Manufactured in 2008 by a German company who also make pushchairs and car seats, the Concord Spin is a stylish highchair, made from an aluminium frame with a plastic seat, back and tray. The highchair comes with a sturdy 3-point harness, which also has a handy child lock so the more adept toddler can’t undo it. The chair can be used with or without the tray, which tucks away neatly into the seat back when not in use. The legs can also be adjusted to four different heights, which means it can fit most tables, and there’s a useful footrest that provides added comfort, particularly for toddlers.
The key design feature of the Concord Spin is that it claims to be the most compact highchair in the world. Owing to its central swivel joint, the chair can be folded up to a mere 60cm x 51cm x 8cm. It’s also very light owing to the aluminium frame, so it’s completely portable.
What we love
This chair is really stylish and I have received lots of favourable comments about it. The chrome detailing complements a modern kitchen in a way that wooden chairs just don’t.
The chair requires no complicated construction – it all folds out easily step-by-step from a remarkably small size. As a result, it’s extremely portable and comes with a really useful travel bag. As well as folding it up completely, you can fold it like an ironing board and tuck it out of sight during the day – a useful space saver for smaller kitchens.
It’s great that this chair works both with the tray-table and up against your own kitchen table as it makes it versatile for wherever you want to feed your little one as well as for different activities like drawing and painting.
And, finally, my toddler loves it.
What to watch out for
Initially, the chair looks very easy to clean with its sleek lines. However, I have found a number of little nooks and crannies where little bits get stuck – for example where the base of the seat meets the frame.
When using the chair, the instruction manual states you must leave the arm rests down even if you’re not using the tray – this is to provide some extra support to prevent your little one from falling out sideways from the chair. Peter even pulls them out himself as he prefers them down too! However, I think this ends up looking a bit clunky on the design and there are quite a few grooves on the armrests for food to get stuck in.
Unfortunately, it’s not possible to remove the harness – therefore you need to clean it in situ. On my white model the harness is also white, so there’s already some inevitable red stains from the spaghetti bolognaise. However I find scrubbing with a good multi-surface cleaner (eco of course!) does the trick.
If you’re using it with your 6-month-old who is just weaning you may well need some extra padding behind the back as there’s no means to make the seat smaller around a little one’s middle like some models – it’s the harness and the table that holds them in place.
Who is the Concord Spin best for?
Design-savvy parents or anyone who wants baby kit that’s truly compact.
The Concord Spin is an attractive highchair that offers flexibility both in terms of where you use it (table or freestanding) and where you store it (folded in half or completely put away). At over £120, it’s not a cheap option, but that’s often the way with new style and design. There are a few chinks in the design in terms of ease of cleaning, but it’s certainly beautiful to look at.
