ABC Intro- Brookline

Our third major intro for ABC is Brookline. This is another large group like Stratton, with big cases and lots of storage. We think the crib is pretty cool- the curved slats give it an interesting transitional look, with a sort of sleigh influence. The crib is tricky to photograph too- looks a lot better in person.

(And again these colors came out weird under the lights in here. This is actually in Virginia Cherry, just like Stratton.)

ABC (Re)Intro- Pacifc

Yep, it's Pacific again. We had a strong response to this group at last year's ABC show, but Stratton went crazy, and with Jonesport launching at the same time, this one had to wait. I took the opportunity to tighten up the design a bit and respond to some feedback from the last time we showed it. We went with smaller cases ("Euro size", like Dakota), thinking that this group will probably do better in cities and urban areas where people don't always have a lot of space.

The crib construction has been refined a bit (and is currently patent pending). We also showed it converted into a bed. This is probably the coolest thing about this crib, and it's hard to grasp without seeing it in front of you. All convertible cribs on the market (that I know of, anyway) use regular bed rails to convert into a normal, fairly tall bed, and almost always fit a full size mattress. We did something a little different. We used low, wide platforms that can fit either a twin or full mattress. If you've ever seen a two year old try to climb out of a normal tall bed, this will make perfect sense. With a twin size mattress in place, there's a nice little step that a little kid can hop right up on (and a perfect place for a parent to sit and read a bedtime story).

Keen eyed observers will also notice that we changed the color (the wood is darker, and there is a lot less white).

ABC Intro- Dakota

While the rest of the industry builds big walls around their booths to keep away prying eyes, we take the opposite approach. Those guys are going to copy us either way. We're more interested in customer feedback than trying to keep things top secret.

Dakota is the first of the new intros we've brought to the ABC show this year. This one is exclusive to members of the National Independent Nursery Furniture Retailers' Association (NINFRA). Dakota has a couple of notable features. First is the intro of new "Euro size" cases- we've tried to scale the combo and chest down a bit so they fit into smaller spaces.

Also new is the hutch for the combo- we include an extra base that can be screwed to the bottom of the hutch to convert it into a bookcase later. This neatly solves the "what do we do with the hutch after the baby gets a bit older" problem. Response to this piece has been very strong. We think this is the first time this has been done, and we are working on patenting it.

I'll publish some more new stuff over the next couple days here.





[This is the Chocolate Mist finish, which for some reason is really difficult to photograph under the terrible lighting in here.]

2008 ABC Show

We are here in Las Vegas at the ABC Kids Expo, the baby industrial complex's annual trade show. We have a few new groups (and a couple of cool new features), which I'll be posting pics of over the next couple days.