The London Lounge

I'm eyeing with this one: http://www.knirps-usa.com/815-travel-mens.html (Used to have in colors as well.) I need a pocketable one for travel. This is the lightest quality one I have found at 6.9 ounces, 195 grams. Any experience with this brand? Or an alternative pocketable umbrella?

I have had two umbrellas by "Knirps". The German company specializes in folding umbrellas. The name should mean something like little boy, titch. Decent quality, as good as you can get for an industrialized product. They still have a repair service. I needed to make use of its services once and I guess the handling must have costed as much as the umbrella. So for the price you cannot go wrong. Mine worked fine over all the years, but then suffered the fate of most umbrellas. I hope they got a good second life, Hallelujah.

Internationalist -

Frans is expressing the same sentiment as I have about Knirps, although I haven't had to use the repair service fortunately. Functional, good, unremarkable (which is not a bad thing).

Currently, I'm using a Senz foldable umbrella, which has a wing shape instead of a round shape, which is supposed to prevent it from collapsing the wrong way around:

http://www.senzumbrellas.com

You may want to have a look there. They have a no questions asked warranty in case of storm damage.

T

T, this is interesting. But the design looks as though you'd have to hold it quite far from your body, or tilt it forward (tiring the arm in either case) to protect the front of your clothing in a relatively vertical rain. Have you found that to be the case?

couch wrote:T, this is interesting. But the design looks as though you'd have to hold it quite far from your body, or tilt it forward (tiring the arm in either case) to protect the front of your clothing in a relatively vertical rain. Have you found that to be the case?

It is surprisingly comfortable to hold, actually, probably to do with the wing shape. When I walk and hold the umbrella relatively loosely, it will turn in the effective direction, i.e. without lots of wind, the long tail will be behind, if there is side wind, the wing will be to the side. But following your walk in a vertical rain, and the short end being in front, it is very efficient in keeping the rain away from your front, even if that 'overhang' is relatively short. And I don't feel more strain on my arm than with traditional umbrellas. I keep my fist relatively close to my body and the rest follows.

I love progress!

T

internationalist wrote:[..] I need a pocketable one for travel. [..]

Just for the record, Fox (since 1868) sells packable and telescopic umbrellas, none of them pocketable though. I really dislike telescopic umbrellas (I would rather walk under the rain) and I also dislike Fox, who doesn't offer a repair service on non-Fox umbrellas anymore (they won't say they don't; they will tell you to leave the umbrella so that they can have a look and get back to you within 6 weeks to let you know if they can help). When I can't carry my old, good umbrella, I carry at least a tweed cap and, very rarely, a raincoat. Last, some airline companies make exceptions to their luggage restrictions when it comes to umbrellas.

Thank you gentlemen,

Looked into all the options. Still like the Knirps.

Davek? How about it?

The Daveks look nice. However, the 2 models suitable for my situation (looking for lightweight model for travel)
- http://davekny.com/collections/umbrella ... k-traveler - comes in 5 colors for the ladies - one color for men
- http://davekny.com/collections/umbrella ... davek-mini - comes in 3 colors for the ladies - one color for men

Black is also not the most suitable for a serious travel umbrella considering certain cultural and practical reasons

Scroll to the text saying: "rainwear (umbrella?)"
http://www.onebag.com/packing-list-wardrobe.html



Some grays or a more manly than the above blue would be preferred I guess. Any other options?

Edit: or it quite possibly might be the case I have just not mastered the color coordination for accessories yet? Speaking of that - in which topic I can learn more about this? My basic colors are black, white, gray and navy.