Ruckeli baby carrier: cute, functional and versatile

This is a sponsored post: when in Berlin (a few months before Emily was born) we found this cute little German company called Ruckeli, reached out to them, and they were so kind as to invite us to their (back then room-size) headquarters and give us one of their baby carriers to try.

Disclosure: When I started using a carrier with Emily it was 40-degree summer in Marbella, so I opted for my linen ErgoBaby Original (which I still use), which is why I got to use the Ruckeli very little. All the pictures of our Ruckeli were taken for this review (except the one below with one of the creators, Urs, and little Oliver): Emily is almost 2 years old, and Oliver (who wanted to join in) is 3.5 years old.

You know I have a thing for small companies with a cute story and I especially loved Ruckeli because, for once, it’s all about dads! The founders, in fact, are two German dads who always carried their babies and toddlers everywhere, and couldn’t find a carrier that had ALL the features they wanted. So they made it!

There’s a lot of choice when it comes to baby carriers, and this review is not to show how the Ruckeli compares. But if you’re looking for a beautiful, functional, warm yet very light (only ~650g!) birth-to-toddler carrier that will surprise you with a lot of ingenious features and super cute designs, Ruckeli is definitely a great

My favorite features:

It’s extremely soft and made of 100% organic cotton.

The waist band is quite wide which I really like and actually prefer it to my Ergobaby Original.

The whole carrier can be folded in its own waist pocket, which is also a pocket where you can put personal items (phone, keys, tissues, even a cloth nappy) while carrying your baby.

When the carrier is all folded in its pocket, it also becomes a hip seat for your toddler (Emily’s showing it, but Oliver can sit comfortably too).

Although I never took full advantage of it, the seat panel has 4 buttons so it can easily be adjusted to baby’s leg length (which is something I haven’t seen in any other carrier I’ve come across).

The shoulder straps seemed a bit gimmicky at first, but when you actually use it, it’s very easy to figure out (plus, it has instruction drawings on the inside of the waist band ;-)

You can adjust the height of the front VERY easily by sliding up and down the main body of the carrier (even when baby is in). I think it’s great especially for older babies who are more active and want to turn to see in every direction: when they (hopefully) fall asleep in the carrier, you can slide up the front for better back support.

I can’t see our gorgeous elephant-design model (which I’m so in love with!) on their website anymore (although how cute is this one?), but I was happy to discover that Ruckeli has grown in the past couple of years, improved their carrier even more in their 2018/2019 collection, and even came out with a couple of new products.

Definitely a brand (and a carrier) to check out! You can see a few videos of their baby carrier here.