With a clean and simple design language, our products encourage and open up a whole universe of fun, where the only limitation is their own imagination. This is a play-philosophy we base all our products on, and it’s one that we’ve stayed true to since the birth of our company.
We want to give everyone a happy childhood, but we want to give everyone a bright-looking future too. So, all of our wooden toys are made from traceable wood coming from responsibly managed forests.
From 2014, one hundred percent of our wooden toys are made from FSC® certified wood. The FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) is a non-profit organisation that safeguards, monitors and encourages sustainable forest management. This certification means that all wood used in our products is traceable and that it originates from responsibly managed forests. In addition, the certification also guarantees that the raw materials come from legal logging sources.
Our company is focused on seeing children develop through play, but they should be able to do so in a world where we have taken responsibility for a sustainable future.
Read more about FSC under Our responsibility
Through play, growing bodies and brains get all the stimulation they need to develop. That’s why all our toys are designed to support each stage of a child’s development.
From learning to sit to taking those first wobbly steps – every new skill takes lots of practice for children to master. And each skill usually develops during specific time periods; we call them developmental milestones. It’s these developmental milestones we base our toys on.
A baby’s vision isn’t fully developed at birth, so it can only see objects within 8-12 inches away. That’s also why babies love the type of bright, contrasting colours we use in our products.
The same rule can be applied to sounds, since babies hearing is so sensitive, new sounds will spark both smiles and giggles. At about three months, babies will start using their hands to explore different objects. Putting things in their mouths is also something they love doing, allowing them to discover new tastes and textures.
At this age, babies will enjoy playing with objects within reach; touching, feeling, and biting them. The shape and size of things become more interesting too. Tiny object will be visually clearer and fun to pick up.
From 9 to 12 months, babies become extremely curios about their surroundings – slamming things together to create sounds. This is also an age where babies fine motor skills are getting more refined, and where they enjoy using their thumb and index finger to pick up small objects.
Children’s motor skills have developed greatly at the age of 2. The ability to focus has increased, so naturally they will discover lots of new ways to play. For instance, children this age like scribbling with crayons and dropping objects into buckets and bowls. Stacking toys that allows children to fit objects inside or on top of each other become very popular. And after the age of 18 months, simple shape sorters or puzzles can offer lots of fun too!
At this age, children’s hand-eye coordination becomes refined, and fine motor skills are improving through handling small objects. This is a period where children will play alongside each other, but cannot share toys or play actively together. Since their hand coordination is at a pretty high level, children this age like to help out in the kitchen; scrubbing vegetables, snapping peas, tearing salad, and peeling bananas. Cutting with safety scissors is also fun.
This is also a period when children’s imagination truly blossoms, and where they’ll start enjoying all types of pretend play: such as “playing house” with imaginary friends, dolls and stuffed animals.
During the age of four, problem-solving and creative play becomes more important. Gross motor skills have improved too, and skipping, running and jumping has never been more fun.
Children become very affectionate at this age too, especially towards parents. Strong feelings of empathy will develop, and when playing with other children being able to share and take turns happens more naturally too.
At this stage play becomes richer, and children’s social skills are developing rapidly. As a result, playing with friends is more fun than ever. Activities such as painting with a brush and staying inside the lines challenge their fine motor skills, and many children will enjoy play that gives them freedom to build and construct.
5-year olds take great pride in different accomplishments and love encouragement along the way. But then again, don’t we all?
We just turned 130, yet we feel more vital than ever. And that’s a good thing when working with toys. Because just as play develops children, play has developed us as a company. Giving us decades of knowledge that goes into every product we make.
Numerous studies emphasise the importance of play, especially unstructured, free play. For babies and toddlers, play has the role of strengthening the body and stimulating the brain. As children get older, play increases their ability to see things from different perspectives and it encourages original thinking.
At BRIO, we want to draw attention to the role of play in the development and creativity of both children and adults. In 2013 we awarded the Cambridge researcher Dr. David Whitebread for his report ‘The importance of Play´, which focuses on children’s need to play freely in order to grow and thrive as people. The study stresses that all types of play are beneficial, and that children need to experience a variety of play activities.
Because belief in free play has always been the cornerstone of our company’s philosophy. It’s what we’ve always based our products on.And with every new pull-toy we design and railroad we sell, we will continue to honour the importance of play and celebrate the creative child within all of us.
It’s just a cute toy, right? Actually, there’s lot of stuff hiding behind this Dachshund’s innocent appearance, making sure children and parents can trust him no matter what.
Call us control-freaks, but we actually test our toys against tougher standards than the law demands. To be exact, we test our toys up to 25% more than the law demands. For example, when it comes to mechanical safety assessments we use greater heights when carrying out drop tests and use greater pressure than required when performing load tests.
The simple, rounded shapes of our toys stem from our original production methods, when we created the different parts using band saws and lathes. The result is a design language that has a natural and playful tone to it with shapes that children love and recognise – encouraging them to explore the world in a way that’s fun, safe and gentle.
Our Dachshund comes with plastic ears. This has nothing to do with us trying to pinch pennies. It’s because we know that all beloved toys will occasionally be exposed to different kinds of play adventures, and as a result will fall from stairs and crash into walls. To be on the safe side, we use plastic on smaller, more exposed areas since it’s a material that handles bangs and knocks better than wood.
Toys get knocked around quite a bit. That’s why we make our wooden toys out of beech. Beech is super dense and highly durable, and comes with a strong, smooth surface that’s extra suitable for the tough love of children. In addition, beech isn’t endangered and gets replanted, which are two factors that are important to us.
Children love to put things in their mouths, it’s simply part of their development. So naturally, we test our paint against the highest safety standards and only work with non-toxic colours that are free from metals and phthalates.
Another benefit of these colours is that they age beautifully – making them perfect playmates for future generations too.
Red, yellow, blue, green, black and white are the first colours children learn to recognize. As a result, we also choose to base our products on these colours, making them even more educational.
All our metal parts are tested against strict quality demands, making sure they won’t detach from the toy and put children in danger. This testing also includes smudging and substance remnants that potentially could be dangerous. In 2011, technology made it possible to reduce potential nickel found in metal. As a result, we decided to change all metal parts used in our toys going forward.
We’re not fond of bragging, but our toys have won numerous awards over the years. And since the 1940s, we’ve also been Purveyors to the Swedish Royal Court.
Smart Engine Set with Action Tunnels 33873
Sensory Blocks 30436
Ball Pounder 30519
Sensory Blocks 30436
Smart Engine Set with Action Tunnels 33873
Stacking Clown 33708
My First Railway Light up Wagon 33708
Stacking Clown 33708
My First Railway Light up Wagon 33708
My First Railway Battery Operated Train Set 33710
Farm Railway Set 33719
Family House 33941
Countryside Horse set 33790
Remote Control Travel Train 33510Family House 33941
Remote Control Travel Train 33510
My First Railway Battery Operated Train Set 33710
Rattle Kit 30422
BRIO Musical Drum 30181
Roller Coaster Set 33730
Monorail Airport Set (33301) reached the final in the preschool group. The judges commended BRIO Monorail’s compatibility with all railway tracks and trains.
The longest wooden railway layout made in Germany, together with Siemens
Builder Helicopter 34564
BRIO SIT high chair, scored highest rate among the 10 most popular high chairs in a test conducted by Testfakta.
Builder Helicopter 34564
BRIO Happy Superior pram was tested Best in Test in a pram test conducted by Amelia Vänta barn magazine
Builder Steam Engine 34565, in the category ”Playing and engineering”
Railway Metro Set 33513
Classic Figure 8 Set 33028
Metro Railway Set 33513
Rail & Road Travel Set 33209
Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Railway, for innovation and quality
Visual identity, Swedish Association of Communication Agencies
Merchandise material
Spin & Wobble, product design
Building Blocks 30156
The BRIO headquarter wins the Golden Chair award for Best Interior Design by Swedish Association of Architects. Architectural firm Urban Design.
Network Set & Accessories. För unik innovativt sortiment, utdelat av Rightstart Magazine
Network Set & Accessories. Vinnare av “Mini World Category”,utdelat av Rightstart Magazine
TOP 10 Spielzeug
Getting fancy awards is nice of course. But knowing that children love to play with our toys, and that our products are part of shaping happy childhood memories – this is what triggers us is our daily work.
