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Saturday, March 17, 2007
Some women obsess about purses or shoes...I obsess about diaper bags. Maybe it's because I've never been a purse person, (or a shoe person for that matter...the only "cool" shoes I own come from my best friend who has great fashion sense, is young, single and gets bored with her shoes while they are still trendy...) but for some reason I've been obsessed with cool diaper bags ever since I had Elnora.
Which is ironic really since my diaper bag for the first year or so of Elnora's life was that black Similac (or was it Enfamil?) bag that every new mother leaves the hospital with. It was insulated, small, had some pockets and served it's purpose. Besides, I'd ripped the brand name tag off it so they weren't getting any advertising out of the deal and I've never used formula, so I sort of felt like it was a "ha!" on them. (You know, sort of a "nya-nya I'm using your diaper bag and you didn't make any money off me!")But when I found out I was expecting my second and I realized that I'd need to cart around enough stuff for two kids, I became obsessed with finding the perfect diaper bag. I scoured the web drooling over bags that were trendy, yet practical. Of course that meant that they had trendy price tags to go with them.
Then I connected with the team at Daisy Gear. I originally talked to them about reviewing their Dad Gear Fleece Diaper Vest (review on that coming up soon), but I ended up getting one of their Daisy Gear Sports Diaper bags to review as well.
The Lactivist Says: I LOVE this diaper bag. Love it, love it, LOVE it! (Have I mentioned that I love it?)
Pros:Huge variety of colors (plus the cover is reversible)
Super roomy
Integrated wipe dispenser
Built in clips to attach it to your stroller
Messenger style bag is long enough to cross over your chest
Cons:
Expensive
Body of the bag attract dog hair like mad
Quite honestly, I think this is my absolute favorite product of all the things I've reviewed so far. I'm a total scrooge when it comes to spending money, but I would totally pay the $66 that this bag retails for. When I first received this bag to review I looked it over and decided that I'd load it up and set it aside to use for "all-day" trips. After all, I already had a purse sized bag that held most of what I needed for quick jaunts with two kids and who wants to carry around a larger bag if they don't have to.
Apparently, I do. I took this bag on two day trips and then came home and packed away my other diaper bag. I like this bag enough that it's now my "go-to" diaper bag. (Ok, so I've really just always wanted to say "go-to" in regards to something...humor me folks.) I've been using it on a daily basis for about five or six weeks now and I adore it. In fact, I've had at least a dozen compliments on it since I've started carrying it.
So let's break down the features to see exactly why I'm such a huge fan of this bag.
Roomy!
This is the absolute key to any diaper bag that I'm going to use. It's simply GOT to have space. I don't carry a purse anymore so the diaper bag needs to be able to hold anything that would go in my purse plus the supplies I need for two kids. This one has that issue down pat. in fact, here's a listing of what I've taken with me on an "all day" errand run...Change of clothes for Elnora
Change of clothes for Emmitt
4 diapers + wipes
Sippy cup for Elnora
Bottle of water for me
Snack cup for Elnora
2 bibs for Emmitt plus one bib for Elnora
Set of Elnora's silverware
Comb
A toy for Emmitt
My cell phone, wallet, digital camera and keys
Two cloth grocery bags from Whole Foods
And there was still room left in the diaper bag! The nice thing is that there are two sectioned pouches inside the bag. I use one for diapers and one for clothes. It also has four or five other zippered sections scattered around the inside and outside, two "pockets" on the front of the bag under the flap and a pocket on each side of the bag that's the perfect size for a cell phone. The large zippered section on the back of the sports bag includes a changing pad. The rest of the stuff just gets tossed in the bag.
Stroller Friendly
One of the challenges I've had is finding a stroller friendly diaper bag. See, my double stroller is wonderful because it's really compact, but it's biggest downside is that it really doesn't have much in the way of a storage basket underneath. That means that I either have to carry the diaper bag or attach it to the handles. Daisy Gear does this up right...with two little built in loops that allow you to fasten it to your stroller. 
Since the diaper bag is messenger style, it lays pretty flat against the back of a stroller. That means it's not knocking you in the knees every time you take a step. Since each side attaches to the stroller it also means that it's not bouncing around like it would if you simply hung it from one of the handles. The shot here shows it hooked onto our stroller with the back seat fully reclined. Even still, it doesn't get in my way when I'm pushing the stroller. If I had the seat sitting up, it would be even more out of the way.Colors and Design
The nice thing about the Daisy Bag is that it comes in more than a dozen colors. In fact, they have a "billboard series" of bags that is partially made from recycled billboard advertisements. These bags are one of a kind and are pretty darn cool looking. The flaps on them are also reversible so that if you want a pink one, and your husband isn't secure in his masculinity (tee hee) he can quickly unzip the Velcro on the flap and reverse it so that the black side is facing out. It takes about 30 seconds to make the switch. (Or, you can go buy the same bag in "manly" colors at Dad Gear.)
Now I will note that one of the few negatives I found with this diaper bag was that the material the bag is made from is the type that gathers dust, hair and dirt like mad. Yes, you can mostly wipe it off, but as we all know, dog hair has amazing magnetic properties and adheres to anything it comes into contact with until you pull it off with a pair of tweezers. Since our dog has tan hair and the bag is black...well...yeah. It's ok though...going out with a little dog hair on the diaper bag is really the least of my problems. Integrated Wipes Container
Now to the pièce de résistance of the Daisy Gear diaper bag. The "integrated wipes dispenser." Why no one else has thought of this before is beyond me because it's fan-frickin-tastic! Basically, there is a wipes container that snaps into the front of the bag so that you don't have to go digging for your wipes. Apart from the obvious convenience of not having to dig for wipes, let's consider the handiness of that feature in public restrooms. With the Daisy Gear bag, I never have to take a hand off of Emmitt while changing him. I can open the bag with one hand while still wearing it, pull out a diaper, get it slid under his other diaper, open the dirty diaper, grab a wipe from the wipes dispenser, (again, with one hand because I don't have to dig for it in the bag and then hold it in one hand while getting a wipe with the other) wipe him off, pull the dirty diaper out from under him, fasten the clean one, toss the dirty one in the trash, put his clothes back together, pick him up and bam, we're done.
It's awesome.
I've run across several products here at The Lactivist that I feel comfortable recommending to my readers, but this is honestly the first one I've reviewed that I can suggest without the slightest hesitation, as long as you can handle the price tag. Oh, and if you aren't a fan of the sports bag, Daisy Gear offers a larger messenger diaper bag and a backpack diaper bag as well.
Labels: Product Reviews
