A Conversation with Greig Brebner, Founder of BLUNT Umbrellas

Every so often, you come across a product that’s so cleverly engineered, it feels like it’s reinvented something we all take for granted. That’s exactly what Greig Brebner did with the humble umbrella. Steve and I met Greig earlier this year by chance while visiting our Meander store in Covent Garden and instantly connected over our shared passion for well-made, long-lasting design. Originally from New Zealand, Greig came up with the idea for Blunt while visiting London (naturally)!  Determined to do better, he spent years in research and development, reengineering every detail to create a stronger, smarter, more sustainable umbrella. The result is a stunning functional, well made product that’s built to last! I am a huge fan!! 

We caught up with Greig to talk about his journey from idea to innovation, the challenges of reinventing an everyday object, and what it really takes to design something built to last.

Professionally my background is in product design. Growing up my father was in the plastics manufacturing industry and was always building boats/cars in his spare time, so creating things has been in my blood right from the start. After getting my Mechanical Engineering Degree at Auckland University, and after a stint working on a ski field in the US, I got my first 'real' job at a healthcare business working in product design. It was a fantastic experience, however, I had an itch to go on my own product journey and in my spare time I always had an idea on the go. I went through quite a number of product ideas but for various reasons they never measured up and were put to the side. At the age of 25 I decided it was time to go see the world.

I hadn't long been in London when the idea of developing a new type of umbrella came to me. When you travel to new places, it’s interesting how your brain shifts up a few gears with a heightened awareness of the new surroundings. My interpretation of all the umbrellas that I saw in London was that this product was in dire need of an upgrade for the 21st century. The crowded streets meant a lot of umbrellas in tight spaces and all those sharp points really caught my eye (almost literally). I had a vision of a far better product that had only smooth edges, no saggy canopies, and a user experience that would really bring joy to people.

It was a very long and drawn out process dominated by failure. I was quick to learn that the reason umbrellas hadn't fundamentally changed in a century wasn't just due to lack of desire or effort - it was because there was such a limited scope for anything new. The more I got into the design challenge, the more I realised I was up against it, but something in me refused to believe that there wasn't a better way. Initial failed design attempts were very radical as I believed that I needed to change everything about this deficient product. It wasn't until I started respecting the existing product for its good bits that I started to make headway - a good lesson. 

Going back to fundamentals, I worked out that I needed to design a frame that would efficiently provide even tension across the whole umbrella canopy surface. This would result in a superior structure, while also being aerodynamically stable in the wind. The eventual result is our Radial Tensioning System that uses our patented BLUNT Tips to radially transfer the frame force evenly into the canopy.

Once you get so far down the path on a project like this, the option to give up doesn't even cross your mind. The first 6 months were the hardest, but once my mindset was 'locked in', it just became part of who I was and what I did. Having a strong vision for what the successful result would look like definitely helped with belief and pulled me through the tough times. About 4 years in I had a working prototype and something tangible to show for my efforts. I was then able to attract other people to help push it forward to commercialisation. Getting good investment partners onboard was a key milestone and from that point forward, BLUNT became its own life force as a business.

Umbrellas are inherently vulnerable given their exposure to potentially violent weather forces and just through general human abuse. We know we cannot make an invincible product, but we know we can produce a consistently great performing one. Our factory is amazing with their care and attention to detail - we have had a relationship exclusively with them since 2007. Even with this high level of manufacturing input we know that consistently producing a quality product every time is not easy, especially when it requires so much hand made input. For this reason, we have an external team come in and check every single umbrella before it exits the factory. Any issues are fed back through to the production teams for constant improvement. Quality Control in any manufacturing setup is always a challenge, but ultimately for it to work you need people involved who genuinely care. We have spent many years nurturing these relationships and it gives us a lot of pleasure to know our extended team are just as proud as we are for what we produce.

Coming from a manufacturing background, I was very sensitive to getting this bit right. Initially we were so sensitive to getting this right that we actually tried to make our product ourselves in New Zealand. Our concern being if we landed with a bad operator, it would be very difficult to retract - our design would become a big gift to the industry. When the timing was right and armed with the lessons from trying to do it ourselves we thankfully met a kiwi gentleman who had many years of experience in the industry and guided us to the right partnerships. Being with a manufacturing partner that is respected in the industry has helped us guard our intellectual property and we have benefitted plenty from their extensive experience in umbrella design.

It is our belief that good design inherently should be built for maximum lifespan. The longer a consumer can get value out of a product, the more energy there is for the creation of the product itself. When a product is designed with this intent, the consumer wins through having an extended joyful experience, and the environment wins by less things being made. On average we only see 1% of our umbrellas come back for repair but we know that this part of the consumer experience is incredibly important. For people to invest in a long term relationship with a product they need to be confident that it will deliver. Should something go wrong, they need to know what will happen. We see the process of repair as a very positive thing. To bring someone's trusted BLUNT back to life is incredibly rewarding - especially when it has already been with them for many years and the ownership connection is strong.

Super important. To create a product that is relevant for decades requires a fine balance of design that satisfies all of the consumer needs and senses. At the end of the day, it is always the simplest representation that wins - an object that has just the right arrangement of ingredients and no more than absolutely required. The beauty of the umbrella as a product is that there is simply no room for clutter in its design - for a solution to work at all it needs the utmost purity. This is what attracted me most to this design challenge. It’s like trying to find a needle in a haystack, but I knew once I found it I would have something that would be relevant for a very long time.

Being situated in such an isolated spot on the planet has definitely shaped the Kiwi mindset. We historically have had fewer references and resources to call upon from the outside world and this definitely shapes you. Resourcefulness and having to make do with what you have encourages high levels of practicality and creativity. Mixing this historic mindset with the modern world has enabled us to see beyond what is conventionally assumed to be possible and enabled some fantastic achievements.

Also, our weather in this part of the world is unpredictable at best - being composed of relatively thin islands means we are at the mercy of the oceans that surround us. The perfect testing ground for tuning the world's best umbrella!

For adventurers, New Zealand is almost like 2 countries in one with the South Island offering world class mountain/land based sports and the North Island with its awesome coastlines. The contrast between the two is quite dramatic and I love both. I grew up boating along the coastlines of the upper North Island, so that is where I feel most at home. However, I have enjoyed many trips down south snowboarding and exploring. The Queenstown and Wanaka regions always blow my mind with their abundance of natural beauty - something you never get used to witnessing. We are very spoiled having all of this amazingness on our door step!

We have a couple of new products in the pipeline that we are very excited about. We have recently launched our new BLUNT Beach model which is our first dedicated summer market product. Creating this model has provided some new design challenges for the team including the sand anchoring system. We are very proud of the solution we have developed and are looking forward to seeing our iconic canopy shape dotted across beaches this upcoming summer.

We are also working on a smaller compact BLUNT. This is an umbrella that has been top of the request list from our fans since forever. Having a model that will easily fit into a medium sized handbag is massively appealing for commuter convenience. Compressing all the goodness that is BLUNT into a small package hasn't been an easy task but we believe we have finally done it. We are very excited to get this model out into the world - keep an eye out for a launch date mid 2026.

Thank you so much to Greig for taking the time to chat to us about all things BLUNT. If you'd like to follow along on BLUNT's journey, be sure to follow them on Instagram here. Plus, if you'd like to take a look at BLUNT's products for yourself, you can find them in our Stockbridge and Covent Garden stores, or order them online here.