GO Outdoors are proud stockists of ‘Zip Us In’ products 
If you’re getting ready for the arrival of your baby, the last thing you need is the expense of having to buy a whole new wardrobe of clothing during pregnancy, it’s costly for you and it can be wasteful buying clothing for a short length of time.
With more expecting mums wanting to stay active through pregnancy, we realised that there simply were not many options for outdoor maternity clothes, so we were very excited when we found out about Zip Us In expander panels.
Zip Us In create a waterproof expander panel that can be zipped into your existing waterproof or insulated jacket to help cover your bump.
The idea behind the expander panel means that you won’t need to go through the expense of a new coat while pregnant. The best part is, you can continue using the panel after pregnancy as it means mum or dad can carry the baby on their front, and zip their jacket around them.
The outdoor world is full of brilliant little ideas to get us out adventuring in comfort, or simply make life a little easier. It was obvious that the Zip us In expander panel would be useful to so many families.
Shop: Zip Us In Expander Panels
Who are Zip Us In?
In February 2013 on a cold visit to Weymouth, Kate Bell, founder of Zip Us In discovered she had hit the point in pregnancy where her increasing belly would no longer fit into the Berghaus jacket that she had brought just weeks before discovering she was pregnant.
Kate’s choice was to either invest in a maternity coat at around £80+ or try and make it through the final 3 months with what she had. With so many other things to buy for the new arrival, Kate chose the second option and simply wore her jacket with her belly sticking through the open zip.
It was on this day that Kate mentioned to her husband, that somewhere in the big wide world must be an item that can just expand your own jacket. It seemed like an obvious product, that surely someone must have invented before now. A google search was fruitless and instantly Kate’s creative mind started ticking over. A few doodles took place and then before they knew it, Kate and husband Nathan had a new baby and life inevitably got a little crazy!
The safe arrival of their second daughter was a huge relief after suffering 5 devastating miscarriages and both parents were keen to keep their precious bundle close with the help of a baby carrier. Living in the New Forest, babywearing was a great solution to ensure Kate could get out walking again with baby close enough to kiss.
“Walking into the village to pop to the post office could often be quite the task. Getting the baby into a coat, then into the slightly complicated wrap carrier before putting on my own coat was just half the battle. When I got to the nice warm post office, the sleeping baby had to come out for her coat to be removed and I had to undo the carrier to be able to take off my own coat. My mind went back to any old idea about extending my own jacket and now this potential item had even more use!” Said Kate.
Kate turned to her Mum to help her knocked up a sample which consisted of a panel of waterproof soft-shell that she could zip straight in to her own jacket. This useful item not only become essential to Kate, but she was often stopped by other parents when using it to ask where it had been purchased.
The Entrepreneur in Kate surfaced and she got to work. The panel design was submitted for a patent and Kate found just the right person to start producing the Zip Us In panels to order.
With the power of social media, the word spread rapidly and Kate was overwhelmed with the incredible feedback received, not to mention the superb level of orders.
“I believed whole heartedly that the product I had developed not only saved a customer money during pregnancy, but also provided an incredibly useful solution to parents when babywearing. The ability to cut down the risk of a baby overheating when in a carrier was a huge benefit and the buyers at GO Outdoors agreed.” Said Kate.
Like many parents, Kates experience gave birth to a good idea and we’re delighted to stock these panels online and in our stores to help encourage exptectant parents to continue to enjoy the outdoors through pregnancy and while babywearing.
Shop: Zip Us In Expander Panels
