Composition: 60 % cotton, 40 % repreve

Weight: 230 g/m2 (according to the manufacturer), 220 g/m2 (counted by us)

Size: 6

Reinforced front wrap cross carry with shoulder flip

Yaro Slings… in Czech, we often lovingly call them “Yaroušci” – from “Jaroslav” (a typical Slavonic first name), or specifically its familiar form Jarouš (Yaroush). These guys are loved very much in many Czech babywearing families, indeed, and it is basically a crime that we have not reviewed one of them yet!

It is a well-known Dutch brand – but, what a surprise, there is no official Yaro website and I was able to dig up only bits and pieces of information about it. The wraps literally gush out of their looms – for example, according to Slingofest.com, Yaro managed to release 143 wraps during 2016 only. The total number of wraps they have released so far is 493, in 74 different patterns, since 2013. I am quite sure that most of experienced wearers own, used to own or at least had the opportunity to try one of their wraps during their babywearing years (or at least they came across a Yaro wrap conversion carrier). Some of the patterns are quite notorious – La Vita, Dandy, Stars, La Fleur, Basket, Ava, Urban Geo, Retro Berry (these are only the ones I can think of right now) and many more; anytime you go to a meeting or event with higher concentration of babywearers, it is almost certain that you will see at least one of these Dutch guys.

I am not particularly Yaro-crazy – I am not saying that there is generally something wrong with the wraps’ quality or properties, but I do not really like the abovementioned notoriousness and the fact that “everybody has one”. Otherwise, I kind of like some of the designs, for example the wavy Dandy is not twice as bad… but I would not be that happy to see the same wrap at every corner if it was mine. Well, my own personal problem, I am a wierdo, I know… 😀 Of course, there are plenty of lesser known, but in my opinion beeeautiful Yaro wraps that I would be as happy as a clam to wear. However, despite the looks of these beauties, I am not particularly intrigued by their weight or blend. Anyway, never say never, it is quite possible that I will become a happy owner of one “Yaroush”, one day. ??‍♀️

When this violet wrap came to us, I had quite a hard time even remembering the reason I had signed up for its testing in the first place… violet super-skinny Yaro wrap with lumpy repreve, moreover leafy La Vita pattern – I really cannot say that these properties were the best ones for the purpose of testing to begin with…

I like repreve as a blend, but in this particular wrap it disappointed me a little. In case of Tekhni wraps, for example, repreve makes the wrap stronger and more supportive in my opinion, but I did not have the same feeling about this Yaro at all. It felt very thin, a little bit slippery in my hands, but otherwise I had no problem tying the wrap, however, it needed two knots to hold tight in the carry. As far as the supportiveness is concerned, I did not expect any miracles and none happened – I was afraid my arms would get detached from my shoulders in front wrap cross carry with 9kg Emilka after bare 30 minutes of wearing the wrap (no kidding, my fingers were tingling); anyway, my upper limbs were saved by a shoulder flip. We have certainly outgrown such wraps. If I compare it with my own Tekhni wrap with repreve in fabric weave with similar weight, Tekhni wins over Yaro in many aspects, especially when speaking about supportiveness – and one would think the jacquard wrap would be the more supportive one… ?

One advantage of this wrap – it is a super-easy-care one. Repreve does not wrinkle at all, and thus it does not need ironing (however, there are lumps to be found over time), the weave is dense and not prone towards pulls. This is the best thing about this particular wrap – I would have been enormously happy to own such a piece – one that can be washed every other day or so, dries fast, does not need to be ironed and still looks and performs well – about a year ago when Emilka was a tiny (yet cute) vomit machine. Nowadays, I am sort of over such wraps…

I want to thank Nosíme děti (i.e. We wear our babies) group for the opportunity to test the wrap!