KawoNi by TrogMi

This time I was allowed to test the baby carrier KawoNi of the South Tyrolean manufacturer TrogMi. Since I myself follow their Facebook page for a very long time, I was pleased that I now got the opportunity to test.

Information about the carrying aid

Maria Unterholzer and Sandra Marth, the owners of TrogMi and both also babywearing consultants, were looking for a baby carrier that fits from birth to the end of the babywearing period and so finally developed the KawoNi. They write on their website where the name comes from:

The name KawoNi comes from Hausa. Hausa is the most widely spoken commercial language in West Central Africa and means Trag Mich in German.

The KawoNi is a carrying aid, as the manufacturer himself writes, according to the modular principle. It can be put together individually, but complete packages are also possible. This means that the carrier can be used in a wide variety of systems by changing the straps or the abdominal belt. The KawoNi can therefore be used as a MeiTai, classically complete for tying, as a Half-Buckle, with a buckle on the abdominal belt and straps for tying, as a Full-Buckle, complete for buckling, or as an Onbuhimo, without abdominal belt. This makes it the most versatile carrier I know.

According to the manufacturer, the carrier fits from 3 to 19 kg. I prefer to give the usability in sizes, because I find them more meaningful. In my test, I was able to fit the KawoNi well with newborns from size 50 and also with my son with size 92/98. On the website they write that it should still fit at size 110. The carrier is consequently very long usable, at best from the beginning to the end of the carrying time.

Price-wise, the kit of the carrier is 265€, so that the type of straps, the belly strap and also the different fabrics can be chosen by yourself. If all the options of the carrier were purchased, the total price would be about 390€. But here it should be noted that everyone has his favorite and it probably also does not make much sense to buy all the options.

Unfortunately, I can not describe all the options of the carrier in detail here, it would go beyond the scope of this blog post. Therefore, in the following I will point out the special features of the KawoNis. As written before, the waist belt and straps can be interchanged. Therefore, they are not firmly sewn to the back part. To attach the straps to the back part, there is a double ring system here, through which the fabric of the back part is pulled and finally additionally fixed with a knot. The straps are both in the full-buckle variant, as well as in the mei tai or half-buckle variant, wrapped with a corduroy fabric, well padded and rather wide.

The ring system allows them to adjust well to the shoulder width of the wearer. As a full-buckle carrier, the straps can be attached to the belly strap or to two different points on the back. The waist belt is also rather wide, covered with corduroy and well padded. The web width is adjustable using Velcro. The head support has relatively long straps, which means that when worn on the back, it can easily be pulled up.

When worn

I have tested the carrier in different variations. In doing so, I was able to fit it well with the newborn dolls from my babywearing consultations, as well as with my 3-year-old son. The width of the bar was with my son with size 92/98, however, already clearly at the limit, with the length of the back he still had room to maneuver. For me personally, the variant as a half-buckle carrier was the most comfortable, but that is, as always, different for everyone.

The straps adjusted well to different shoulder widths, thanks to the ring system at the top of the back section. As a result, I also didn't find the width of the straps annoying; on the contrary, they allowed for good weight distribution. Varying the width of the neck is actually quite simple by knotting behind the rings, but is not quite as easy while wearing itself, as, for example, with the help of a cord.

Washing

I have not washed the carrier itself, since it is a test carrier. Please refer to the manufacturer's washing instructions.

Conclusion

The KawoNi carrier is really versatile. I don't know if I have ever seen a carrier with so many options. For me as a babywearing consultant, all this is no problem, but in conversation with other parents it turned out that the many options also easily become confusing. In such cases, it is best to contact the manufacturer. When wearing it, I found it very comfortable and actually usable over the entire wearing time. The initially deterrent acquisition costs are thus very quickly put into perspective. All in all, this is a recommendable carrier that allows the children and the wearer to adopt an ergonomic posture.