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| the BRELLI Story |
| It was the summer of 1972, and I was sitting by the beach twirling a tiny tropical drink umbrella in my fingers wondering why no one had ever made a real rain umbrella from this beautiful little rendition of the Asian parasol? |
| Fast forward to June 2005 |
| I was in my favorite New York City salon, and it was again raining as it always did. And as I was leaving I asked the salon owner if she had a salon umbrella that she could give me. Her response was absolutely not. She wouldn’t give anyone one of those awful black nylon things, the ones that end up littering the streets after one use. I agreed. She offered though, that if I ever came across a great one to let her know she would buy it for her clients. |
| In that moment I remembered that beautiful tiny paper parasol on that beautiful sunny beach. In the next moment was the inspiration: to create a beautiful, functional, intricate bamboo framed umbrella with a modern transparent canopy (so it had to be plastic), but why not make it biodegradable? A renewable, sustainable, biodegradable umbrella! |
| I was excited and impassioned by its possibilities: the world's first truly biodegradable umbrella! Many months and hundreds of conversations later, I found the combination of sciences, right here in the US, which would create the technology we needed. We created a biodegradable PVC film, and its first application was theBRELLI! |
| There were many trials and a whole lot of errors that created the umbrella that I envisioned all those years ago. I am happy to say today theBRELLI is 100% Green, made incredibly strong with amazingly strong renewable bamboo, and engineered not to turn inside out in the wind. It is stronger than nearly any commercial umbrella you currently own! We are now introducing its fabulous sister the sunBRELLI; it has an amazing sun ray protection of 99% UVA/UVB (yes you read it right, 99%). |
| But hold on…it even gets better… remember I said 100% biodegradable. Well at the end of theBRELLI’s life (which will really be long if you take care of yours) it turns into energy! When a BRELLI is disposed of in an anaerobic landfill (where there is no oxygen present) it turns into a bio-gas from the microbial action (which is from the BRELLI degrading). Most landfills collect this biogas, and recycle it to sustain their facility. Now theBRELLI is affording the landfill sustainability! And…if theBRELLI is disposed of in a compost pile, it will degrade as twigs and leaves do. Very Cool. |
| TheBRELLI challenge was enormous: it had to be beautiful, biodegradable, sustainable, renewable, functional, and fun. We have met these challenges and now introduce theBRELLI Collection 2010. Enjoy them all…and when the time comes that you need to dispose of them, you can…guilt free! |
| Pam Zonsius President + Designer |
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