Tula or Lenny Lamb?

One of the babywearing question i always get asked is “Do u like Tula or Lenny Lamb better?”

To be honest, you won’t know which one u’ll prefer unless you’ve tried it on.

Here’s a comparison between the Tula and the Lenny Lamb.
Both are Standard Size and Wrap Conversions in this case.

Left: Lenny Lamb (Charlotte)
Right: Tula WC (Berry Sweet)

Sizing: 
From here, it does look like they are of the same size but in actual fact, the Tula is bigger. Lenny Lamb has this curved side cutting that makes the panel slimmer than the Tula, which has a straight side panel. Also the panel for Tula is slightly higher than LL cos Tula top panel curves upwards while LL Top Panel is straight.

This picture would be good to see how the sides differ and those few cm really makes a lot of difference! Especially if your baby is quite young. Say between 4-6 months.

Sleeping Hood: 
Lenny Lamb comes with an attached hoodie which don’t offer much coverage if your baby gets easily distracted by noise / need a dim environment to sleep. The hood is not detachable though. But the hood is breathable.

Tula, on the other hand comes with a detachable flat hood and provides awesome coverage if you wanna hide your baby. To be honest, i’m not impressed with their canvas hood cos it’s quite thick and Nadya is a sweaty girl. If i put on the hood on her, she’ll sweat in no time. So i usually try to do without it or have a hood that’s made out of cotton instead.

We honestly don’t use the hood that much, be it LL or Tula cos Nadya falls asleep easily. I only use it if she’s refusing sleep. She’ll sleep after that cos no more distraction.

Waistband:
Lenny Lamb has a wider waist band and it is exceptionally good if you have excess pregnant tummy. Like me. hurhurhur.
It’ll cover up the entire tummy area, so magic! This is one of the reason why i love the LL. Not to mention, LL waistband is really soft and bendable, cos it’s of Wrap material, so when you sit down, you don’t feel like the waistband is poking you.

If there’s one thing i don’t like about the Tula, it’s the waistband. I find it too thick & stiff. and because it’s not as wide, it kinda make my tummy looks squashed. Hahaha.

Shoulder Strap: 
Between LL & Tula, the latter has a thicker shoulder pad and it’s actually more comfortable if you’re planning to shop all day with a baby carrier. I rarely feel shoulder pain with the Tula but if i use the LL for the entire day, i’ll feel a slight shoulder ache. But thicker straps means you’ll look bulkier. But i don’t care about that cos i’m already bulky. Muahahahaha. I’m so funny.

Leg Paddings: 
Lenny Lamb has no leg padding. It is non-existent guys.
Tula has an awesome leg padding that is so padded, Nadya approves!

Safety Lock: 
Lenny Lamb waist lock has an extra safety feature which is super good if you have a Toddler who might suka hati mak dia (which is you!) just unclip that lock and then whoooosssh, u know what happens next. Actually it is one of my concern when i use the SSC. That and also falling down flat on my face while babywearing. Issssh… Why am i even talking about it. Mintak jauh kan seh. I rather fall on my butt. Or actually jangan jatuh lah. Jalan betul-betul.

Tula don’t have this safety feature for their lock so anyone can just come up from behind and unlock it. Although you can slot it thru this rubber band thing, but still not as safe as the LL one.

The LL one is so hard to unlock, there was one time i was carrying Nadya in my arms, going thru customs check and i left the LL hanging on my waist (cos pemalas nak bukak) and the kakak customs want me to open the LL ah. So i taught her how to. She fiddled with it so long, i give up seh. I waited for Rusly to be done with Custom checks and hand over Nadya to him instead. So the moral of the story is, remove your carrier if you don’t have a baby in it when you’re going thru custom check. But if you have a baby in it, they don’t care.

So yes, LL is more safe but that also means transferring a sleeping baby to the cot is harder with the LL when you’re alone. Cos u can’t open the lock with one hand. By transferring, i mean you unlock your carrier with one hand, hold baby in one hand and let her sleep with the carrier on her back in the cot. Pening tak? Takpe, you’ll understand soon why it’s important not to wake a sleeping baby in a carrier. Lol. And you’ll thank Tula for having a lock yang senang bukak.

But you’ll thank Lenny Lamb for having a safety feature on their locks the next time someone tries to unlock it from behind. Choi choi.

Pockets: 
Lenny lamb got no waist pocket. No need to talk so much k.
Tula got a waist pocket that you can fit in your Ezlink Card or your Nokia 8210. Hahahahaha. ok honestly, the pocket is so small, i don’t even put anything in it. I can probably fit in my iphone 6 in it or my keys. But my tummy so bulky already, why do i need to add in more bulk kan?

Affordability: 
Ok this is really very subjective. I always feel that everyone’s an adult and can make good financial decision on whether something is affordable for the family or not. I’m not gonna lie and say these are cheap cos i know other SSC, like Ergo can be quite cheap if you get them during sale etc.

Lenny Lamb – All Lenny Lamb carriers are wrap conversion, mostly from Cotton / Bamboo weave and wrap conversions are really comfortable!
The Standard size usually retail from $195 – $230. But Limited Edition ones, like the Charlotte featured here can go up to $310.00. You can get your Lenny Lambs locally from Fluffmail.

Tula – Tula have two options. The standard Canvas material or a wrap Conversion. Tula canvas can be found quite easily and there’s quite a few local retailers here.
They retail for $229.00 locally.

The wrap conversion is like the one i’ve featured here. This is similar to Lenny Lamb material but they retail for between $430.00 – $500.00 for a Full Wrap Conversion. Which means everything is wrap material. However, wrap conversions are not easy to score because of the availability and they’re only available at Tula Website. Most of the time, you have to buy it from people who managed to score it and it’s really a dirty thing lah all this resell and all cos they’ll jack up the price so high till US$800.00 & all and i personally won’t buy it if the price is way too high. The Berry Sweet i got was a good find. I got it very close to retail at US$350.00 which comes to S$500.00 after conversion and trust me, it really is a good deal cos someone was selling it at S$700.00 locally.

While i think S$500 is reasonable, some might balk at the idea of paying such money for a carrier. But to each her own, eh?

Now for the final overview.

Lenny Lamb – I love it because it’s affordable for a wrap conversion. It costs half of Tula’s WC and it’s really soft out of the box, especially the bamboo material. I love the waistband and the slim fit design is exceptionally good for younger babies. If you have a 3mth old and you want to start on a SSC without an infant insert, i say start with the LL cos Nadya fit into it at 3.5 mths and she’s in a knee to knee position. Nadya is now turning 10mths and we’re still comfortable with it. She still have lotsa room to grow into it so i foresee us using it wayyyy past her 1st birthday definitely and i don’t think we’ll move to Toddler that soon cos the Toddler size is really huge.

Tula – Nadya could only fit in the Tula ergonomically, without an infant insert, at 6 months. We bought the infant insert but it was too bulky, too hot for my sweaty baby, which was why i bought the Lenny Lamb to use until she can fit in the Tula. If you really need to put your baby in the Tula, please make sure u use the infant insert and don’t use the rolled towel method pls. It is not safe because the towel might shift and your baby might be uncomfortable. If u’re not comfortable using the infant insert, then wait till your baby can really fit into it please. No rush really.

And people always think that oh.. my baby is already 6kg, she’ll fit in the Tula. Honestly, it’s not about how heavy your baby is but how tall your baby is. The Tula panel is really huge. If the baby is not tall enough, you’ll just drown the baby in the canvas. Really kesian to watch. I think the Caucasian babies tend to fit into it faster, cos they’re of bigger built than our cute nak mampos Asian babies. So yes.

For Tula, it’s really a hit & miss for their canvas. Some of it can be quite soft and some really stiff. So i only kept 2 of their Canvas and my favourite one is this one called Charming.

Yes i know the print is unconventional but it is so me and Rusly. I love this one a lot and foresee us keeping it the longest. I was on #buyallthetula craze for awhile until one day i woke up, took pictures of the remaining Tula i have and sold them away. Thankfully, for Tula, the resale value is quite high. So i didn’t make much losses.

However, i don’t think i’ll get another Canvas unless i realllllly like the print. Cos i think Tula WC are the bomb. Yes it is expensive but it’s worth the money. It’s soft just like the LL but i find them more supportive than LL. Now that Nadya is bigger & heavier, i find that weight is evenly distributed when i use her in the Tula.

I usually reserve the Tula Canvas for long walks and Lenny Lamb for crazy hot days. With the Tula WC, i can use it anytime. Cos it’s supportive and not as hot as the Canvas.

So if you would still like to know which one i prefer right now, it has to be Tula WC. But if between Lenny Lamb & the Tula Canvas, i prefer Lenny Lamb. But that’s just me. Like i said, you really gotta try on both to see which one u prefer.

If in case you stay near the west area, or you’re willing to come over my place, i’ll gladly let you try them on before u make your purchase. If these don’t fit you well, there’s always other brands to try like Fidella & Kokadi (These are also wrap conversions) or Canvas SSC like Ergo / Manduca.

Some links to help you are these Chat Groups on Facebook.
Babywearing Singapore 
Singapore Tula Love 
Singapore Lenny Lamb 

If you’re interested to get your 1st carrier, you can try these links:
SG Babywearing Swap & Library (You can find new or used carriers by mummies here)
Fluffmail (my favourite vendor for Lenny Lambs)
Baby Slings & Carrier (They sell lots of Carriers and you can pay a small fee to try out the carriers)
Bumwear (They sell and let you try on Tula)

Now go carry your baby!