Scots entrepreneur designs baby carrier for dads – Daily Business

A Scottish entrepreneur, who built a fitness brand to more than £4 million in annual sales, has secured £400,000 for a baby carrier designed for dads.

Father-of-three Ben Leonard, from Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, has spent six years developing TUKO – believed to be the first ever carrier “precision-engineered” for dads – after becoming frustrated with conventional carriers following the birth of his first child.

Mr Leonard, who sold strength and conditioning brand Beast Gear in 2019, has invested a six-figure sum developing the product, working through more than 10 iterations alongside outdoor equipment designers, baby-carrying specialists and researchers.

The innovative concept has also attracted significant external backing, with TUKO securing nearly £400,000 from private investors – including several high-profile figures in the renewable energy sector particularly impressed by the product’s sustainability credentials – and a further £70,000 through Scottish EDGE.

The idea began to take shape after Leonard travelled around Italy with his wife Katie, a nurse and health visitor, and their five-month-old daughter more than six years ago. He constantly struggled with their carrier – experiencing discomfort and pain – and was shocked when he couldn’t find a more suitable product on the market anywhere. 

He said: “You can walk into an outdoor shop and find a properly engineered backpack for carrying a toddler, but for younger babies the products have traditionally been designed with mums in mind and then marketed to dads too. I couldn’t stop thinking about why nobody had properly solved this.”

TUKO has been developed around differences in the male torso, shoulders and pelvis. Designed to carry children aged four to 36 months, it includes a patent-pending hip belt engineered to transfer weight through the pelvis, shoulder straps tailored for the male frame, one-handed Fidlock magnetic buckles and accessible storage pockets. Other features include breathable air vents and a sunshade. 

“Men and women are built differently, but traditionally the answer to making a baby carrier appeal to dads has often been little more than making it black. We wanted to start again and ask what it would look and feel like if you engineered the product around a dad from day one.

“This has taken far longer than I expected, but you cannot cut corners with a product like this. We’ve tested, redesigned and tested again, working with experts on ergonomics, fit, positioning and safety.”

TUKO is initially launching in the UK, targeting direct online sales before expanding into independent baby and outdoor retailers, larger stores and marketplaces including Amazon.

The company is preparing a Kickstarter campaign ahead of the first carriers being shipped to customers in January 2027 – with one celebrity already on Mr Leonard’s gifting list.

In 2023 he was invited to be the warm-up speaker when Dragons’ Den star and Diary of a CEO host Steven Bartlett appeared before around 1,500 people at Aberdeen Music Hall.

He said: “I got 15 minutes before Steven came on, which was pretty daunting, but an amazing experience. I gave him a pair of custom boxing gloves afterwards and a copy of my book. The funny part was that he asked me to sign the book for him.

“He was incredibly generous with his time and a genuinely nice guy. So if Steven’s ever in the market for a baby carrier, I know exactly what I’ll be sending him.”

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