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Joolz Day Studio Review by Best Buggy

 The Joolz Day pushchairs always stands out as a premium brand at shows and in shops. The pushchairs look well presented and smart. We have liked details like the leather handles, high seat position and extending footrest. We love the ethics of the Joolz brand too – the way they consider the impact on the earth, and on the child, of what they do. We also love the fun elements like including toys with some special editions, and decorating the box so that a child can have fun making and playing with it once the pushchair is removed.

We were pleased to get a Joolz Day Studio into Best Buggy HQ for a closer look especially as two of the Focus Group have had, and loved their Joolz Day pushchairs. We have had an older Mamas and Papas Joolz, so we had a fair idea of what to expect and how the pushchair worked.

First Impressions

Our first impression was how much lighter the Joolz Day was compared to the Mamas & Papas Joolz. This was a big positive. We opened the chassis easily and put the seat unit carefully on top.
We have one of the Studio collection which is where Joolz have been creative with new ideas, materials, colours and designs. Our all black edition is the french inspired, Studio Noir. There is also a Studio Gris which has reversed denim grey fabrics with a silver chassis. We absolutely love the all black look – very stylish!

Child Comfort

The Joolz Day has one of the tallest seats we have tried. The hood stays well back from the child’s head, thus enhancing the size of the seat and the amount of room for the child. The seat is well padded and the high seating position looks great. Our son enjoyed looking around him and I had no doubt that he was comfortable. The seat is probably one of the best we have ever tried.

We absolutely love the extending footrest. This feature is fantastic. We love that it extends notch by notch as the child grows. We like that no matter what the child’s size, their feet, heels and calves can all be supported. There are no gaps for feet or heels to fall through when sleeping. The child has the choice where their feet go too, whether its resting on the fabric, which fills the gap between the seat and footrest; or on the top edge of the footrest; or fully on the high, deep footrest. Our son prefers to dangle his feet, but even he has found comfortable places to put his feet somewhere on the footrest.

The seat has three recline positions which are accessed by pressing in the two round grey buttons below the bumper bar. It was easy to recline the Joolz Day – the bumper bar does help you to nudge the seat into the right position.

Removing the seat requires pressing in the two rectangular grey buttons, below the round buttons. Press these in hard and the seat pops off. The seat does require a press down to lock into position when setting up.

Harness and Hood

We have only positive things to say too about the hood and the harness.
The hood is a generous size. It is lined and gave good protection against the chill winds when we were out and about. It is easy to pull down. It looks smart and taut when open.

The harness is robust and feels secure. Whilst the shoulder / waist straps can come apart into two pieces, they do not readily fall apart, which is a big positive given we are seeing a trend towards harnesses which fall into 5 pieces when unbuckled. We like the harness and the embossed buckle a lot.
The harness was easily adjustable although there are just two widely spaced shoulder strap height settings, which does not make it very adjustable for different aged children. The shoulder straps have pads which wrap over the harness. This made it easier to adjust the straps – simply open and adjust rather than having to slide pads out of the way in order to access the adjustment buckle. We like that the crotch strap can be moved closer for a younger child, or moved away for an older child.

Handlebar, Bumper Bar, Wheels and Handling

The Joolz Day Studio handlebar extends upwards to a very generous height. There is plenty of space between the fully extended handlebar and the rear axle, thus it should suit parents with a longer stride. The handlebar is adjusted using two ‘wing’ nuts on each side of the handlebar. We have not seen anything these on any other pushchair. They are easy to use.
One of these wing nuts snapped off our old Mamas & Papas Joolz. Joolz were awesome and sent us out replacement parts with no quibble. Great customer service like that needs applauding.

The handlebar itself is covered in leatherette. This looks quite smart. However Joolz have added a criss cross pattern of stitching to the handlebar, which to be honest, makes the handlebar a little uncomfortable under your hand. Do not let this detail put you off considering buying a Joolz Day, because nearly all the other Joolz pushchairs we have seen, have smoother leatherette handles.

The bumper bar is covered with the same leatherette, with the same stitching. The bumper bar is gate opening, and can be opened one handed. The bumper bar then swings away for the child to be removed. We found the release button quite hard to press in.

The wheels and handling are where the Joolz Day Studio really comes into its own. The Joolz Day is one of the best pushchairs we have pushed. The large 30cms rear air tyres and four wheel suspension, go a long way to helping provide a smooth, and very bouncy ride. The Joolz Day is very much a walking pushchair – one you could enjoy pushing for miles. The Joolz Day was easy to manoeuvre in smaller places too. However the Joolz did feel a big / tall pushchair when in a smaller space e.g. a waiting room – I did feel a little conscious at times.
The smaller 16cms front wheels can be locked when going over rougher terrain.

Storage, Changing Bag, Raincover and Brake

The Joolz Day has a fabric covered storage bag underneath the seat. This has a magnetic door to protect the goods inside. The access is via the side – like posting into a letter box. We did find this a little awkward as you need to bend down low in order to post items into the bag, and the handle does get in the way. The storage bag is larger than it looks, however the amount you can place inside, and importantly the size, is limited. For example our Pacapod only just fitted into the bag, but my handbag did not. It is not a basket to fling your shopping into – more one to pack neatly.

There is a small zipped pocket on the back of the seat – big enough to drop your phone or keys into.

Joolz have made up for the limited on board storage in two ways.
First of all the changing bag. This beautiful bag can be hung on two buttons, one on either side of the handlebar. This was really useful, however I did find that the bag did swing a little which got a bit annoying. However, I would rather put up with that, than have to carry the changing bag on my back! We did find that with a full changing bag on board, that there was a slight shift in balance. So we recommend that not too much weight is put into the bag. We certainly could not hang any more off the handle than that. In our photos, we have attached our Pacapod to the bar underneath the seat unit, and to be honest, this was a really useful spot to hang smaller bags or a saddle bag or cool bags like the JL Childress ones.

The other storage solution is the XL bag. This giant mesh bag can take everything else that you require! Those of our team who had the XL bag thought it was great. Personally, we would prefer that our shopping was not on full view, but if its a choice between a bag, or no bag, then we are simply happy that Joolz have thought about real life, and resolved what is an issue for us. We like companies who find and offer solutions!

The Joolz Day raincover is included and is excellent. The raincover does fold up very small and will store in the front portion of the bag which is quite handy.

The brake is a foot brake. It is neatly placed in the centre of the rear axle within a neat cut out in the centre of bag. The brake flicks on and off easily. However, if you do as we did, and discover that we have too much ‘stuff’ to put into the basket, and thus we wedged our bags into the opening, then the brake becomes inaccessible. It is worth noting that the bag is fabric. Our bag is black, but some of the other Joolz Day colourways are lighter, and thus dirty feet could mark the bag across time when reaching to press the brake.

Fold

The fold is probably our only issue. The demo video makes it look super easy, but I struggle even after lots of practice!

First of all the pushchair needs preparing. Ideally the front wheels need locking – which to be honest is a tad annoying to do each time. Then the seat needs placing into the middle recline position. Then the handle needs to be fully pushed in. Two small buttons – one on either side of the handle – need pressing in. This makes the handle move slightly further in.
At this point, our Day was very tricky to ‘break’ the chassis. I practised and practised at home but only managed to fold the Day a couple of times with the seat on. Folding with the seat off was no easier, and if anything, it is harder because the seat helps when folding.
Twice when out and about, after multiple attempts failing to fold the Joolz Day, I was forced to pick the chassis up and put the whole thing into the car boot still open. It seemed we probably had an issue with our Joolz because one side would ‘break’ whilst the other side stayed locked. To be fair, Joolz have been very concerned about the issue, and said that we should not be having a problem. They did offer to replace our Day, so Joolz must have felt confident that it was simply our model which had an issue.
In the defence of the Joolz Day, Mr BB can fold the pushchair relatively easily. I believe I probably do not have the strength to fold this particular Joolz. I was able to fold our old Mamas & Papas Joolz with no problem. When I get the opportunity, I will try and fold another Joolz, and will update this review with my findings.

We like how the Joolz Day freestands when folded. However, it is a very large pushchair when folded and you do need the car boot or floor space to store it. I do find the Joolz bulky to lift into the car boot, although the low centre bar, does make it logically easy to carry without too much effort.

In Conclusion

The Joolz Day Studio is a luxury pushchair, which has been carefully finished with attention to detail. It feels good quality for the price, and is a pushchair which you would be proud to be seen pushing about town. The Joolz Day is absolutely beautiful to push with its bouncy rear air wheels. It feels a substantial pushchair to push and use, although it can feel large in smaller spaces. The seat is generous and comfortable with a brilliant extending footrest, which offers good leg support. Storage space is limited, however Joolz have given alternative storage solutions. We found the fold frustrating and large, although we like how easily the Day will freestand. We would probably have preferred a Joolz Day with a smooth handlebar, but we loved the fabrics and overall look. However all round, we did like the Joolz Day Studio. It definitely does deserve its place in the market as a premium, luxury pushchair.

*EDIT* Joolz kindly sent another Joolz Day Sense out for one of our team members to review. I found the new Joolz Day Sense easier to fold than the first one did, however folding is still not easy and requires strong hands. Despite practicing folding, our team member reported that she hasn’t managed to fold the Joolz Day since our practice runs. The last photo was taken of the Jools pushchair – including chassis, seat and the carrycot, all in the team member’s car boot.

With thanks to Joolz for their help in doing this review.

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