The History of the BabyBjörn Baby Bouncer

Björn Jakobson grew up in Sweden during World War II. Because Sweden was neutral during the war, many parents sent their children there in an attempt to keep them safe. Jakobson spent much of his time as a teenager helping to care for these children. In 1960, he visited the U.S. and noticed how different the baby products were there. He thought it seemed particularly taxing that parents always had to carry their infants around when they weren’t lying down in their cribs. This inspired him to create a bouncy chair that allowed parents to strap their infant into a semi-seated position so they could do tasks nearby with their hands free. In 1961, Jakobson launched BabyBjörn in Stockholm to create his bouncer chair for babies. Jakobson located medical experts to confirm that an upright position was safe for babies (at the time the concept was quite new, but today’s experts generally consider these types of devices safe as long as the baby doesn’t fall asleep in them). Jakobson’s sister-in-law, Elsa Jakobson, co-founded the company with him and had input on product development and the prototype process. Lillemor Alm, a textile designer who became Jakobson’s wife in the early 1960s, soon became a co-founder, too, and played a key role in determining the aesthetics of the brand. Notably, the baby bouncer was designed with a neutral color palette that appealed to parents rather than the infants themselves and allowed the adults to project an image of stylishness and affluence, adding to its appeal. BabyBjörn’s baby bouncer quickly took off in Sweden and soon after in other parts of the world. While the brand is most famous today for its baby carrier, the BabyBjörn baby bouncer is the product that started it all and it is still produced today.