The second part of our journey through the ABC Kids Expo 2017 started once again with a visit to the coffee cart/food court (more about the first part here). Since we were here last year, that area of the Convention Center has undergone a significant remodel, and it’s much nicer now! I know you were all wondering, so there you go.
Hauck/iCoo had some unexpected offerings: a co-branded rear facing only car seat with Fisher Price! The rear facing only seat comes in a very cute pattern, and they also offer a booster seat with many exciting features.
In high back mode, the booster seat has a fairly short 19 inch top shoulder belt guide position, but the backless portion is quite wide. This could be a long-lasting seat if a kiddo grows with it — remove the high back portion when it’s outgrown, then switch to backless mode somewhere around age 7 or 8. From that point, it’s wide enough and sits low enough to last until most children pass the Five Step Test. It also includes rigid LATCH connectors!
We also noticed an update to their existing iGuard seat that shows the different handle positions right on the handle. As with any innovation that increases ease of use, we were excited to see this chart.
We paid a quick visit to the Nuna booth, where we saw the new Pipa Lite lx rear facing only car seat in action. It has Dream drape while the the Pipa Lite (non lx) does not, and it’s got a plush Merino wool and eucalyptus blend cover. These changes do add a teeny bit of weight to the seat.
Nuna is also shipping their seats in a new type of box. This innovative design is supposed to be quite easy to open, so it’s a great change!
The Cybex/gb booth was hopping, full of people who were dressed very fashionably. Since we really know how to rock a CSFTL polo shirt, our fashion choices were significantly different than our fellow booth visitors. But that’s okay, because we’re just in it for the car seats.
We’ve seen versions of the Sirona M convertible car seat since the first time we set foot in the Convention Center all those years ago. We’ve seen a series of changes to the seat, and we remain eager to see it enter the market. We’ve been assured that that day is coming soon!
Today’s visit with the Sirona revealed the incorporation of SensorSafe technology, which helps remind caregivers about the child being in the car seat via a pretty fabulous app. The app notifies the caregiver ASAP if the child is left in the vehicle, then sends alerts to everyone on a contact list set by the caregiver. The app also has links to the seat’s manual and other useful information. We’re eager to get our hands on a production version of this seat and write a full review of this innovation in technology.
We also swung by the gb portion of the booth and checked out the pretty awesome new covers on the gb Asana rear facing only car seat.
This ridiculously abrupt ending concludes our wrapup of this amazing trip. Until next time, Vegas!