Umbrella

Humbra presents a lighter, more versatile vehicle awning solution with its new Firefly. Instead of hard-mounting to the roof, this awning packs up and travels in the vehicle, setting up in 90 seconds on the hitch or carrying out for ground setup.

​Umbrellas are designed to help shield us from a downpour, but if rain is accompanied by whirling winds, they can let us down. Hedgehog launched an umbrella designed to resist windy weather in 2015, and has returned with the 2nd gen Carbon, that can withstand hurricane level windspeeds.​

Using a poncho is one alternative to a full-body cycling rain suit, but German inventor Thomas Schmidt has come up with another … it's a bicycle-mounted umbrella that you stick your head through.​

​If a device has a companion app that gives weather forecasts, then that means the device itself doesn't predict the weather. Nonetheless, we have seen a few app-accompanied products that make such claims. The TARAbrella, however, is different. It's an umbrella that tells you if it's going to rain.​

Thanks to inbuilt sensors, the oombrella predicts when it’s going to rain, alerts you when you’ve left it behind, and has a Kevlar frame to keep it from collapsing in high winds.

The RainBender umbrella tackles the wet brolly problem with an inside-out design where instead of folding, the canopy vanishes inside its own handle.

You'd think having weather apps on our phones would mean we'd always be prepared, but we still forget to check them. The Raincheck umbrella stand removes the need to check the weather. It shows users whether they need to take a brolly out with them as they leave the house.

We all get caught in downpours without an umbrella every now and then. For students at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, however, that will no longer be a problem. A kiosk from a new firm called UmbraCity is offering automated umbrella loans that are free for 48 hours.

The Cypress may be the last and best umbrella you'll ever own. Its telescopic suspension system is designed to be stronger, durable, and more resistant to flipping inside-out.

As invaluable as the umbrella can be during a downpour on the city street, it can turn into an absolute burden the instant you step inside. The Kjaro umbrella uses a self-draining case to prevent that hassle, giving you a small, neat package that's easy to carry.

Umbrellas never seem to be around when you need them and even if you do have one in hand when the rain starts to fall, they can often be a struggle to put up. The motorized, push button-operated, weather-sensing Haz Umbrella is designed to tackle these issues.

There are numerous umbrellas that claim to solve one or more problems of the traditional design. The Rainshader, for example, is meant to be windproof, while the Sa bounces back from being blown inside out. The new Kazbrella, meanwhile, is said to eliminate drips and fold away less awkwardly.