is the point I must applaud to GoBimbi again. The Maxi version is really big and it is logical that the place you need it to be big is especially in the lower part of the back panel, not in its upper part – therefore the bigger carrier’s back panel is the widest next to the waist belt and slightly narrower in its upper part. All thumbs up!

Similar to the Mini version the maximum recommended age or size is not indicated by the manufacturer, only the minimum age, i.e. 1,5 years. As to the size, it is a quite wide range, considering that my 2-years-old currently measures the same as an average 18-months-old, i.e. 86 centimetres (and there are certainly many even smaller 2-years-olds). Anyway, last autumn when Emilka was about those 18 months old, the Maxi carrier already fit her quite well, with the size of 74/80. As to the maximum size, my estimate and what I can tell by comparing it to other carriers it should fit fine up to the size 98/104.

The waist belt is, in accordance with the smaller model, great as to the comfort for the wearer; the shoulder straps, possibility to wear them crossed – everything I like about a carrier, including the possibility to wear the baby very high on the back.

Once again, we want to thank Bronislava again for the exclusive opportunity to try these carriers and the wrap! They are great and we will not hesitate recommending them! 🙂 And if the blue-green beauty is officially released sometime in near future I will probably need to sit on my hands to resist… 😀