Buying A Quality Umbrella

Inspired by the early morning thunderstorm that flooded half of New York City’s ancient subway system (seriously, we think some of the F line dates back to the Romans), we felt it was a good time to re-examine our latest umbrella. Our verdict? “Not broken yet,” which is good enough for us. But if you’re in the market for a new one, Slate has a handy consumer reports-style comparison of ten umbrellas across the entire range of prices, from $3 to over $200. Yes, you can indeed buy an umbrella for over $200–but if you can afford that umbrella, surely you can afford to move to another country whenever it rains.

Slate’s top pick is (sadly) the $225 Lippincott Umbrella, but their runner ups are a couple of far-more-affordable ones in the $30 range, from Sharper Image and Hammacher Schlemmer. And in light of yesterday’s post about ethical shopping, we present the winner of last year’s Treehugger contest to design an eco-friendly, sustainable umbrella (which, as if to illustrate the challenge of ethical “shopping”, isn’t available for sale).

Protect yourself from April showers [Slate]

(Photo: d’n’c)

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