Two mates. One brand. Plenty of ideas.
We’re David and Nate, the two mates behind Sol Umbra.
What started as conversations about the beach, products we wished existed, and probably a few too many “mate, imagine if…” moments slowly turned into something real.
Today, we're building Sol Umbra together — learning as we go, solving problems, testing ideas, packing orders and trying to create a brand we're genuinely proud of.
We have different personalities, different strengths and definitely different opinions sometimes.
But that's exactly what makes it work.
We just wanted to make beach days easier
The idea behind Sol Umbra started with something simple.
We loved spending long days outside, but getting proper shade to the beach always seemed harder than it needed to be. Heavy gear. Awkward setups. Too many pieces.
So we started asking:
Could we make something simpler?
Something lightweight, easy to carry, quick to set up and actually made for Australian beach days.
That question became our first product — the Sol Umbra Sun Shade. It took testing, changing things, getting things wrong and trying again. But eventually an idea between two mates became something people were actually taking to the beach.
And that was a pretty special feeling.
The part you don't always see on Instagram
Sol Umbra hasn't been built by a huge team in a fancy office.
A lot of it has been the two of us figuring things out as we go.
Products. Photoshoots. Content. Website changes. Advertising. Packing orders. Customer messages. New ideas. Mistakes. And a lot of learning.
Some days everything works.
Other days… not so much.
But that's become one of our favourite parts of building Sol Umbra.
Every order still feels exciting.
Every time someone sends us a photo from the beach, we look at it.
And every time we see a Sol Umbra shade somewhere out in the real world, it reminds us how far a simple idea has already come.
We're only getting started
The Sun Shade was the beginning.
Our bigger vision is to build Sol Umbra into a beach and outdoor lifestyle brand that makes spending time outside simpler, more comfortable and a little more beautiful.
Sun shades. Towels. Bags. Hats.
And plenty more ideas still sitting in our heads.
But whatever Sol Umbra becomes, we want to keep the same feeling it started with:
Good products. Good people. More time outside.
We're incredibly grateful to everyone who's bought something, followed the journey, recommended us to a friend or simply stopped to say hello.
You're becoming part of the story too.
And the best part?
We're only getting started
David & Nate
Founders of Sol Umbra