Story by Olivia Gschwind
Photos by Samantha Hoffman
Graphic by Chrissy Wang
On a Friday night between the hours of 6 p.m. and 1 a.m., three men—two brothers and their best friend—gathered in the spare bedroom of a Raleigh apartment after a full day of work. Anticipating a long night together, they cranked up some music.
Their songs of choice: show tunes, which filled the room, complementing the sound of the men’s sewing machines as they stitched the first wind-powered beach shades.
Self-taught in sewing, Dane Barnes, Scott Barnes and Alex Slater spent the evenings of their 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.
“It was difficult. We all three had full-time jobs, so we would sew the Shibumi Shades in the evenings and on weekends,” Shibumi co-founder Dane Barnes said.
Barnes said the idea to create a wind-powered beach shade originated from family vacations in Emerald Isle, North Carolina. 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.
Cary Close has been visiting Emerald Isle with her husband for decades, driving down on the majority of weekends from their home in Raleigh. They were walking on the beach near their vacation home’s neighborhood when they came across the trio’s early prototype.
“We’re walking down the beach, and we see these hunks sitting on the beach with these gorgeous girls,” Close said. “And they’re under the first Shibumi.”
Close said the early Shibumi Shade was a PVC pipe with parachute material, but the concept was solid. They exchanged numbers and Close told the men if they ever sold the product, she and her husband wanted one.
The success of the brand is indisputable when glancing down the shoreline of many beaches in the Southeast during peak vacation season. But beyond the perfect storm of innovation and opportunity, Barnes and his fellow co-founders hit success in arguably the most important market—people.
Down the road from Emerald Isle lies a vacation trailer community in Salter Path. Small, bright-colored trailers with beach-themed decor line the sides of the narrow road of the community, which leads to a strip of beach often covered in blue and teal Shibumi Shades. One of these trailers belongs to Susan Frazier, a proud and charismatic early Shibumi adopter, who takes credit for starting what she describes as a “Shibumi craze” at her trailer community by handing out business cards.
Frazier said she believes the success of the brand is due to more than the product alone. She formed a friendship with Barnes following the purchase of her first Shibumi Shade when she received a text 30 minutes later thanking her for her business.
“I believe in the brand because of the developers,” she said. “They believe in their product. They’re willing to listen when people have questions, concerns, suggestions.”
When the poles of her Shibumi Shade broke, Frazier texted Barnes. He promptly offered directions to his parents’ house to borrow their poles until he could ship her new ones. As the company expanded, some retail locations like Ace Hardware now offer free pole exchange to Shibumi customers if they break or crack within the three-year warranty period.
“He listens,” she said. “He’ll say, okay, I understand your problem and we are working on this.”
Barnes said the founders made it a point to call or text every customer to thank them for their purchase, making about 7,000 phone calls and sending 20,000 texts before they could no longer keep up.
“I’ve got like a zillion contacts in my phone,” he said. “But I think that was helpful to get people excited about it.”
Each year of Shibumi sales has 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.
“Every year since we started Shibumi, our goal has been to improve the quality of the product, and we have made dozens of improvements every single year,” Barnes said.
Barnes said a large piece of ensuring brand quality is through tests such as using the NASCAR wind tunnel in Mooresville, North Carolina, to see how the Shibumi fabric holds up in high winds over longer periods. To continue testing, a smaller version was adapted within the company’s 17,500-square-foot warehouse in Raleigh. When the fan is turned on, little strips of Shibumi fabric can be seen fluttering through a glass viewing case built into the plywood.
The entire process of testing makes an effort to ensure the quality of a product that is not exactly cheap. But customers like Close and Frazier say the Shibumi Shade is a longevity product.
“How many times do you leave a beach access and look beside the public trash can and see a bunch of dead umbrellas, broken umbrellas, rusted umbrellas that have been discarded after one summer’s use?” Close said.
But with price tags starting at $175 for the Shibumi Mini and $275 for the full-sized Shibumi Shade, some people are opting for lower-cost options, including copycat brands. For others, an umbrella is still the norm.
Kathy and Bill Fiegelist were sitting on the beach when they noticed they were one of a few people still using traditional beach umbrellas. As residents of Parma, Ohio, they hadn’t seen the Shibumi Shade in action until visiting family in North Carolina.
“I’m looking down the line here,” said Bill Fiegelist, glancing down the shore of the beach. “If you don’t have one, then you’re not in with it.”
Copycats have been on the rise since the inception and growth of the Shibumi model. The official Shibumi website has a page where customers can report fakes they see on the beach.
Denise Johnson from Greenville, South Carolina, was enjoying her day at Emerald Isle beach under a distinctly navy canopy of a similar design to the Shibumi. For Johnson, a less expensive version of the same concept was a no-brainer.
“We purchased the Beach Shade over the Shibumi for cost-effectiveness,” Johnson said while standing in front of her navy-colored Beach Shade. “This one was more reasonable.”
Barnes said the rise of copycats feels personal.
“We’re working as hard as we can to try to grow, and to see someone try to steal the idea was really tough to see,” he said.
Shibumi Shade filed a patent infringement lawsuit in May 2024 against NB Shade’s Sunsail Shade product line. The lawsuit claims infringement on two U.S. patents in an effort to “unfairly compete,” according to court documents.
UNC-Greensboro associate professor Jin Su said in many ways, the Shibumi Shade shares a lot of similarities with successful fashion products.
Su, who studies the dynamics of textile, apparel, fashion and retail industries, said the consumer-centered design makes the product compelling when you account for functional, expressive and aesthetic considerations.
“I feel this product is smart because it builds a connection between consumers’ emotions and the product,” Su said.
She also added that when designing a product, the most important aspect is attracting attention from consumers in a way that makes them want to try it.
That excitement continues with the unveiling of new products to catch the eyes of beachgoers. According to Barnes, Shibumi will be announcing several new products next year.
Barnes said no one ever planned or expected the product to take off the way it did. A smile spread across his face as he explained that the original purpose of Shibumi was not to sell a product, but to fix a problem.
“I was always so inspired by people who take the risk and start their own businesses,” Barnes said. “I never thought that I would have an idea or an opportunity, but I’m so grateful that I have.”
