At JFB L.O.V.E stands for Living On Vacation Everyday. For many a vacation means time at the beach. This picture was taken last month at Oak Island by Michael Boswell. The blue and turquoise items are called Shibumi Shades. They are kind of like a cross between a tent and an umbrella.
They were invented in 2016 by three University of North Carolina grads. Brothers Dane and Scott Barnes, along with their best friend Alex Slater were tired of lugging clunky tents to the beach, and they never felt like umbrella’s gave them that much protection from the sun. So rigged a prototype in 2015 of a light weight material with a crescent shaped top that could be installed by thrusting PVC pipe into the sand.
The program hit the market the following year. They trio sold 32 units in 2016. In 2017 they sold 178 units, followed by more than 2,000 in 2018. Exact sales numbers thereafter aren’t clear, but Shibumi recently disclosed it has sold more than 300,000 total units in the last eight years.
Up until now the Shibumi has only come in one color design, a blue and turquoise scheme. A pink-and-orange shade will be available for order through shibumishade.com.
Three North Carolina founders were profiled last week in an article in Forbes.
Even though their adventure is now taking off Dane Barnes told Forbes, that their intent wasn’t to get rich. “It wasn’t an attempt to even launch a business necessarily, We were really trying to solve this personal problem that we were having with typical beach gear umbrellas and tents blowing away.”
You can visit the official Shibumi site here.