iBrolly Totebag Telescopic

Tired of your wet umbrella dripping all over? Problem solved!

iBrolly is pleased to introduce our newest product, the iBrolly Totebag Telescopic. This folding umbrella conveniently converts to a waterproof tote bag, saving your floor from dripping water in a convenient and stylish way. It folds to just 9.5″ long when closed and also features an aluminum and fibreglass frame, a plastic handle with a woven wrist strap, and a premium Pongee canopy that is anti-tear and quick to dry.

Contact iBrolly today to find out more about this great new specialty umbrella!

Provincial Gov't of BC

Below is a link to a brand new photo gallery that features some of the umbrellas we have manufactured recently for our happy customers. Please be sure to check back from time to time to see our latest projects!

To view the gallery, please click on the following link:

PHOTO GALLERY

We’ve done some uber creative umbrellas for clients at the holidays over the years, one of my favourites being developed in-house by Metro Lyrics (part of Metro Leap Media). These umbrellas were seriously customized with all-over, full colour print, giving maximum impact. They were such a hit the first year, Metro Leap came back the following year to design a full new set. (Thanks guys, we appreciate your business!!)

Another one of my favourite designs was developed by the Vancouver Island Regional Library. Their custom umbrella design was very “west coast”, incorporating regional first nations art that we screen printed in different gradients over the entire canopy. We added a matching white trim on the edge of the umbrella canopy for a lovely finishing touch.   

Our minimum order for fully customized umbrellas is only 100 pieces, which is unparallelled in the industry. Contact us today for a quote… Time is running out! 

Send in your umbrella order by October 3rd for delivery by December 15th

The answer to your first question is YES…We can do it. Now, your next question is likely going to be: How much does it cost? That’s where it gets a little more complicated, because the cost depends upon the complexity of the design. This article will discuss how our umbrella printing and manufacturing process works, which will help you to design an artistic umbrella that will be affordable to manufacture.

Umbrella Printing: The Basics

Printed Umbrella Panel

All standard umbrellas are made of 8 triangular shaped fabric panels, usually made from polyester. If we want to print something all over an entire umbrella canopy, we need to first print the individual fabric panels, then sew them together, then string the canopy onto the umbrella frame. The fabric panels are most often printed by screen printing, especially for simple jobs requiring only a few colours. For full colour print, we often use heat transfer printing.

Umbrella Screen Printed in One Colour

Each time we have a unique, or different, panel design, we need to make new print screens or heat transfer films. For example, let’s say you wanted to print a simple one colour logo on two panels (i.e. the same design/print repeated 2 times on the umbrella). In that case we would only need to make one print screen with one colour. Easy.

Now, if you want to cover an entire umbrella canopy with one painting or photograph, you’ll need eight different print screens or films, and it’s likely they’re all going to be full colour. The average cost of a full colour, full panel, print film or screen is around $300. Let’s do the math: $300 x 8 panels = $2,400. If you’re thinking of manufacturing a small quantity, like 100 umbrellas, your unit cost has just gone through the roof! On the other hand, if you’re going to manufacture 2,000 umbrellas, it works.

WAIT! Don’t get discouraged! There are ways of producing small quantities of artistic umbrellas at a reasonable cost – you just need to get a little more creative with your design. Here’s how…

Umbrella Design Tips

• Repeating the same design on more than one panel greatly reduces set-up costs. For example in the designs below, we only need to make one film for printing ($300) as compared to eight films ($2,400!)
• Alternate printed umbrella panels with blank panels.
• Limit the number of colours in your design.
• Try not to have complicated patterns overlap the panels. Pattern matching can be costly as we need to manually stitch the umbrella panels together.
• Volume volume volume… the more you manufacture, the lower the unit cost.
• Ask us to do it. We have excellent designers that know how to design umbrellas that will be affordable to print.

We hope you find this article in helping you to design a beautiful umbrella, and if you’d like to bring the project to life we’re here to help.  Remember, if you decide to go for it, you only pay the set-up fees once. We keep your print screens on file, so when you’re ready to order more umbrellas you only have to pay for the umbrellas themselves.

Artistic Umbrella Design

Repeated Panel Design

The umbrella canopy is made from 100% recycled PET fabric, and the handle is made from bamboo, which is a renewable resource. This folding umbrella is available in purple, cool grey, and navy blue. The canopy is 40″ and the ribs are made from aluminum and fibreglass. As with any other iBrolly umbrella, you can customize to your heart’s content: add perimeter trim, full canopy print, umbrella sleeve printing and more. Comes with sleeve and wrist strap.

Folding Recycled PET Umbrella

Where can I buy an iBrolly umbrella, you ask? We’re happy to announce that there’s now a place where you can purchase single iBrolly umbrellas online, at www.cbcshop.ca

There you will find our automatic opening and closing telescopic umbrella. (A telescopic umbrella is really just another name for a folding umbrella.) Anyway, it’s a gorgeous yet very sturdy little number with reinforced fibreglass and aluminium ribs: one of our best sellers. Of course it comes with a top grade Pongee umbrella canopy, and is fully guaranteed just like all other iBrolly umbrellas.

We’ll soon be announcing our next retail partner – this one a bricks and mortar retail establishment that has locations throughout Canada. Stay tuned!

Our eco umbrella has a 100% recycled PET canopy made from recycled plastic bottles, and a bamboo handle & tip. Not only is PET fabric made from recycled materials, but the process by which it’s created releases less CO2 into the environment than traditional umbrella fabrics – all with exactly the same feel and durability.

As this is specialty recycled umbrella canopy fabric we don’t have our usual range of canopy colours available on small quantity orders. This eco umbrella is available in cool grey, navy blue, and purple. If you’re looking for bulk umbrellas or wholesale umbrellas, and can order 1,500 or more we can die the canopy fabric to any colour of your choice. (We need to die an entire bolt of fabric to do this, hence the large minimum order quantity.) But hopefully with environmentally friendly promotional products becoming more popular all the time, we’ll be able to introduce new colours for smaller orders in the near future.

This recycled umbrella is available with a double-layer canopy, perimeter trim, interior printing and many of the other custom umbrella options that make iBrolly unique.

Entire Canopy Print

Slapping a logo on a flimsy umbrella is not going to say much about your brand. Have you seen how many people walk the streets with broken umbrellas…? Do you really want your logo to be on one of them? We don’t think so. Introducing iBrolly, a promotional umbrella company that manufactures only high quality, durable, creatively designed umbrellas. At iBrolly we think of umbrellas as media space – free, untapped, non-traditional outdoor media – that can be leveraged with a little creativity.

Why can’t any umbrella company do this? Firstly you need great creative design combined with a bit of marketing savvy. Then you need serious printing and manufacturing technology in order to reproduce those creative designs: The iBrolly umbrella factory is far from your average screen-printing shop.

iBrolly is an OEM (original equipment manufacturer), that utilizes several different techniques from heat-transfer printing to plastics injection molding, enabling production of groovy features like custom shaped handles and Pantone colour matched frames. We pay close attention to finishing, and can handle the smallest details such as embroidered tie wraps, stitched perimeter trim, and branded handles. Add a few lines of messaging, perhaps even printed on the interior of the canopy, and you’ve got a powerful piece of promotional advertising.

Colour Matched Frame

We realize that business owners need to spend their marketing dollars wisely, and the right umbrellas can be a great long-term advertising investment.

The key is to use innovative design and messaging so that your brand gets noticed, and to maximize your ROI by investing in high quality umbrellas that will last for years.

An order of a few hundred of umbrellas can be less expensive than running a print ad for one day in a local newspaper. If you calculate the cost per impression alone, it makes good sense, not to mention the experiential factor of giving customers high quality branded gifts they’ll use for years to come.

We would love to hear your comments and concerns so comment often!

Ibrolly Umbrellas
http://www.ibrolly.ca