The Sa, currently being funded through Kickstarter, is an innovative, minimalist, geometric umbrella that reimagines structure, form, and aesthetics, with improved efficiency.

I love the modern appearance of the canopy design. Like origami the Sa uses planar tension to generate its form. The inner and outer canopies, made of highly recyclable waterproof plastic, expand and contract in unison to open and close the umbrella. As a result the Sa is lighter than a traditional umbrella since there is no need for an inner, metal, skeleton.

The canopy design is great, but also have a look at the internalized mechanism to open and close the umbrella. One simply needs to rotate the bottom of the handle to open the Sa. The spring-loaded mechanism will open the umbrella. To close just pull on the handle. Magnets are embedded along the perimeter of the panels allowing an effortless tight closure of the umbrella after use.

Since the umbrella finds its roots in origami the creators Justin Nagelberg and Matthew Waldman created the name "Sa" from a combination of Japanese words: “kasa”(umbrella), “same” (rain) and “sasu" (the verb used to describe holding an umbrella).

The Sa is offered in cyan, yellow, magenta, black, grey and white. In the future the lineup will be expanded to various other colours and patterns.