The Freeloader Child Carrier was conceived of while co-founder Erick Jansen was traveling through the streets of Paris with his then 4 year-old daughter Sam. Sam was mostly capable of hiking through the city each day, but inevitably she would hit a wall and the adventure would end for the day. He wanted to build a carrier that would allow for all of the family to be together and join the adventures all of the time. He resolved to build a lightweight, portable child carrier that was surprisingly compact, but could fold-down for ease of use. Something versatile, compact, that helps extend the adventure without compromising comfort, safety or ease of use. A carrier that would allow the entire family to join the adventure all of the time.

Our story really began when we tried to share our love for the outdoors with our kids and realized how inadequate existing child carriers were for what we needed. We wanted to take our kids outdoors, but we didn’t want to pack our little ones in with our trail-mix. We wanted to share the adventure with them and still take it at their pace.

A better way for families to enjoy adventures together

So we set out to create an easy-to-use, portable child carrier that allowed us to travel and hike with our little ones and carry them whenever they wanted. It was essential to us that the Freeloader be lightweight and portable because ultimately we wanted to provide a much less clumsy alternative to the stroller or the traditional hiking carrier for a parent's day out.

We wanted to create mobility for the family like never before.

We wanted a child carrier that tucked away neatly enough that when it was not being used, it was no more intrusive than a daypack. For us, this makes the child carrier a welcome addition to the family trip. It carries its weight when it’s needed and tucks away when it’s not.

We turned to our experience in design to develop and create a better child carrier with a minimalist, functional design. We decided on the aluminum, fold-down seat design after breaking four sewing machines, trying different welded frames and countless redesigns. The aluminum fold-down seat frame gave us an incredibly strong child carrier compared to our competitors. Not only was it stronger, it was also incredibly light and far more compact than the traditional bulky, “mobile home on your back” child carrier. And the best part was its portability -- when not in use, the seat folds up into a daypack and easily stows away for a trip.
 

Additionally, we experienced an unexpected benefit from the plethora of redesigns in that our seat cushion, waist and hip straps were changed with each new design and continually refined. Ultimately, this provided us with what we consider the most extraordinary child carrier on the market. Put plainly, it doubles the weight capacity and cuts the size down by more than half than what is currently on the market.

Supporting Busy Families

Another benefit we discovered about the Freeloader is just how useful it is for running errands around town with our children. Even with our first design, we realized that the Freeloader is as much a grocery store accessory as it is a hiking or travel accessory for our trips. Since then, any time we walk around the city or have extended time in stores, the Freeloader comes along and allows us to spend more time out with our kids.

Supporting the Special Needs Community

We have also had the great fortune of recently being welcomed into the special needs community. We sincerely hope that the Freeloader will play a role in helping to accommodate the mobility needs of the wonderful families that have reached out to us.

Watch Our Clip on Shark Tank

The Freeloader team is committed to expanding the view of the traditional child carrier. We believe the Freeloader provides a family-friendly solution to mobility issues that parents deal with everyday. We hope you will experience the same benefits that we have with the Freeloader. Try yours today.