The 5 things to know when choosing your car seat

Buying a convertible car seat is both a meaningful, and slightly confusing experience, especially if you’re a first time parent. But instead of writing a long blog post detailing the ins and outs of safety, we were lucky enough to have Eli Gurock, renowned child gear expert, and founder of Magic Beans, walk us through the 5 major things every parent needs to know before making their big decision. The 5 things to know: Ease of installation - the seatbelt vs rigid LATCH question. Rear facing limit - how long can your child stay in the safer rear-facing position. Side impact protection - the different layers of protection. Fabric considerations - from materials to ease of removal and cleaning. Enhanced safety features  - the unique features that stand out.    

The Road First Traveled

Inspired by Robert Frost’s poem, the The Road Not Taken, we want to sponsor your baby’s first road trip! :) For adventurous families, here are the Official Rules to win a babyark and $500 on lodging for your next road trip: How to Enter the promotion: Share this contest in your IG Story and tag @getbabyark. *You must be following babyark to win. Submit one 60-second video about your summer road trip plan: Where do you plan to go? What activities will your family take part in? Why do you wish to #travelwithbabyark? (What’s your favorite feature? ) Entry Deadline: Deadline for submissions: Friday, June 14,2024 Winner will be announced Monday, June 17, 2024 Winner babyark team will choose One Winner for the Grand Prize based on creativity by babyark’s internal judging panel. Grand Prize includes: 1 babyark ($990 value) 1 Voucher for lodging ($500 value) 1 AudioBook in your voice by Sound AiSleep All contestants that submit an entry will receive a FREE AudioBook Gift from Sound AiSleep! No purchase necessary to win. Promotion begins May 27, 2024 to June 17, 2024 Promotion is eligible for parents aged 18 or older and residing in the United States only. Limited to one entry per family. Sponsor babyark 9442 N. Capital of Texas Hwy Ste 1-500 Austin, Texas 78759-7257 Contest Administrator: dot@babyark.com

A new seat has been born

The story behind babyark Revolutions don’t happen very often, and when they do, it’s because something just wasn’t working anymore. When it came to the convertible car seat, most saw no reason for a revolution. As a result, it remained largely unchanged for over 3 decades. Some might say if it’s not broken why fix it, but that’s just because no one had taken a closer look. Until Shy Mindel, an accomplished engineer who had pioneered a highly innovative steel coil impact absorbing system for the military, became a fresh father. Naturally, he started looking at car seats for his newborn. Quickly, the engineer in him started looking a bit deeper. He realized that most seats weren’t really built for real protection; they were made out of plastic and had only basic foam and padding to soften the blow of impact.  And most importantly, they didn’t have anything even close to the steel coil system he had already built for armoured vehicles that had already proven their ability to limit the exposure to impact. This system would become the basis of the SafeCoil ™ impact-absorbing mechanism, that would eventually make the babyark the new benchmark in safety Shy knew he could figure out the engineering to recalibrate the system for a baby’s changing weight. He now needed a designer. Meet Frank Most people wouldn’t intuitively make Frank Stephenson their first pick for designing what they hoped would become the safest car seat ever built.  As  lead designer at BMW, MINI, Ferrari, Maserati and McLaren, Frank had created some of the world’s fastest and most elegant vehicles, and built his reputation for designing for performance and speed.  The challenge of designing for ultimate performance safety would prove too hard to resist.  Shy knew he had found his man even before meeting him. 5 years of close collaboration between them proved they both made the right choice. Nature knows best Both Shy and Frank believe that nature can provide the answers to life’s greatest questions, and in their quest to build the world’s safest seat, this was their first stop. Babyark’s unique egg-shape not only visually sets it apart from any other car seat, it lies at the heart of both the design and engineering philosophy. The egg shape is nature’s most robust structure. It protects the life that is growing inside it. Some of the world’s sturdiest structures such as bridges and domes are also egg-shaped, as this carries weight and diffuses impact optimally.  From a design and consumer standpoint, the sleek egg shape makes the babyark a product that has a love-at-first sight effect on parents. It looks like nothing else in the car seat category. Some have even said that it looks so good it makes you want to have a baby. There were no shortcuts on this journey  Both Frank and Shy didn’t just want to make slight improvements to the existing alternatives, they wanted to push the boundaries on what’s possible. They wanted to reinvent the wheel. “When it comes to safety, good is just not good enough.” Unlike traditional seats that are made of plastic, the babyark egg was built out of carbon fibre, the world’s sturdiest, lightweight material.  Instead of traditional foam, the design and engineering teams looked at the protective gear of extreme athletes and used D3O™, the world’s most technologically-advanced impact absorbing polymer for the headrest. A new standard of testing   Everyone knows the expression, measure many times to cut once…when it comes to safety, babyark performed over 200 crash tests, not only surpassing industry regulations, but almost imagination itself.  We designed our own tests—at higher speeds, different temperatures, different angles, varying baby weights… even with the seat installed incorrectly—anything to ensure we would never be surprised by anything. After 5 years of research, development, labour, endless design and engineering iterations and yes, all those crash testings, Shy, Frank and the entire babyark team feel they haven’t only built a great car seat; they’ve set a new standard for safety.