Rockit was created in a shed a decade ago

A pair of Bristol entrepreneurs who invented a baby rocking device in a garden shed have now sold one million products.

Engineer Nick Webb came up with the idea for Rockit after becoming frustrated his three-month-old daughter would only sleep while her pushchair was moving.

So he took apart an old printer, salvaged the motor and soldered together a makeshift device that could gently rock a stationary buggy. After testing the device, he discovered it worked.

“She stayed asleep even when the pushchair stopped moving,” recalled Webb. “That was the moment I realised I might be onto something.”

Webb teamed up with his brother-in-law – a dad and former product design teacher – Matt Dyson to transform the initial prototype into a commercial product. Working part time they spent the next 18 months refining the idea and securing support from the Design Council before launching the Rockit Rocker in 2017.

The duo have since grown Rockit into a global brand, with the product selling in major retail outlets including John Lewis and JoJo Maman Bébé. Today, Rockit products are also exported to more than 40 countries across Europe, North America, Australia and Asia.

Dyson said: “When we were developing the product, we didn’t dare dream it would become such a global success. After we launched, it was a couple of years before I spotted a Rockit ‘in the wild’. Now I have to pinch myself because every time I walk down the High Street I see several attached to pushchairs and prams.

“To think that something created by two ordinary dads in Bristol has now helped more than a million families around the world is pretty special.”

In 2022, Rockit received two Queen’s Awards for Enterprise, one of the UK’s highest business honours, with the founders invited to Buckingham Palace where they met Prince Charles.

“Meeting the future King was definitely one of our proudest moments,” said Dyson, “It was incredible to talk to him about the product and hear his interest in what we’d achieved.”

Rockit has since expanded its range with the launch of ZED, a vibration soother and nightlight; Wooshh, a small sound soother; and a rechargeable version of Rockit that hit the market in 2023.

In 2024, the business was named among the fastest-growing companies in the UK.

Despite its growth, Rockit remains “firmly rooted” in Bristol, according to its founders who say they are planning to expand the Rockit baby product range this month.