Folding umbrella. The pain of folding it is very real and so is its impact on the umbrella. It is said that the number of umbrellas ditched each year is enough to build 25 Eiffel Towers. 25! If you do not want to be part of umbrellas of Eiffel Towers, then perhaps you want to use the VERYKAL from Japanese veteran umbrella maker, Amvel Inc.
Billed as the last umbrella you will ever need, VERYKAL is also the world’s lightest automatic folding umbrella, tipping the scales at mere 162g, or 5.7 oz. That’s just half the weight of a typical umbrella and lighter than an iPhone 11. I imagine you will not even feel that it is there.
The VERYKAL is like the Porsche of umbrellas. It has a folding frame made of carbon fiber and an easy dry, water repelling, thin and light fabric woven with 15 denier thread. The umbrella engineering ingenuity and Japanese attention to details not only made it the lightest umbrella in the world, but also super strong. Amvel Inc. said VERYKAL has proven to be able to withstand wind speeds of 12 miles per second (10 km per second).
Theoretically, it should be able to hurricane – that’s provided that you haven’t got swept away first. Finally, VERYKAL not only touts auto opening at a press of a button; it also collapses at a press of a button.
However, such advanced umbrella does not come cheap. Expect to shell out anything between 3,500-4,000 Yen (about US$33-38) for one on Kickstarter. Then again, considering that it will be the last umbrella you ever buy, it might be just be well worth the money.
All images courtesy of Amvel Inc. [JP].