Innovation Meets the Beach

It all started in 2009 when our founder, Bill Schermerhorn, noticed a major problem as he was trying to enjoy a day at the beach. It was a sunny, windy day, when a sudden gust of wind launched a beach umbrella with a metal screw device down the beach. The umbrella struck and severely injured a young girl. Throughout the afternoon, as umbrellas continued to fly away, Bill began to consider how patio umbrellas work.

The cousin of the beach umbrella, patio umbrellas always seem to stay in place. It occurred to him that patio umbrellas have a large, wide, heavy base attached to the bottom of the pole that prevents them from flying off in the wind. However, no one would want to carry a heavy base to and from the beach... but what if you could make the base small enough to transport and use the sand on the beach for the weight? Thus, the beachBUB® was born.

It folds up to the size of a paperback book and unfilled it weighs less than half a pound. When filled with sand, it weighs an amazing 125 pounds, takes up very little space, and can be filled by a child in less than 2 minutes. Now all we needed was a better lightweight umbrella that would withstand winds up to 35 mph.

Fast-forward to 2021 and the beachBUB® has turned the beach umbrella concept upside down. It has earned a 5-star rating for more than 2 years and it can be found on beaches throughout the United States as well as 22 other countries. We'll call that innovation at its finest. Now it even comes with a 3 year top to bottom warranty.