Review: DBG Baby BE Unique for IBC 2018

International Babywearing Conference's Official Wrap by DBG Baby: BE, in the colorway "Unique." Image looking down at the waistbelt and tails of a Rainbow's Back Carry in a rainbow striped woven wrap with a pattern made up of inclusivity symbolsm worn by a white woman and her toddler. The city street and a small child's foot wearing red Converse are in the background.

Say hello to BE, a BEginning wrapper's new best friend. This wrap is magical for all skill levels, but educators are going to especially love its learning-friendly features. Which makes it fitting to be the official wrap for the 2018 International Babywearing Conference!

Manufacturer: Designed By Geeks (DBG) Baby
Pattern and Colorway: BE Unique
Fiber: 100% cotton
G/m²: estimated high 200s
Release date: The official wrap of the 2018 International Babywearing Conference
Size tested: long 6
Stats of (willing) wrappee at time of test: 28 months, 28 pounds, 36 inches

Wrap Qualities Summary
Thickness (thin to thick): medium thick
Softness (soft to scratch): very soft
Density (airy to tight): medium, slight airy
Texture (raised or flat, coarse to smooth): smooth, little pattern texture
Soap (dry to soapy): soapy
Grip (glide to stick): medium low grip, medium high glide
Support (light to heavy): newborn to toddler, prefer 2+ passes for toddler
Stretch (none to lots): medium high stretch
Cush (none to marshmallow): medium cush
Moldability: medium high moldability
Flop (none to silky): high floppiness
Care: (easy to difficult): easy care

First off: the colors! This wrap is the "Unique" colorway, a stunningly saturated rainbow in perfect RGB order (like there's a green and it is correctly placed between yellow and blue!). There are 8 stripes, each a different color with no repeat, which is super helpful for learning because there's no mixing up which yellow stripe you're following. Also amazing - the stripes run in the best direction for teaching!! Many gradient-style wraps have the color running vertically: that is, the stripes extend between middle markers, so they chest pass of a double hammock would have vertical stripes. The reason for this had to do with how threads are set up on the loom, how wide the wrap is woven, and more technical things that I don't entirely understand but I get that it is the most practical way to have gradient colors in woven material. 

DBG is like, no we can do better. Stripes can run the "right" way! I'm not sure what sorcery they did to get horizontal stripes on these long wraps (up to size 12!!) but they did it! And if I had done a Double Hammock with this beauty you'd be able to tell from these photos how the stripes run from taper to taper, allowing for visual assistance in concepts like strand-by-strand tightening and moving slack through a carry without untying. But I did a Rainbow's Back Carry instead, which at the time I felt really highlighted the stripes, practically dripping down the tapers here...

Image focused on a chest pass and waist belt of a Rainbow's Back Carry tied with a rainbow striped woven wrap with a pattern made up of inclusivity symbols.

Sticking with visuals for just one more moment - overall the pattern was a larger scale than I expected, with the 29 repeating inclusivity symbols prominently featured. The symbols are set in one direction, so there's a "right side up" and an upside down, plus a backward if you're wearing the wrap with the white side out.

Wrap Qualities! The stripes aren't the only feature that make this a beginners best friend. Wrappers of all skill levels will love how this wraps.

Glide. The glide is good with this one. Passes move effortlessly over each other and the silky smooth feeling extends to both sides of the wrap. The pattern doesn't provide much texture - just enough to help hold passes and knots in place. This carry is knotless and it didn't slip at all. A beginner will find the glide to be one of the most helpful and forgiving features of this wrap, making it possible to perform multi-pass carries and fancy finishes that a more grippy wrap might limit. Wrapping with BE requires no extra effort. A happy side-effect of this glide is pleats for days!

Image of a white woman with dark hair wearing her unimpressed toddler on her back in a rainbow striped woven wrap with a pattern made up of inclusivity symbols. Behind them is a city block.

Stretch. Another helpful quality of BE! This weave is just dense enough to give us a nice stretch while refraining from feeling saggy. I'm wrapping my 30-pound toddler here and while I did use a multi-pass carry, I'm sure we could have been comfortable with less reinforcement. The stretch was so helpful while wrapping so that I could get everything in the right place. Especially with my little leaner, I need a little stretch so that he doesn't destroy my passes when he starts wiggling. The photo above was taken about 20 minutes after we wrapped and he had already gotten the passes down his back a bit! Wrapping toddlers can require just the right wrap qualities so my hard work doesn't get wrecked!

Soft. Despite the toddler-worthiness, BE is so so SO soft. When I touched it the first time, my mind definitely went - oh wow that's soft. And its not just the white side, which is typical and I practically expect some sort of tactile contrast between the two sides anymore, I'm so used to it. But BE is as different as the diversity it celebrates - BOTH sides are incredibly soft. I know the DBG people just received this right before the shoot so it probably only got a wash and dry before I wrapped with it. Breaks in easy I guess! 

Everything else. BE's softness and glide contribute to its soapy feel. The cush factor is present for sure, with some nice bounce and recoil from the stretch. It is a pleasure to pull passes across one another between the soapy glide and feedback of the recoil. Finally, we've got great moldability here and nice medium thickness. I didn't get a GSM and I haven't asked but I'm guessing around 280, not over 300. 

BE is a well-deserved piece of fabric to be the official wrap of 2018's International Babywearing Conference. The pattern certainly won over the conference judges, but the wrapping qualities will win over us all. I hope to see you in Des Moines this summer!!