We all know that the folk at phil&teds are clever clogs. I’m constantly amazed at what they come up with and the Universal Travel Bag is no exception. A deceptively simple contraption, the Universal Travel Bag is designed to carry buggies, car seats, kids’ bikes, and all manner of other small child paraphernalia.
I’m liking
This is an awesome concept. If you’ve got kids, you’ll know that they have a lot of kit. The bag itself rolls up into a tidy little bundle for storage but expands into something big enough to fit most buggies – and definitely the phil&teds and Mountain Buggy buggies. It’s a great way of transporting and protecting your gear.
Once you have wrapped your buggy (4 simple folds and a few bits of velcro!), the bag is conveniently fitted with a handle, a carry strap, and wheels to make moving around simple. The bag is made of hard wearing polyester and also has a padded interior to protect whatever is inside.
Of course, it has a stylie kind of look about it and comes in snazzy chocolate, red, green, brown, blue and grey.
Things that made me go hmmmm
phil&teds knows how to build tough stuff and you expect their stuff to last. However, I do wonder whether the carry handle and interior draw strong are tough enough. I’ve checked with the p&t peeps and they assure me that they’ve tested it carefully. They know their mustard so I’m taking their word for it but I’m keen to see how these bags wear.
The conclusion
At $120, I reckon these bags are a great investment. One of the best things I ever did was buy a travel bag for my Mountain Buggy, as it keeps things tidy, makes it easy to lug the buggy around and goodness knows, you can slip all kinds of things in it! And the Universal Bag is certainly a step on from my bag.
** It’s worth noting that I tried this bag with my pre-2008 Mountain Buggy and it doesn’t quite fit as well as the post 2008 models. In particular, the axels aren’t retractable. so I’d recommended padding these if you’re planning to use it with a pre 2008 model.
