The gb Pockit Stroller Review: Best Travel Stroller Hands-Down
If you take only one thing away from my gb Pockit stroller review, let it be this: this little stroller will revolutionize the way you travel with little kids.
By far, the most difficult part of traveling with a little one is the amount of stuff that babies and toddlers seem to require.
While we've streamlined the process over having 2 kids and dozens of trips, taking them anywhere requires me to haul around their suitcases, their travel sleep cots, and them (of course!)
It’s the actual kid-maneuvering that we’re going to focus on here.
We went from a bulky standard Graco stroller in our first year with our older child to the gb Pockit, which is so small that it can be folded to use as a carry-on for airplanes.
This post originally was sponsored by GBChildUsa. I received the original gb Pockit travel stroller to facilitate my review. Since then, I have purchased a second gb Pockit stroller with my own money because we love it so much!
This post contains affiliates; if you choose to purchase through one of these links, I will receive a small commission at no additional charge to you.
Sleeping in the gb Pockit at Great Wolf Lodge, Charlotte, NC, 2017
All smiles in Breckenridge, Colorado, 2017
Easy, Sturdy and Compact Family Travel Stroller
Thanks to the gb Pockit stroller, I've found another way to get that pile of stuff even smaller.
Before I received the original stroller several years ago, we had three options when we were traveling:
take her large but accommodating and easy to steer Graco stroller,
her unwieldy but prepared-for-anything jogging stroller with all-terrain wheels, or
the small but flimsy cheap umbrella stroller.
It wasn't an easy choice, and it seemed as if my husband and I were never fully happy no matter which one was selected to come along for the ride.
Before I was chosen to work with gb Pockit for this campaign, I'd seen a video going around Facebook of this super cool stroller that was tiny when it was folded up.
I remember thinking, "That's a cool concept, but I'm sure we'll never have one since it's probably a prototype."
Imagine my surprise when that exact stroller showed up on my doorstep just a few weeks later--and in a box that was about the size of your standard boot box from the shoe store.
When my husband saw the box, he assumed that I had ordered some sort of stroller accessory since it was so small. When we opened the box and saw this impossibly configured stroller folded up, I think we were both wondering if this was for real.
Who needs a stroller check when you can just fold it up and take it to the table with you?!
In the 6 years that I've had our 2 gb Pockit strollers, I've put the original model through anything you can imagine.
NOTE: the only reason we got rid of the first one was because my sister had a baby just as my older child was growing out of the stroller, so we gave it to her. When we found out we were expecting our son, we immediately bought a second gb Pockit stroller for ourselves!
We've traversed downtown Charleston and all of the cobblestone streets and broken sidewalks that come with that territory.
It also went on our 10 day Germany road trip with us, where it was put through the ringer on a total of 7 planes and through all of the cobblestone streets of places like Rothenburg ob der Tauber.
We’ve used it at the football stadium at Clemson University and the fields around it for tailgating at the spring football game.
We took the gbPockit stroller all over the American West on our Las Vegas to Denver road trip, and it has been a staple of every family beach vacation we’ve taken in 6 years.
Here's what I've found after field testing it!
gbPockit vs. Umbrella Stroller
You might be thinking, “Why should I spend the extra money on a gbPockit when I can grab a $25 umbrella stroller from Walmart?”
Y’all, I’ve had those umbrella strollers, and I know the appeal. They are small, foldable, and come in cute colors.
Universal Studios, Orlando, Florida, 2021
Snack time at Epcot, Orlando, Florida, 2018
Folding ability
But the umbrella strollers are also a pain in the butt to fold up. I once had to stop in a theme park to help a dad figure out how to get his umbrella stroller unjammed and folded, and we struggled mightily.
The gbPockit literally collapses with the push of the two buttons on the back of the handles. I’ve never had an issue with it getting stuck or jammed. It just works.
Compactness
Even when the umbrella stroller is fully collapsed, it still takes up more room than necessary since it only folds down one way. This translates to more bulk that is necessary.
The gbPockit folds down from side-to-side and top-to-bottom so that the end result is a small square of folded stroller. This can then be placed on the floorboard of your car, tucked away in your trunk, or held on your lap when riding a tram or train.
Price vs. Sturdiness
If you plan on purchasing an umbrella stroller to use once, you might be okay with it. (Still don’t do that as it seems wasteful.)
However, I can tell you from experience that an umbrella stroller is not made to be a long-term stroller investment. We’ve had umbrella strollers stop popping up and down after a few uses. We’ve had umbrella stroller wheels abruptly stop working—and one of the wheels even shredded apart.
As with many things, I feel that this is a get-what-you-pay-for situation. The gbPockit is similar to an umbrella stroller thanks to its lightweight frame and foldability, but the overall quality of the gbPockit blows a standard umbrella stroller out of the water.
Why the gbPockit is the Best Air Travel Stroller
The stroller is highly compact.
It really is so small when it's folded up!
I've got a large backpack that I could put it into if we were out in a big city and wanted it out of the way.
When we took both of our small kids on a Las Vegas to Denver road trip when they were 4 years old and 6 months old, this stroller was my husband’s carry-on.
It was so nice having it at the ready the moment we stepped off of the plane.
If you’d like to have something that makes carrying the folded stroller around even easier, this lightweight backpack is designed specifically for the gb Pockit.
This backpack gives you even more options for taking the stroller on planes, trains, and subways while also offering up extra storage for wipes, snacks, and small toys.
It is a lightweight travel stroller.
A stroller that folds up and stores into a backpack isn't much help if it's still heavy!
Thankfully, the stroller is also very lightweight at 9.5 pounds.
Our other strollers—namely the full size Graco and the jogging stroller were both unwieldy and tough to get in and out of our car trunk.
The gb Pockit is so light that I can hang onto one of our kids while carrying the folded stroller under my other arm.
The handles are actually long enough for me!
My daughter pushing my son with the handles on the shorter level
Orlando, Florida, 2022
There is nothing more that I hate on a stroller than tiny handles that cause me to hunch over (ahem, I'm looking at you, umbrella stroller).
At 5’7”, I’m certainly not the tallest person out there, but that few extra inches of height over most moms often puts me a situation where the stroller height and I don’t mix.
These are nice and tall so that I never feel as if I'm having to do my best Hobbit impression in order to get a good grip on my stroller.
Plus, there are 2 settings on the handles so that shorter people like my mom—or even my 8 year old!—can now push our younger child in the stroller.
The gbPockit is great for a wide range of ages.
Since it holds kids from 6 months to around 55 pounds, you could use this stroller for a long time.
At the Polynesian Resort, Walt Disney World, Florida, 2017
Getting sleepy in Savannah, Georgia, 2022
When we first received the original gbPockit, my then-3-year-old weighed in around 35 pounds. The first stroller lasted through my rambunctious daughter’s toddler years, and is still going strong with my 2 young nieces over at my sister’s house.
The second one we purchased has been in heavy rotation with both of my children since 2018 even with my not-so-gentle children using it.
As of updating this gbPockit review in 2024, our 6 year old is the one who uses it now, and it has stood up well to his constant use.
Even our 9 year old has tried to take a spin in it from time to time, and the stroller holds up to that abuse! (She’s nearly 4’9” and is at the end of her time in the stroller, which makes her pretty upset.)
I can safely say that you’ll get many years of use out of yours even if your kids are as tough on products as mine are.
The stroller is easy to push.
As I mentioned earlier, we’ve pushed this stroller all over the place in the time that we've had both of them, and it moves like a dream on any flat surface (dirt, not so much).
You can choose to have the front wheels static or in swivel mode, which allows for more flexibility.
We keep it in swivel mode all of the time as I find that allows for complete range of movement. I often travel solo with both kids, so I can be found pushing the stroller with one hand while holding a drink or my other child’s hand.
While you do have to pay attention to the stroller to drive it one handed, it’s definitely possible and fairly easy to do so.
There’s also a small foot break on the back of the wheels for stability if you don’t want the stroller going anywhere. When it is time to move, the breaks are easy to flip.
Enjoying McClellanville's Jeremy Creek at sunset
Cons of the gb Pockit Travel Stroller
Practice makes perfect.
I won’t lie: when we got our first gbPockit stroller, I popped it up without any trouble, but it took me more time than I’d like to admit to figure out how to fold everything back in place when I collapsed it.
After putting the stroller up and down hundreds of times since then, I’ve pinpointed the issue. When we collapse the stroller, the back wheels sometimes don't stay where they're supposed to, which causes issues when we're trying to fold it down.
It would be helpful to have a way to lock the wheels into the folding position to avoid this.
The stroller still ends up collapsing and folding down even with this issue, but you need to be aware of it, so you can position the wheels just right.
Otherwise, the stroller will collapse and fold as it should, but you will struggle to hook the latch that allows the entire folded bundle to stay together.
Minimalist packing options
The basket underneath isn't very big compared to the ones underneath our Graco full-sized stroller and our running stroller.
However, I don't feel like I can complain about this too much since it is such a compact stroller.
Just know that you'll probably have to carry an extra bag if you need lots of extra clothes, diapers, etc.
I will also note that we have taken this stroller to Walt Disney World at least half a dozen times, and I have managed to use the basket to carry extra snacks, sweatshirts, and juice boxes for the kids.
The basket will hold stuff, just not as much as a standard stroller basket.
Full hands, full heart?
Since the gb Pockit is aiming to be the best travel lightweight stroller on the market, the designers have greatly parsed down the accessories that come on it.
This means that parents don’t have any drink holders or key storage the way that our other full-sized strollers did.
While this lack of accessory space is fine when I’m running into Target, I tend to need a place for drinks and cups and other small items when we’re in a theme park or out on a long day of sightseeing.
I’ve remedied this lack of drink tray with an after market accessory like this handy insulated drink and snack holder for strollers.
We’ve loved having that addition as it easily wraps around the gbPockit handles, keeps our drinks and snacks at hand, and quickly pops off when we have to go through security.
Fun in the sun
The sun shade is a great feature, but it seems like the fabric is a bit thin to hold up over time.
We managed to bust two pin sized holes in our sun canopy within the first few weeks of using it.
However, in all of the years since then, we haven’t made the holes any bigger nor have we made any new holes.
We’ve also wished on more than one occasion that the sun shade would swivel or dip down lower to keep odd angles of sun out of our kids’ faces.
I will note that a larger sunshade and a reclinable back section were additions to the newer gbPockit+ AllCity model (but it also comes with a bigger price tag, so there are pros and cons.)
All in all, this is now our go-to stroller for traveling, and it is such a cool piece of engineering, too.
We plan to use it until our second child doesn’t need it anymore, which is probably another year or two.
We've had several people stop and ask us about it when they've seen us folding it up in public.
They’ve been amazed that a stroller can fold up that small.
I love that the gb Pockit has filled a needed space in family travel niche for a stroller that works with parents-on-the go instead of being another source of stress.
It's definitely something that will start a conversation, and will allow you to go on more adventures with your little one!
If you want to add one to your kid's must-pack list, the gb Pockit stroller is available at most major retailers and online at Amazon.com.
