RUNNING HEAD
Johan junior is involved in every aspect of the company, from marketing to product design
BEHIND THE BRAND
BUMBO
Kate Freud M EE TS CEO JOE BUITEN DAG , WH O CO FOU N DED TH E R EVOLUTIONARY BABY SE AT COM PANY WITH HIS FATH ER IN SOUTH AFRICA OVER 20 YE AR S AGO here comes a time in any baby’s young life – to sit up again.” And then the light bulb moment came, and somewhere from around three months onwards Johan senior and Joe began the process of creating a seat that – when they become desperate to sit up, observe would allow baby to sit up safely all the time. and interact, though their little bodies won’t allow them to At the time, Joe and his father both worked in the do so unsupported. For many generations of parents, this has automotive industry, Joe as a pattern and model maker. When proved a tricky period, and it was during this stage, 23 years Johan explained his vision to his son, together over the next ago, when Johan Nicolaas Buitendach, co-founder of baby two years they made the first model for the Bumbo Floor seat-manufacturer Bumbo (with his son Johan, or ‘Joe’), found Seat. It was created from a soft polyurethane foam similar to himself looking after his young grandson. that used in the manufacture of car seats. However, where The elder Johan sadly passed away in 2011, working as CEO car seats are covered in leather or fabric, Johan, with the help of Bumbo until his death. As Joe, now of industry experts, invented a self-skinning foam that won CEO of the company, explains: “My him an award for the best advance in father was babysitting his grandson technology in South Africa in 2002. Daniel when he realised the baby was Joe’s own background in pattern and more content when he could see model making proved vital in taking things around him, rather than lying the company forward too. When he on his back staring at the ceiling. Not designed the first Bumbo Floor Seat, wanting to spoil Daniel by holding Computer-aided Design (CAD) was not him in his arms all the time, he readily available in South Africa and propped him up with pillows so he patterns and models were still being could sit on his own and explore the hand-crafted. But later on, once he world around him. The pillows became familiar with CAD himself, he was would eventually give way and able to design more products to expand Johan senior wa s inspired by loo king Daniel would start crying, wanting the Bumbo brand and put it firmly on the after his grandc hi
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