I must correct myself.  In a previous post, I said that “for the most part, you can only get slings online,” and that:

… specialty baby shops are starting to carry some slings other than the Baby Bjorn-style carriers.  But buyer beware!  Most of these are c-r-a-p.

Well it turns out that there is a baby boutique right here in little ‘ole Fredericton, New Brunswick, which actually carries some of the GOOD slings.

BUMP Maternity and More. This boutique carries a variety of useful (and some not-so-useful, of course) baby items, many of which are harder to find in your typical baby chain stores.  For instance, they carry Babylegs.  And Bummis cloth diapers.  They support ‘mompreneurs’, Canadian companies, and ethical business practices.

But – perhaps most importantly – they carry slings.  And not just the crap slings either (though they do carry the Heart to Heart, which – while Canadian (yay)- is not a favourite of mine… I’ve seen too many parents struggle with the excess of padding, unable to get a good, secure carry).

They carry Cuddly Wraps.  They carry Hotslings pouches.  They carry Ellaroo mei tais and ring slings.   And they carry the Ergo structured carrier.

Their website is a bit splotchy, with links called “test1″ and areas labelled “place info here.”  The shop is similar… the floor is strewn with area rugs which almost but not quite completely fail to cover the busted flooring underneath.   If they were brand new, this would be more understandable, but apparently they have been around since at least 2007.  Perhaps this is simply a mark of the disinterest our society has with actually supporting small shops and baby-friendly accessories.  Or maybe they’re just lazy and disorganized.  I don’t know.

What I do know, is that it’s downright shameful that this shop is not crawling with customers every hour of every day.  That they haven’t had to expand in order to meet demand.  That most people don’t even know about this place.

The website gives their address as 88 Regent St, but the shop I visited is in the Priestman St. mini-mall, where Blockbuster is.  I’m assuming they’ve recently moved.  This might explain the half-finished appearance of the store, but just further exacerbates the sloppiness of the website.

At any rate, I can only commend them for their efforts.  Shops like this will never be successful and popular until they at least exist… we have to start somewhere.  I know that I will be contacting them, to perhaps organize some babywearing workshops for New Brunswick moms.  Or to offer tips on website maintenance…

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