Umbrellas have been around for nearly 3500 years. Firstly, the Egyptians produced them to protect us from the sun, then 500 years later China waterproofed the canopies to keep us dry. But only in the last ten years have umbrellas been designed so they're wind resistant.

The halo® uses the materials currently being used in ordinary umbrellas to make it wind resistant, taking inspiration from the Apollo 13 mission when crew members had to come up with a solution with only the materials they had on board. Opening the umbrella for the first time you will find out this is not an ordinary umbrella. You will feel the frame loading the ribs with the tension needed to make your umbrella wind resistant.

Founder: I'm Richard Heale, an ex-automotive technician, car design student, and more recently, a product designer, based in Camden Town, London. In 2011, five umbrellas inverted and broke on me over six months during my windy walks to work across a bridge in Canary Wharf. After the fifth one gave out, I decided I wasn’t going to waste any more money. Instead, I went home that evening and set myself a challenge: re-engineer this cheap umbrella into something truly durable - designed to handle the wind, last longer, and break the cycle of constantly replacing it. Somehow, I managed to do exactly that - sketching out the idea while sitting at a bar in a pub in Camden.