Popular Shibumi Shade invented by three UNC at Chapel Hill alums
More than 300,000 have been sold in the last eight years.
Ever wonder who invented the Shibumi Shade, the alternative to the tents that used to populate many beaches? They certainly have taken over the beach at Seabrook Island, where my wife and I have owned a condo for more than 20 years (see the featured image above).
The Shibumi Shade was invented by three alums of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Brothers Dane and Scott Barnes joined with Alex Slater where the trio spent their evenings during the company’s early stages in 2016 assembling beach shades by hand in a room cluttered with dark blue and teal fabrics, binder clips, and sewing materials.
In this article published on the UNC website, Co-Founder Dane Barnes said, “It was difficult. We all three had full-time jobs, so we would sew the Shibumi Shades in the evenings and on weekends.” That occurred in the spare bedroom of a Raleigh apartment.
Barnes said the idea to create a wind-powered beach shade originated from family vacations in Emerald Isle, NC. The Co-Founders watched bedsheets on a clothesline, seagulls and kites gliding effortlessly with the help of wind and decided to make their own prototype.
“We weren’t going to bring a clothesline out to the beach, so we had the idea for what is now the Shibumi Shade, and we taught ourselves how to sew — we made the first prototype and set it up on the beach,” Barnes said. “And it really worked well.”
They named the product Shibumi — a Japanese word for effortless perfection, a design aesthetic characterized by subtle, unobtrusive beauty. It’s an idea carried from their college apartment complex of the same name. The now-faded 30-year-old student apartments echo principles of simplistic living and design.
Each year Shibumi sales have outpaced the last, with products selling out from 2016 to 2020, according to Barnes. During their first year in business, the group hand-sewed and sold 32 beach shades. Sales skyrocketed shortly after, and all three Co-Founders left their day jobs in 2018 and delegated sewing to a professional manufacturer to focus on honing the product.
Barnes confirmed sales numbers have totaled over 300,000 units the last eight years. An estimated two to three cases of Shibumi Shades are sold per day during peak beach season at one Ace Hardware location in Emerald Isle.
Like what you've read?
Forward to a friend!