Hacker News Reader

From the comments there seems to be negative sentiment towards this product. I believe it is a great endeavor and I would have funded the prototype and development entirely. The reason is not so much that it could be much more efficient than the current one, but that someone thinks he can improve something that most people have thought to be the solution for so many years. It takes guts, and observation to ask "is this the best we can do?"

View on HN

We could also try using square wheels again... just to make sure we didn't miss anything the first invention-cycle.

There's a reason the umbrella has stayed practically the same all these years...

I've been directing creative brainstorms for many years, and reconsidering things we take for granted, like square wheels, is exactly what we do to trigger new ideas and solutions to problems.

One thing that has changed between earlier umbrella designs and now is that high-precision manufacturing is now cheaper.

My main problem with this umbrella design is just that it's longer than I like. I prefer compact umbrellas.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com