If you’re a parent, you’ve probably been told not to put your child in a car seat while wearing a bulky winter coat. I get it! This is one of the parenting rules we know to follow, but realistically it’s hard to enforce on a cold morning. It’s hard to get out of the house in the morning and it’s okay to ask the kids to take off their coats and sit in the freezing cold car.
The reason you shouldn’t wear large coats in your car is because your car’s seat straps need to be firmly secured along your shoulders and torso to work effectively. Bulky, fluffy, padded coats often have straps that are several inches away from the body, which can potentially knock your child out of the seat in the event of an emergency stop or crash.
To address this issue, Multimac has launched a new ‘Road Coat®’.
Some of you may already know that I have Multimac seats in my car. This is a very clever child seat that allows her to carry her three or four children in the back seat of a regular sized car.
New Road Coat®. It has an inner and outer layer, and the back side of the coat is very compressible. The collar also has a unique split that allows the seat belt to fit through the slit and inside the inner layer of the coat, ensuring a snug fit around the child’s body. The child can then tighten the outer layer of the coat over the seat belt so it is snug, warm and comfortable.
Our review of using Multimac’s Road Coat®
Let’s pretend that Alba isn’t biting Joseph’s arm in this photo. I thought this was a good photo because you can see that the boys don’t have their jackets cinched, but they fit snugly on the inside, but in Alba’s case they are cinched above the belt.
I think we can all agree that the Road Coat® is a great idea, and now that it’s a reality, it’s hard to believe it wasn’t invented sooner. I felt the same way about the Multimac seat. We solve these common problems in a very simple and effective way!
To be honest, I thought the Road Coat® would be a little tacky, but it wasn’t at all. The idea of ”slipping” a seatbelt through a slit in the collar seemed too taxing for my tired, uncaffeinated brain on a Monday morning school run. However, this was not the case. The seat belt automatically inserts into the collar, so no complicated operations are required.
Road Coat® allows boys to put on their seat belts on their own without help. Joseph just turned 5 and he’s just started buckling his own seatbelt, so you can see how easy it is. I always check to make sure they’re dressed properly, and both of us are very good at quickly zipping up our coats.
Alba is so easy to zip it up that she usually tries to zip up her outer coat herself, which keeps her busy during car trips!
Do the kids like the Road Coats?
I had another worry that my kids wouldn’t like the coat because we all know how unpredictable kids can be, but they love it.
There are several reasons why they love road coats:
- I love that the coat is so warm, comfortable and comfortable to wear
- They love the fleece lined pockets
- They like to “match match
- They love that their coats come with bags and they can pack their coats into their own special bags (honestly, this is their favorite thing to do). They love toys from all over the world. I just want to start packing and unpacking coats because I have them all!)
- They love that the coat has two zippers (which is so exciting!)
- They like being able to buckle up their seatbelts, so this is a big deal for the court and a big pro. My kids are so used to being buckled “snug” that they don’t like it when their seatbelts aren’t worn correctly. They all seem to like the peace of mind that their belts are wearing correctly.
- They like to “hide” their seatbelts by zipping up their jackets
What are the coats like?
We know that road coats are great from a safety standpoint, but what about them as everyday coats for kids?
I’m very happy to hear that you think it’s a wonderful coat!
In fact, my kids were sent new coats from Mountain Warehouse as part of a campaign I was working on in November. My sons loved Mountain Warehouse coats before road coats came out, and now Mountain Warehouse coats are history. They didn’t even think to wear it and I was told to give it to their younger cousin. They love the warmth and comfort of a road coat.
Alba still loves her Mountain Warehouse coat because it’s yellow (yellow is the only color she knows, so she’s obsessed!), but when her siblings are together, she always wears it. Choose to match.
From my point of view, I think it’s really practical and of great quality. Easy to wipe clean and machine washable. I’m sure it will be useful for many years, so I think it’s a valuable item that can be passed down from child to child.
It’s much thicker and warmer than my old coat, and has great details like a large hood, fleece pockets, and chunky zippers.
Final thoughts on the Multimac Road Coats
If you are looking for a safer alternative to regular coats, we highly recommend road coats. The coat retails at £69 + shipping, so it’s a little more expensive than the usual high street coats, but I think these are of better quality and could be easily passed on to younger children. Considering the safety features and quality, we feel it’s worth the extra money.
Since I use road coats, I get very concerned when my kids wear different coats in the car. Last week we had “Blue Day” where boys have to wear blue clothes at school, so George wore his old blue puffer coat and I really noticed the difference, and the fact that he wore I was well aware that I couldn’t strap it tightly when wearing that coat. He also noticed a difference and was happy to return to the road court the next day.
Joseph loves road coats so much that he refuses to wear anything but road coats. He likes the silver color of his coat and calls it his “alien coat.” We both love the warmth and the fact that we can unzip the outer layer when it gets hot, but still keep it zipped up so it doesn’t fall off our shoulders.
Multimac currently only stocks this silver-gray coat, which may not appeal to all children, so this could be a negative for some families there is.
Regarding the size, I think it’s true to size. Alba is petite (she just turned 2) and wears size 18 months. George is 6 years old (he’s almost 7) and wears age 6 and it fits perfectly. Joseph is a pretty big 5 year old (he just turned 5) and wears age 5 clothes.
