Hailing from the west coast of Canada, in the rainy city of Vancouver; we like many others were frustrated by the endless cycle of broken umbrella after broken umbrella. While living in a city that rains 9 months of the year; we went through countless umbrellas breaking them in every single way possible. Whether it was due to poor quality construction, weak hinged joints or even from flipping inside out from the wind; every single umbrella we used ended with the exact same fate.
Considering umbrellas have existed for thousands of years, the everyday umbrella has seen little to no change. The umbrella is still treated to this day as a disposable item contributing to our landfills such that this accounts to over 1 billion umbrellas broken every single year!
● ENOUGH METAL WASTE TO BUILD 25 EIFFEL TOWERS
● ENOUGH POLYESTER WASTE TO COVER NEW YORK CITY
We simply couldn’t fathom why there has been no solution for a durable umbrella. As automotive engineers, we’ve designed and built cars emphasizing on performance and reliability. The everyday car has been optimized to run for decades whereas the everyday umbrella can barely last beyond a season. That’s when we decided to apply the same principles and design philosophy we use in building cars into redefining the everyday umbrella.
We listed every feature that we liked amongst current umbrellas and everything we would want in ours. Going back to basic engineering principles and leveraging automotive design processes, we defined a new architecture, new mechanisms and improved product life. We had to redesign almost every single component. In the end, aside from making the strongest umbrella, we believe we have created the most versatile umbrella. An umbrella with a fully carbon fiber architecture, interchangeable canopy capability, and an automotive inspired suspension system to combat even the most chaotic winds. Truly a product proud enough to declare the last umbrella you will ever buy!