If You’re Having a Baby, the Veer Switchback Might Just Be Your Favorite Purchase
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Some products show up everywhere — subway ads, Instagram, celeb endorsements. With this series, we're testing such products to conclude one thing: Does it live up to the hype?
What’s everyone talking about?
The Veer Switchback: a brand-new travel and home stroller system from Veer, the makers of the incredibly popular Veer stroller wagon and Base Camp beach tents.
What’s the buzz about?
Combining the convenience of a combination stroller with a new modular style design, the Switchback is a first-of-its-kind child travel and relax system.
Where’s all the buzz coming from?
Featured by Strolleria
Reviewed by The Bump
So, does it live up to the hype?
How’d we come to this conclusion?
I've tested dozens (or more) strollers in my time as a parenting writer and editor. Some have wowed me, like the Uppababy Vista, the Silver Cross, and the Cybex Aton, but most are just utilitarian — a need, but nothing to write home about. That is, until I tried the Veer Switchback. It’s not just a stroller — it’s a multipurpose system that utilizes one (or two) of their Switchback base seats to configure into a complete stroller, a jogging stroller, a bike seat, or even a baby chair/high chair. Because of its wide range of functionality, calling it a mere “stroller” feels like an insult.
Veer is known as one of the go-to brands for parents with active lifestyles. Their products are designed with rugged durability and supreme usefulness in mind. Everything is made to be used in any condition, take a beating, and come back for more — and the Switchback is no different. It's certainly a stroller that could hit the pavement, roll over the grass, pound the trails, and then stroll the mall. But where this system really shines is in the Switchback seat itself. While it's expected that most will primarily use the Switchback seat and a base, the Switch and Roll is a car seat adaptable for the most-popular infant car seat brands, with the use of easily installed adapters.
The seat is the primary piece of the system and what transforms different bases into working systems of their own. The seat is adjustable and convertible, suitable for infants, toddlers, and kids. It's a supremely breathable, extra-long exoskeleton seat with dual-seat dampeners that provide up to 10 millimeters of movement deflection in both directions, and absorbs ground impact by up to 30%. That means that your baby won't get jostled in the seat when going over ruts and bumps, letting them kick back and relax during the ride.
The seat fastens to all four bases with just one click, and only one button is used to remove it. Rather impressively, you can also use the chair as a travel high chair, attaching it to any standard chair with the included strap. I was thrilled to see that it has a dial-adjust, easy thread, five-point harness with a closure that's easy for parents, but not for babies. The seat itself is hose-washable, and the inserts are blessedly machine-washable.
One of the best parts about the Veer Switchback is that its seat has a 50-pound weight limit on the seat, which is about 10-15 pounds more than many other strollers, especially single-to-double strollers. The stated age limit is from birth to about 3 years utilizing the infant insert or the car seat adaptors, but we all know that many a 4-year-old will be in this stroller, so it's nice to know it can handle it.
How we use it
I put this beast through its paces from set up to on-the-go to fold and store. The initial setup took me about 25 minutes, but as my husband likes to point out, people who pay closer attention to the directions instead of assuming they can do it merely based on their vast experience could do it in less time.
The Switchback and Roll arrives in two or three boxes depending on your order — which, despite their large size, are light as a feather, given the whole system only weighs 27.6 pounds combined. You do have to attach the wheels, which can be intimidating, but it’s really easy thanks to Veer’s inventive buttons.
I played around with the installation, fixing straps, and changing out the pads, and I didn’t run into any major issues. Like all strollers, there’s a learning curve getting the fabrics off and learning how to collapse it, but it’s nothing that a few once-overs of the well-written instructions and a few well-placed swear words can’t handle.
Then, it was off to the races, or, should I say, the Coney Island Boardwalk. I grabbed my adorable 2-year-old nephew and had a fun afternoon looking at all the animals at the aquarium, hit up the boardwalk for some sweets and treats, and then headed home to hand him off, all sugared up and tired — always a fine combination.
It performed beautifully over the old slats of the boardwalk, the rough asphalt of the aquarium, and the grass of the playground. When I strapped his chair to the seat at the aquarium cafe, it was super secure, even when my little dude did his highly enthusiastic interpretive dance of joy over his chicken fingers covered in globs of barbecue sauce. And then? It cleaned up easily, even the barbecue sauce.
What’s the bottom line?
Yes, this baby is pricey at $399 for the seat, $499 for each stroller frame, $129 for the bicycle seat mount, and $99 for the high chair frame. But when you consider that most single to double strollers are in that $900 to $1,500 price point, and you can't strap those seats into anything else, its price suddenly feels less intimidating. And when you take into account the weight limit, machine washability, and 2-year warranty, it's more than worth it to pick this one up. Build up to an entire system, or just go with a stroller and seat — either way, you're winning with the Veer Switchback.
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