About the company: I know Tula for years now but didn’t own a carrier (just a Ring Sling I bought once 😉 until now. The thing is that I wanted one of the rare Wrap Conversions but found out that it’s a mission impossible to succeed in the stockings – sigh! There were so many beautiful ones, especially the handwovens.
And on the secondhand market, their price was even higher. But of course this is just a small part about Tula. The biggest topic are the Tula carriers made of Canvas and available in different changing designs showing an urban attitude. Besides, have a read into their story, it’s the lovely story of a polish-vietnamese family in the USA.
Tula Free-to-grow – rather stiff
My first impression: The Tula Free-to-grow arrives with manual, a beautiful stars design, clever seat adjusting, detachable head rest and pocket on the hipbelt. The carrier looks nice but I miss the fluff I am used to with my carriers made of wrap fabric. The canvas is rather stiff but I guess it will soften up after using it a while.
How to adjust it: There are three width settings. To adjust, the fabric slides across a nylon strip and can be fixed with snaps as soon as the ideal position is reached. Once closed, the snaps last and don’t open accidentaly – a nice and easy way to narrow the seat.
There are two possibilities of adjusting the shoulder straps. The top one, view it on the above pic, will shorten the panel a bit. But depending on the sit of my 10 months old girl, I’m not sure if a tiny baby won’t get lost in the carrier… feel free to share your experiences if you tried it with a newborn.
Tula Free-to-grow – should fit every size
How does it fit and wear: The shoulder straps end on the top sides of the back panel, quite similar to Isara or Ergobaby. However, I remarked that the pressure on baby’s back seems to be less and the course of the strap under my arm was more comfy and less tight under my armpit.
And it was still possible to tighten closely even on the back – see the last of my pictures: still more than 10cm left! This means, the Tula Free-to-grow should also fit thinner women.
The seat for my baby seems comfy. The leg openings are slightly padded and we can switch between arms in or arms out. I already closed 2 of 3 snaps which means there’s not much space left for her to grow. It would be interesting to see bigger children with longer legs and ages 1+. But I’m sure you could win some space by creating a deeper seat and arms completely out.
Also here: feel free to share your experiences! How long did the FTG provide a knee-to-knee support to your toddler? I couldn’t find pictures in the internet. Anyway, the bigger the child, the less important is the knee-to-knee support and if you wear your toddler often, you could always get the Tula Toddler carrier.
The Tula FTG is finally ergonomic
Conclusion of my Tula Free-to-Grow review: The FTG is the carrier Tula fans waited for. Especially in Europe, where ergonomic carriers are preferred by many parents and most of the manufacturers set their value on, the Free-to-Grow has some potential. Adjusted correctly, it can really make a nice carrier fitting many wearers and babies during the first 12-15 months or more.
The only thing I miss is softness in the material. I usually don’t wash my carriers (just wraps) but maybe this would help it getting softer. But still, I’m madly dreaming of a Wrap Conversion FTG. And dreaming… and dreaming… and keep on dreaming 😀
Tested in november 2017 with my 10 months old daughter, wearing size 74. Many thanks to Tula for the testing possibility!
