The Windependent Suspension System
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Thatās a nice solution and it looks pretty effective! Great video!
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Never thought Iād get excited about an umbrella! That thing is badass. You have a customer.
@CHO
Iād call 'em āFloating Ribsā / āFloating Rib Designā and with the technical description of distinctly actuated rib supports.
āOur unique floating rib design provides unparalleled protection on the windiest of days. Keeping you dry and your umbrella in your hand.ā
Tell us more about your Floating Rib design?
Inspired by our previous work with race cars, weāve brought that innovation and dedication to performance with our Cypress Umbrella. Much like a high performance suspension in the worldās fastest cars, the Floating Rib design features distinctly actuated rib supports providing superior wind resistance. The Cypress Umbrellaās unique Floating Rib design intelligently relieves the air pressure that builds up from high winds, keeping you dry when it counts.
- Thomas
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good luck!
Donāt forget our bet 
but seriously it looks awesome, Iāll see you on kickstarter.
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@Jarrett
Windependent Suspension System is not bad. Weāll put that into consideration.
@laftho
Floating Ribs, not bad. Except sounds too much like a chain restaurant in my opinion.
Weāve considered Flexrib or Ribflex. But it sounds too much like the ālatest and greatest 6-pack absā exercise machine.
Cahay
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Hey Cypress makers,
I donāt want to be a downer, but I think should be careful regarding
intellectual property.
The logo you folks are going with seems pretty close to at least one other
company that has trademarked it.
Hereās a link to the free trademark search engine from the USPTO:
http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=toc&state=4806%3Aj0jn6p.1.1&p_search=searchss&p_L=50&BackReference=&p_plural=yes&p_s_PARA1=&p_tagrepl~%3A=PARA1%24LD&expr=PARA1+AND+PARA2&p_s_PARA2=hedgehog&p_tagrepl~%3A=PARA2%24COMB&p_op_ALL=AND&a_default=search&a_search=Submit+Query&a_search=Submit+Query
If you go visible on something big like Kickstarter, you might be forced to
change your branding or face a lawsuit. That could kill your profits
especially since youāll be doing a physical product. See:
I believe this happened to Spark:
Good luck!
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@Andrew_Hendriks Yea we looked into this while designing multiple iterations of the logo (similar process while naming the company, naming the productā¦ didnāt want us confused with similar products/companies). The logo you mention is similar but still distinctively different (colour, design, writing etc). Most importantly we intend to sell very different things. We might even help each otherās business, Hedgehog Toffee is based in Seattle and Seattle rains a lot 
. We understand the struggle of trying to be unique. In the beginning, we were banging our heads against the wall to find a name for our company because itās rare to find a common or catchy word isnāt already taken in some way or form. Thanks a lot of the heads up though and make sure to stay tune for more updates from us!
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Yes, you may be okay because youāre in different industries. Note: not a lawyer lol. When trademarking an entertainment property recently (i.e. 2 years ago) that is the legal advice we got. The application was sucessful and we now own the trademark. It cost 5k for us to trademark in the USA. Might be worth getting at least a lawyer eyeball before you forge on with your branding (i.e. which will be much less than 5K of course).
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So much fun to comment on something that looks so fantastic:
- how does it do with wind from the other direction, the direction I normally experience wind from?
- call it āthe umbrellaā - skip all the branding issues entirely
- instead, look at patents, where you infringe and what you might do to protect your idea
- the KickStarter seems like fun and you might hit a jackpot
- but alternatively/additionally, there might be local enterprises that do design, manufacture, marketing and selling, like MEC or Arcteryx, or even a real umbrella outfit
- apologies if youāve already thought this all out
- and thanks for the inspiration, the video is great - it gave me butterflies.
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Due to the unique nature of our design, the independent suspension system, the ribs are designed to be extremely stiff. When exposed to wind from the other direction, the suspension system simply bottoms out. The Cypress therefore behaves like any other umbrella, except with a lot stronger and stiffer canopy.
We have considered doing a wind test in the other direction, but we will need much more powerful equipment to generate enough wind to capture the deflection on camera.
Glad you like our video. Still work in progress, but make sure you check back for our next update on Tuesday.
Cheers,
VHS Update #3 - September 22, 2015
Hi Everyone,
āWhat colour is it?ā, the second most popular question we received. Itās a very big decision for most consumers as they are stuck with that colour/pattern for the life of the umbrella.
We therefore designed the Cypress Umbrella with an interchangeable canvas, allowing users to swap between many colours, patterns, and designs. Weāre still crunching the numbers to determine the number of canvases we are going to carry but we can assure that it will be no less than 10. In the meantime, weāve prepared a clip thatās specially dedicated to VHS.
Click images below to see the Interchangeable Canvas Video.
Incase you missed it, here is the video for the Independent Suspension System.
***Seriously though, any suggestions for a better name? Independent Suspension System sounds ā¦ awkward.
Weāll post another update next Tuesday September 29, 2015.
Regards,
Team Hedgehog
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Twitter: @CypressUmbrella
Instagram: @CypressUmbrella
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WeatherFlex technology
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VHS Update #4 - September 29, 2015
Campaign Video ā¦ nopeā¦ sorry, no new video in this update.
Hi Everyone,
So far we completed and shared two of our videos. As most of you probably can tell, neither of which will be our official Kickstarter campaign video. Itās not mandatory, but Kickstarter highly recommends attaching a short and informative video to all campaigns. Our goal is to create a video under 2 min that displays the features and experience that the Cypress Umbrella can offer.
We are working with a professional videographer, however this still proved to be a lot more difficult than we anticipated. 120 seconds is not a lot of time, similar to any presentation or report, a long video is far more easier to execute than a short video. The narration alone on our first cut was over 3 min, and soon we find ourselves in the difficult position to determine what must be left out. Eventually we reduced the narration down to 1 min, and decided to produce the video to focus more on the user experience.
Not much to show in this updateā¦ but here are some pictures of the video shoot in action.
Cypress Umbrella Prototypes on an IKEA table top.
Filming old prototype parts
A cool camera on skateboard thingy setup
Somewhat ghetto setup for sound recording (First cut)
Not-So-Ghetto setup for sound recording (Second cut)
***If youāre interested in more pictures, you can always follow us on Twitter @CypressUmbrella. Weāre posting new pictures approx 3-4 times per week.
Regards,
Team Hedgehog
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Twitter: @CypressUmbrella
Instagram: @CypressUmbrella
5 Likes
Hey Inspiration Lab at Vancouver Public Library has professional sound recording rooms as well as software to edit videos etc.
Nice work on The Umbrella! I want one too!
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VHS Update #5 - October 6, 2015
Hi Everyone,
Letās get the most important thing out of the way, we are launching on Tuesday October 20, 2015. Exactly two weeks from today!
Next up, we are still putting the finishing touches on the campaign videoā¦hang in there. In the meantime, enjoy our time lapse video of Kevin swapping the canvas. Itās super easy, takes no longer than 3 min. Video shows Kevin using an allen wrench, however the production version would require no tools. Click link below.
Finally, Gizmag and Stimulant published an article earlier last week featuring us!
http://stimulantonline.ca/2015/09/29/the-almost-indestructible-cyprus-umbrella/
Gizmag article was also referenced by Trend Hunter
Another article was also published yesterday by 3dprint.com (With a tip of the hat to VHS!)
3D Printing Helps You Stay Drier Even in High Winds with the Cypress Umbrella - 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing
And for the VHSāer at is fluent in Swedish,Italian or Russian, we were also covered by the following. The most awesome part? Json.tv translated our names to Russian!
m3.idg.se
Techsite.io
http://www.techsite.io/2015/09/30/unusually-stable-umbrella-cypress-umbrella-occupies-kickstarter/
DDay.it
Json.tv
http://json.tv/tech_trend_find/zontik-cypress-umbrella-20150930052037
Be sure to come back here for our next update.
Regards,
Team Hedgehog (aka ŠŠ°Ń
Š°Š¹ Š„Š¾ Šø ŠŠµŠ²ŠøŠ½ Š¢ŃŠ¾Š½Š³)
Facebook: facebook.com/CypressUmbrella
Twitter: @CypressUmbrella
Instagram: @CypressUmbrella
6 Likes
Great job!
I really like that you are allowing for interchangeable canvases! I donāt mind basic colors, but sometimes I want something a little more unique, mostly so I can find my umbrella in an umbrella stand!
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VHS Update #6 - October 19, 2015
Hi Everyone,
First up, we are launching in less than 24 hours! Scheduled for Tuesday October 20 5:00am PST/ 8:00am EST. Thereās only 25 super early birds, so for those who are interested be sure to submit a pledge ASAP. We will post the link to our campaign page on Talk the moment we launch.
In the meantime, here is our official campaign video as well as two 15s promotional videos below.
Lastly, we want to thank everyone at VHS for all the great support. Joining VHS was one of the best decision we made. If youāre an aspiring entrepreneur, engineer, maker, or hobbyist in the lower mainland reading this, look no further.
Regards,
Team Hedgehog
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Twitter: @CypressUmbrella
Instagram: @CypressUmbrella
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ą²„ā”ą²„ 
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This is so good.
I donāt even like umbrellas and I want one.
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My wife said ātwo pleaseā
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