|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Just off Access 29 in Wrightsville Beach, Sandra Parker and her sisters hid from the smoldering sun.
Years back, Parker’s husband had injured his head on a broken metal rod from a beach canopy, so when they noticed a new flapping blue fabric in Emerald Isle in 2020, they figured they’d give the Shibumi Shade a try.
“It’s a lot easier for us old folks,” Parker said.
Staking a claim of beach real estate on a Saturday in June can be a competitive sport. Parker’s sister, Jennifer Pugh, said the roomy Shibumis can crowd the beach but don’t obstruct views. Shibumi users are more considerate, Pugh said, than “tent people,” who she says are notorious for setting up camp at sunrise and leaving it unattended for large parts of the day.
“That’s because they’re harder to put up,” Parker chimed in. “This is easier.”
“I don’t care,” Pugh retorted, defending her disdain for tent people. “They don’t come out in the afternoon until 3.”
A few yards across the hot sand, Ken Wood sat beneath his own cool-toned shade, AirPods in, slouched in a matching cobalt beach chair. He and his wife had secured the most convenient spot closest to Stone Street, having driven in from Raleigh for a day trip that morning.
Once an umbrella guy, Wood bought his Shibumi a couple of years ago and never looked back. “I wish I’d invented it because I’d be a very rich man,” he said. His purchase came with several business cards that he passed out to curious beachgoers who asked about it. “Back then, we went through four or five business cards,” he said.
Not that anyone would need a card now. Along the North Carolina coastline, Shibumis have become inescapable. On Memorial Day, the Shibumi’s teal and royal emblems rivaled the American flag. If you find yourself on the Carolina coast on July 4, count for yourself to see which wins.
The home-grown brand has conquered North Carolina beaches and is now on a quest to claim even more territory.
Thousands of miles of coastline have yet to be Shibumi-fied. With oomph from an outside investor and a zealous fan base, Shibumi’s next offensive? World domination.
Fad or Forever
It was a few inlanders who transformed the state’s coastline.
Tired of lugging clunky equipment on their annual family vacations to Emerald Isle, brothers Dane and Scott Barnes, along with their best friend Alex Slater, rigged a prototype in 2015. The UNC-Chapel Hill grads thrust their crescent PVC pipe shade into the sand, and beachgoers took to it almost immediately.
The trio put together 32 orders the next summer. They called it The Shade Wave and used a sewing machine for the first batch. In 2017, they renamed it Shibumi–a Japanese concept of simplicity and an homage to their college apartment complex of the same name–and sold 178, followed by 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. Assuming a $250 retail price, that’s roughly $75 million in sales.
“I wish I’d invented it because I’d be a very rich man.”
Ken Wood, a happy customer
The spread has been likened to kudzu, or–as one particularly snarky Reddit user described it–a plague. Like it or not, the Shibumi has revolutionized the beach shade industry, at least in North Carolina. Take one step onto one of the state’s coastlines, and you’re surrounded by free Shibumi advertisements.
“I wondered, in the beginning, would Shibumi be a fad?” co-founder Dane Barnes said. “But I think it’s pretty clear to me now that wind-driven shading devices are here to stay, and they’re the preference.”
In late 2021, the New York-based growth equity firm Stripes bought an undisclosed stake in Shibumi. Having helped fuel the artsy independent film distributor A24, posh grocer Erewhon, and the pandemic favorite Grubhub, Stripes caters to startups ready to scale. Announcing its investment in Shibumi, the firm said it was attracted by the opportunity to “own the beach.”
Asked if the founders retained majority control, Barnes said they are still “significant owners.”
Chris Carey, a partner at Stripes, said the equity firm seeks out partnerships with brands that have a natural “fanatical following,” and its biggest contribution to Shibumi has been in building out its team.
“The three founders had built the business to north of 100,000 units sold with just two employees and themselves,” Carey said. Today Shibumi has 22 employees. About half are remote, and half work out of the Triangle area and its 17,000-square-foot Raleigh warehouse, which the company opened in 2020 to house its shipping and logistics operations.
“This team is operating pretty darn autonomously,” Carey said. “They’re highly capable.”
Shibumis have popped up on at least 800 beaches around the world, based on the team’s tracking. (They ask customers at checkout which beach they visit.)
The brand’s growth strategy is to nudge loyalists to return to its expanding suite of variants and add new customers in nearby regions. An international takeover could be on the horizon, but Carey said American sand will come first.
“Let’s get the Florida and California beaches looking like the Carolinas, and then we’ll talk about Australia,” he said.
South Carolina, Georgia, and Texas are Shibumi’s other top target markets.
Barnes said Shibumi enlists drone operators to scope out footage of the product in use not only as a visual marketing tool but also to study customer preferences.
“We want to understand what the concentration is,” he said. “The best way to sell a Shibumi is for someone to see it on the beach because it sells itself.”
Shibumi hit a few speed bumps as it expanded south from Emerald Isle. Ocean Isle and Sunset Beach in Brunswick County tailored their anti-tent ordinances in 2021 and 2023, respectively, to allow Shibumis, caving to resident demand.
But that political will hasn’t yet won over politicians in and around Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where municipalities only allow umbrellas in the summer. (In unincorporated Horry County, the rule lasts all year.) Those policies predate the Shibumi, but the local officials complain that all manner of alternative shades block the beach and interfere with public safety.
Horry County Chairman Johnny Gardner said the policy derived from a recommendation from the county’s public safety department. Gardner said Shibumi has inundated local inboxes in recent years. “They just flooded us with emails,” he said.
Myrtle Beach Mayor Brenda Bethune said there’s much better visibility of the water since the city enacted its pre-Shibumi umbrella-only rule in 2014. (Shibumis and other large shades are allowed during the off-season.)
“Tents and other large shading devices became so plentiful at peak times and locations that they blocked access and visibility to the water’s edge,” Bethune said. “It also negatively impacted beachgoers’ enjoyment of the beach.”
Missing out on the Myrtle Beach area is a big hit on Shibumi’s business, Barnes said, where eager customers can’t use their shade of choice. “It’s a bummer that their freedom is being restricted,” he said.
Heading north from Emerald Isle, at least six communities between Delaware and New Jersey—where officials worry about congestion on shrinking shorelines—restrict the use of large shades.
But the bans are the exception, Barnes said. “Ninety-nine percent of beaches in the U.S. allow any type of shade.”
Throwing Shade
That each shade was sewn in North Carolina was once a point of pride for the company; the classic version includes a tag below the logo highlighting this, and the website once featured an illustration of the state. But with its latest iterations, Shibumi also now sews its shades overseas.
“We’re always searching for the very best in production so we can offer the highest quality. So we have expanded production,” Barnes said. After visiting various facilities and testing materials, the team selected “some of the top outdoor gear manufacturers throughout the world.” That shift was not due to an ability to scale, according to Barnes, but to prioritize quality.
Part of this growing up also means acting like the big company they are: Shibumi has aggressively rooted out dupes, squashing fledgling copycats with its beefed-up legal resources.
Barnes says since Shibumi has invested heavily in its intellectual property—including 15 patents awarded to date—it has a legal responsibility to curb infringement. Shibumi’s website implores customers to “Report Fakes.” The company has stopped 150 copycats so far, he said, and searches Google, Amazon, and Alibaba daily to ensure another doesn’t rear up.
Most stop after they’re contacted, Barnes said, but some refuse.
“Tents and other large shading devices became so plentiful at peak times and locations that they blocked access and visibility to the water’s edge.”
Myrtle Beach Mayor Brenda Bethune
Apex-based Beach Shade, which sold a cheaper clone for $150 and beat Shibumi to Amazon, had sold 900 units and reported it was on track to make $1 million in sales in 2021, according to court filings. Twice this year in separate lawsuits filed against the knockoff, a federal judge has ruled in Shibumi’s favor. Shibumi filed its second suit in 2023 after Beach Shade continued selling its product after making a few tweaks, including removing the anchor system.
As part of its second case against the company, Shibumi reported its year-over-year sales in May 2023 were down by 18 percent. To account for lost sales, Shibumi said it had to lower its prices by 7 percent, increase its advertising budget, and sell a greater share of its shades on Amazon to minimize lost sales.
In separate rulings, Beach Shade was ordered to fork over all of its sales to Shibumi; the total awarded is confidential, and Beach Shade ceases to exist. Matthew Finneran, the company’s founder, declined to comment.
Then there’s Florida-based SunSail—an imitator that continues to agitate Shibumi. When SunSail launched in 2022, it used Shibumi’s marketing copy verbatim, including the taglines “wind powered” and “works with the wind, not against it.” The SunSail originally sold for $179 and remains on Amazon today for $219, which is still cheaper than Shibumi’s classic shade.
SunSail’s founder, Dave Hathaway, twice ordered Shibumi products before he launched his competing brand. He had his second order delivered to a product development and manufacturing company in Texas, SunSail confirmed in legal filings.
Shibumi first sued SunSail in 2022. SunSail then countersued, seeking a judge’s declaration that the competitor had a right to participate in the marketplace, but Shibumi initiated the case’s dismissal last year; each brand paid their own attorneys’ fees. SunSail carried on–though now with a crescent-shaped shade rather than rectangular—and Shibumi filed a second federal suit against them late last month.
The SunSail mimics a South Korean patent that predates the Shibumi, Hathaway told The Assembly. That 2012 patent, reviewed by The Assembly, features a similar shade product. At least two YouTube videos also depict similar shade designs that predate Shibumi, which the founders disclosed in their various patents, but report that they viewed them after the company was formed.
Unlike the Shibumi, the SunSail screws into the ground and comes in five different color combinations. “My product can be used on grass and sand, expanding the market dynamic to soccer moms and baseball dads,” Hathaway said.
David Levine, a professor at the Elon University School of Law specializing in intellectual property law, said patents are the government’s way of protecting innovation by granting inventors monopoly power. (Levine did not personally review the Shibumi cases or patents.)
Some critics say the government issues far too many patents, but regardless, once one is awarded, it’s “born valid,” Levine said. In general, initiating patent infringement lawsuits can be risky, he said—akin to “putting your patent up for inspection.”
“The question becomes, is it even worthy of a patent in the first instance?” he said.
Courts and the government weigh “prior art”—anything that’s already publicly available—in determining whether a product is worthy of patent protection, Levine said. “The monopoly is extremely powerful,” he said.
To avoid infringement, newcomers must craft a “non-obvious” extension of the original work, Levine said. But meeting that standard can beget a fact-intensive analysis once courts are involved.
Hathaway, SunSail’s founder, believes the only “potentially inventive” element of the Shibumi design is its counterweight system, which he designed around. “If you strip that away, it’s a flag on a tent pole turned horizontal,” he said. “And those have been around with prior art for hundreds of years.”
Hathaway says the SunSail doesn’t infringe on Shibumi’s patents. “I don’t believe in a monopoly. I do believe in innovation. I do believe in competition and providing an affordable solution to the consumers,” Hathaway said. “It’s obviously apparent, in my opinion, that they believe competition should be thwarted through litigation.”
Shibumi has also threatened to sue retailers that sell SunSail, according to Hathaway.
While visiting Pawleys Island, South Carolina, this month, Hathaway said he saw only 10 Shibumis dotting the shore. At his home beach in Neptune Beach, Florida, he’ll see 50 families with nothing, 30 with umbrellas, and only a couple of CoolCabanas or Shibumis.
Even in the Carolinas, where Shibumis reign, Hathaway said the industry hasn’t yet reached market saturation. “They’re UNC guys, so there’s some home turf advantage,” he said. “I don’t believe the market is even close to penetrated across really any of the beaches.”
He declined to share his sales figures but said capturing just a sliver of the domestic shade industry is a big deal. “Five to 10 percent of the market is enormous,” he said.
Within 24 hours of posting her make-your-own Shibumi video and blog in 2022, one DIYer, who asked to remain anonymous due to the brand’s litigiousness, said Barnes called demanding her content be removed. The creator has fewer than 10,000 YouTube subscribers and frequently shares crafty instructional videos, and said she’d purchased camp poles and a beach blanket for about $30.
In the call, she said Barnes told her she couldn’t use her creation for personal use. “I work with brands all the time,” she said. “It caught me off guard.”
Barnes later wrote to her to formalize the conversation, stating the brand’s lawyers encourage him to ask those who infringe on its intellectual property to stop to avoid prosecution. The email, which The Assembly reviewed, also cited previous lawsuits Shibumi had filed against other knockoffs. It’s illegal for her to make her own, he wrote, but backed off his earlier verbal demand that she couldn’t use it.
She consulted with an intellectual property lawyer, who she said told her she’d probably prevail in court but that it wouldn’t be worth the fight, given Shibumi’s resources.
“It seems so silly,” she said. “A lot of drama over beach shades.”
Barnes said Shibumi takes its intellectual property rights seriously and expects others to do the same. “While Shibumi welcomes fair and honest competition in the marketplace, it is not prepared to allow its protected inventive concepts, design, and reputation to be damaged by copycats,” he said.
Shibumi 2.0
In the early days, customers could only buy Shibumis directly from the company’s website or a few carefully selected local retailers. Shibumi regularly sold out of inventory.
They’re now sold in 360 retail stores, including Dick’s Sporting Goods, REI, and a number of beach and hardware stores. The brand finally joined Amazon in July 2022, and the retailer’s listing shows 6,000 of the classic shade sold last month. The biggest source of sales comes from Amazon or directly from Shibumi’s website, followed by brick-and-mortar retailers.
In May 2022, Shibumi released the Mini, a smaller, lighter, and less expensive version of its original shade. Shibumi added $50 “luxe” towels into the mix last year and this year began rolling out new product variants, part of a three-pronged approach to address customer feedback.
And, when Shibumis droop on windless days? There’s the $28 Wind Assist, an accessory that attaches to the edges of the shade to anchor them to the sand. For folks who find Shibumis too loud? There’s the $275 Quiet Canopy, a new fabric that promises to dampen noise.
And, most earth-shatteringly, for those wanting an option other than blue? There’s the new sunset-themed pink and orange colorway, which Shibumi unveiled last week.
The founders toyed with the idea of offering different colors previously but stayed committed to blue—a strategic marketing choice that’s sure to be studied. Breaking from blue (deep water/shallow water, Barnes says), is part of the brand’s plan to generate interest in new markets. Kari Sapp, Shibumi’s brand marketing manager, says the small batch of sunset colorways could help drum up buzz on the West Coast and fits into the “drop phenomenon” of limited edition releases.
The Wind Assist sold out in half a day in April. Customers cleared out the Quiet Canopy in less than two weeks last month. (Both products are available for purchase but on backorder.) The sunset colorway got snatched up in two days.
“We just continue to be surprised at the demand for Shibumi products,” Barnes said.
Shibumi spent years testing fabrics for its new Quiet Canopy. The team tried using a Mooresville wind tunnel frequented by NASCAR drivers seeking optimal aerodynamic conditions, but the hourly rate proved too expensive, Barnes said. The wind tunnel operators helped Shibumi design its own facility, which is now part of its Raleigh warehouse.
Barnes said they use it to replicate beach conditions, seeing how different fabrics respond to flying 30 miles per hour for weeks at a time and testing for signs of fraying and noise.
“It’s just one of many of a battery of tests that we put the product through to ensure quality,” he said.
The Quiet Canopy fabric will be the new standard as soon as Shibumi depletes its current stock of classic shades, Barnes said.
“We have come out with new versions many, many, many times,” Barnes said. While the brand never previously announced small changes, the Quiet Canopy was enough of a pivot to differentiate publicly, he said.
“We’re always striving—like an iPhone or a car—we’re trying to make improvements to it every year,” he said.
Because Shibumis aren’t quite a tent or a canopy, they seem prime for the Xerox effect—that is, when a product is so pervasive that the brand name is used in casual language instead of the type.
“I’m amazed all the time when we hear from parents of young children that are preschool and kindergarten age, and they’re learning to write, and they draw a picture of the beach,” Barnes said. “They’re always putting a Shibumi. They know the word Shibumi.”
Johanna F. Still is The Assembly‘s Wilmington editor. She previously covered economic development for Greater Wilmington Business Journal and was the assistant editor at Port City Daily. She can be reached at johanna@theassemblync.com.