Skip Hop Duo -- Check it out...

by Viki Ortega

So....after resisting the Skip*Hop bags for so long, I finally broke down and bought a camo Duo. I had heard such great things about these bags but wasn't very excited about the feel of the fabric that they are made out of or of the really loud velcro (don't they know what that does to a sleeping baby???). But, I figured that since it was camo, I could deal with the feel and the noise! As soon as I bought the Duo, Skip*Hop came out with the Duo Deluxe Edition and I knew that I had to have one because SH was touting new Shuttle Clips and all magnetic closures. I guess the designers experienced a velcro-sleeping baby episode! Well, here I am, with 2 SH Duo camo bags, too much time on my hands and a review to write to help out my fellow moms!

At first glance, you would never notice the subtle differences. The stroller clips are the most significant change. SH has come up with a clasp that serves a dual purpose. The old stroller straps on the Skip*Hop bags allowed you to either hook the bag to the stroller, or clip the messenger strap on to carry the bag, but not both. So if you wanted to hang your bag from the stroller, you could, you would just have to take the messenger strap completely off and store it somewhere (or lose it) and then when you were ready to carry your bag, you would unhook the stroller clips and then attach the messenger strap. The new Shuttle Clips have a small clip on one side for the stroller strap AND a larger one on the other side for the messenger strap. The new bag also comes with a removable strap pad, which makes carrying the bag extra comfortable.

The other great improvement was the addition of magnets to all of the closures. The main compartment has a large magnet holding it closed and the 2 front pockets each have a smaller magnetic closure. The only velcro on the bag is on the side cell phone pocket. This pocket is also a bit taller than the old pocket and is sewn with hidden seams where the old had the seams on the outside, making the cell phone pocket very boxy. The mesh bottle pocket on the opposite side of the bag has not changed at all.

One thing that Skip*Hop doesn't mention on their website is that they have changed the inside color of the bags. At least they did on the one that I received. Instead of having a black interior, the inside of the new bag is an olive color. This is great when you are trying to look for something and you don't have to encounter the black hole! Another great thing about the inside of the bag is that the interior pockets are 9 inches deep. The old pockets were only 7 inches deep. I noticed this because the top strip (also camo colored) in the new bag was narrower, only 4 inches where the old was 6 inches wide. I thought this would effect the depth of the top zippered pockets but it didn't they are actually about 3/4 of an inch deeper and also lined with the light olive fabric.

A couple more very subtle changes are that the new grab strap is double thickness instead of the old single thickness. The changing pad also seems more substantial and has a cute velcro (there it is again) closure with the Skip*Hop label on it. What I did notice was that this bag is the exact same size as the original. Skip*Hop's website claims that this bag is 30% bigger. Glad that it is not though, since this bag is a great size!

All in all, I really didn't think that the old Duo could be improved all that much. The 2 things that deterred me from buying it in the first place have now been modified and improved, making the new Duo just about as perfect as a bag could get!!!

Hope that makes your day a little easier!