This Designer Tree Swing Is Totally Worth the Price

Welcome to Cubby ❤️, our series where we share the awesome parent-approved products we personally use and recommend 100%.

I will confess I felt a bit silly admitting I spent $165 for a tree swing, when my sister and her husband got theirs for free by drilling a hole into a board and rigging it up with some rope they already had. But one year after buying this spendy swing, I have no regrets about my purchase. Here’s why.

I first spotted Tupelo’s Zephyr Flyer in a dreamy project by TerreMoto, a way-cool West Coast landscape design firm. While I didn’t have the budget to hire TerreMoto or the time to try to recreate their amazing design, I could buy the tree swing they’d installed as part of the project. 

At $165, the swing was very expensive, and I hesitated to go forward with the purchase, but as I researched other options I realized the Zephyr Flyer wasn’t that expensive, and it was a lot better-looking than most other swings I was finding on the marketplace. I decided to go for it. (What can I say? I am a sucker for anything design-y.)

When the Zephyr Flyer arrived I was impressed with the quality: Yes, the swing itself is made of plastic, but it is substantial and well-made. The hardware for hanging is sturdy and simple and inspires confidence that it really will hold the 250 pounds it promises to support. Rigging our swing required the help of the guy who trims our trees, but if you have a low branch, the setup is so easy. 

Most importantly, my son loved it. The first day we had it, he swung for hours and even asked for one last swing after dinner (even though he was already in his pajamas). That love wasn’t just the joy of something new: The Zephyr Flyer continues to be something that he wants to play with, and it still looks brand new.

The reviews on the brand’s site suggest that I am not alone in my love of the swing; it gets mostly five star reviews. Funnily, it seems that many of the reviews are from grandparents. (Maybe this is because grandparents have more time to leave reviews than parents, but I can’t help wondering if us parents should take notice that our elders are willing to invest in something that is easy to install and easy on the eyes?)

Even though the swing was a hit with my kid, I’ll confess I still felt a bit of a nagging feeling I’d paid too much until two recent events convinced me that my purchase was worth its high price tag. The first was pushing my niece and nephew on their simple wood swing I mentioned earlier. Yes, it was fun, but pushing the homemade swing was way more challenging than pushing the Zephyr Flyer and, as a result, the swing was much more likely to angle off wildly in a direction I had not intended. Additionally, at one point my nephew yelled for me to help him stop swinging because the rope was rubbing him uncomfortably in a very sensitive area — a problem we’ve never had with the fancy-schmancy swing. If you have the extra money to spend, I can say for sure that the Zephyr Flyer delivers a superior tree-swinging experience.

The second event that earned the Zephyr my full seal of approval was a visit from some preteen girls to our home. These girls are at the age when they’d rather text their friends or look at a phone than actually play. However, as soon as they caught sight of the bright yellow swing dangling in our yard they were out the door fighting over who got to swing first. As it turns out, I am not the only one who is persuaded by good design!

This post was originally published in May 2023.