If you’re heading to the beach this weekend, you may be plagued by a common ailment: poorly designed beach umbrellas that are hard to set up, don’t provide much shade, get blown away at the first strong gust of wind, and break easily. Brothers Dane and Scott Burns and their best friend Alex Slater shared their frustrations while visiting their parents’ beach house in Emerald Isle, North Carolina. In 2016, they decided to solve it: They launched Shibumi, a fast-growing sunshade startup in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Currently, Shibumi says it has sold more than 300,000 shades since its founding, and sales have increased 75% year-over-year since 2019. Its signature product, the Classic Canopy, costs $275. Assuming all shades were sold at that price, cumulative sales would be $82.5 million. The founders say the company has been profitable since its first year in business.
Shibumi co-founders Dane Barnes, Scott Barnes and Alex Slater (left to right) … [+]
The company continued to grow rapidly, and Shibumi Shades are now sold in over 200 independent retailers, including 140 Dick’s Sporting Goods and REI stores. To keep up with the rapid demand, the company transformed from a small, three-person home-based business into a 17,000-square-foot warehouse in Raleigh, North Carolina, employing 22 full-time employees. Local publication theassembly states, “Shibumi has become a staple along the North Carolina coast.”
They’re entering a booming but competitive market: According to Transparency Market Research, the North American beach umbrella market, valued at $143.1 million in 2022, is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 5.6% from 2023 to 2031, driven by growing preferences for beach vacations and rising spending on outdoor activities.
Dane sees the founding of the company as something of a happy accident born out of frustration: “We didn’t necessarily intend to start a business,” he says. “We were just trying to solve a personal problem with our beach umbrellas and tents, which kept blowing away.”
What worked in their favor in deciding to prototype a better alternative was their roll-up-your-sleeves mentality, gained from their experience working with startups and small businesses in the area. Before joining Shibumi full-time in 2019, Dane worked at pre-employment assessment firm Optimize Hire under Adam Grant, a renowned Wharton professor who taught at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, for nearly a decade.
Using materials purchased from a local hardware store (like PVC pipe cut with a hacksaw) and about $200 worth of fabric purchased at Joann’s, he made a rough prototype on a home sewing machine that he taught himself to use. He tested it on the beach in Emerald Isle, North Carolina. “People were coming up to us and asking, ‘What is this? Where did you get it?'” Dane says. “That gave us a lot of confidence. We thought, ‘Okay, this could be a hit.'”
Working between day jobs at local startups and on weekends, they slowly built up their first prototype. With the motto “with the wind, not against it,” they aimed to design a model that would provide more shade than previous models, be lighter, easier to assemble, and more durable. Using a home sewing machine, they churned out the first 32 units at night and on weekends, but it was slow and painstaking work. As word spread locally, they realized they needed help to keep up, and in 2017 they signed on with their first cut-and-sew manufacturing partner in North Carolina. They named the umbrella “Shibumi” after the apartment building they live in, which is named after a Japanese design concept that values ​​simplicity. To spread the word, they printed business cards with instructions on how to order an umbrella and began handing them out to interested beachgoers.
As demand outstripped supply, the company hired two more cut-and-sew facilities, and as word spread, retailers began ordering the product, leading the company to open its own full-time warehouse and fulfillment operation in 2020.
But they also focused on building deeper relationships with their fans. Over the first few years, the founders called 7,000 customers directly to ask about their experience with the product and texted 20,000 more. “We wanted to break down the barriers between the company and the customer,” Dane says. “And I think that’s really paid off, getting people interested in the story.”
Shibumi’s signature product is an alternative to the traditional beach umbrella.
The founders are now expanding with an undisclosed amount of funding they received in 2021 from Stripes, a New York City-based private equity firm whose portfolio includes Grubhub and pricey organic grocery store Erewhon.
“Our iconic first product has gained a cult following and can be seen on beaches across the country, from the Emerald Isle to Santa Monica, Cape Cod to Oahu…,” the Stripes team wrote in Shibumi’s profile on their portfolio page. “…Stripes believes in investing in great products, and Shibumi Shade is exactly that. We were immediately impressed with the love from our consumers and excited about the opportunity to own the beach with the Shibumi team.”
Shibumi’s founders are currently working on new product launches, some of which will be available this summer. “There are a lot of opportunities out there,” Dehn says, and they’re determined to pursue them, one shade at a time.
