Flame Resistant Fabrics

Here’s a word about flame retardant standards at WAYB and our approach when we created the Pico travel car seat.

It started with our firstborn—Pico

When we set out to create the Pico travel car seat, we knew we wanted it to be light, safe, beautifully-designed, and responsibly-made with the environment in mind. In order to ensure the seat met Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards for Flammability of Interior Materials (FMVSS 302) while reducing the use of potentially harmful chemicals, we knew we had to innovate the materials we used.

This led us down a path of finding flame resistant fabrics that are not coated in flame retardant (FR) chemicals.

Our A-HA moment

Enter WAYB’s AstroKnit™ Performance Mesh: a proprietary performance fabric we use in the areas a child’s skin touches most—the seat, backrest, and headrest. AstroKnit mesh is a wool-polyester blend, and thanks to the flame resistant qualities of wool, it’s inherently flame resistant with no added chemicals.

In places where a more durable fabric was needed for the Pico—especially for those rough and tumble travel moments—we chose a polyester fabric that has a phosphorus flame retardant chemically bonded to the fiber during the polymerization process (called a reactive FR) rather than one applied after polymerization (called an additive FR). That makes it durable enough for travel (and your toddler) and helps it meet all federal flammability standards without the use of halogenated (brominated or chlorinated) flame retardants, while reducing the risk of chemicals migrating out of the material and onto your child.
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Our Mission

It’s important for us to share that the decisions we make, down to the threads, are guided by our values. Our mission is to never stop raising the bar on products that are safer, healthier, and responsibly-made. That’s the north star that guides our decision-making and inspires us to create beautiful products, designed with the environment in mind. 

About the Author: Before joining WAYB as its Smooth Sailing Chief, Tracy Liu spent six years in sustainability strategy at Disney and in environmental consulting. When she’s not busy with WAYB, she spends her time chasing her kids around (age 1 and 4) with her husband in Los Angeles, CA.