Clek Olli Review

This 7 year old normally rides in the Clek Oobr

My daughter rode in a harnessed car seat until right around her seventh birthday. Once she’d outgrown all of her harnessed seats by height, the best option for her became a high-backed booster.

Clek Olli on the go!

That’s where the Olli comes in. Weighing in at just 5 pounds, it features the Comfort-cube, which is composed of:

– Metal Substructure provides stability to keep your child in a comfortable and safe position
– Expanded polypropylene base delivers energy-absorbing capability to reduce the impact of those big bumps in the road
– Molded polyurethane foam pad maintains its comfy shape for years of cushy feel

For the full dimensions of this seat, check out Clek’s website.

All of the features of the Olli translate to my daughter saying “it’s really, really comfy!” even after long rides. The included cup holder also makes her happy — in her case, it’s better suited for holding little flowers than cups.  Also available for the Olli is the strap-thingy, which clicks into the rigid LATCH connectors when the seat isn’t in use and lets her carry it like a purse. This also pleases her.

From the driver’s seat, I am pleased with the belt fit — in my car’s second row, the shoulder belt lays nicely across the middle of her shoulder and the lap belt is positioned across the top of her thighs.

Clek Foonf and Olli, together at last

Plus, it matches her little sister’s Clek Foonf.  Her little sister is 4 years, 2 months old, and still well within the rear-facing height and weight limits of the Foonf. CSFTL reviewed the Foonf last fall.

The belt fit and the portability of the Olli make it an excellent choice for travel. We’ve carried the Olli onto the plane — it stores in the overhead compartment while we’re on board. Once we arrived, we just plopped (her word) the Olli onto the seat of my rental car, clicked in the rigid LATCH, and we were ready to go.

Check out this large gap created between the seat bight and the Clek Olli

For seating positions that have lower LATCH anchors, the Olli provides a consistently good belt fit for my daughter. In some seating positions in some cars without lower LATCH anchors, the Olli doesn’t sit flush with the back of the seat. For example, in the third row of Mazda 5, which has some interesting seat belt geometry that challenges booster fit and car seat installations alike.  The gap this creates can put the seat belt kind of far forward for a good belt fit on my kiddo.

Clek Olli, Mazda 5 third row

We asked the manufacturer about this gap and they said  “We instruct to tuck them in to the vehicle seat bight, but in cases where the (seat) bight is raised or it’s not possible to do that, it’s fine to have them positioned the way you describe – provided that there is still a good seat belt fit on the child.”

We weren’t entirely comfortable with this gap in this seating location for this particular model. This wasn’t surprising since the Mazda 5’s third row is pretty tough to fit for booster riders.

Clek Olli- Tommy, is 8 years old, 80 pounds and 4 feet 9 inches tall.

At CSFTL, we appreciate that the minimum age for the Olli is 4, but that Clek encourages older children to use it, “Olli is an award-winning belt-positioning backless booster. It says to your 6-12 year old that it’s still cool to be safe in the car.”

My daughter couldn’t agree more!

Here’s our Huggable Images doll, Tommy, displaying how the Olli is a good fit for him as well.  He’s designed to simulate an 8 year old modelwho weighs 80 pounds and is 4 feet, 9 inches tall.

Clek Ozzi, sibling seat to the Olli.

Clek also offers the Ozzi, which is a more basic, lower-priced version of the Olli. It only comes in black, does not have padded armrests, and does not include a strap-thingy, drink thingy, Crypton fabric, or the front release strap for the LATCH anchors. It does have the Rigid LATCH we love, as well as the comfort cube design.