Look, I’ve broken my fair share of umbrellas. That satisfying snap when a gust of wind hits you at just the wrong angle, the metal rib poking through fabric like a broken bone, the awkward dance of trying to fold the thing back into submission. We’ve all been there. So when I first saw the Ori umbrella, my immediate thought was: wait, where’s the rest of it?
This sleek little cylinder looks more like a fancy pen or a futuristic flashlight than an umbrella. And that’s entirely the point. Ori just announced what they’re calling the world’s first frameless umbrella, and honestly, it’s one of those “why didn’t anyone think of this sooner” moments that makes you question everything.
Designer: Modestas Balcytis
The magic is in the origami. Founded by MIT engineers and origami specialists, Ori uses a patented folding technique based on the Miura fold, which is the same kind of engineering NASA uses for deployable spacecraft structures. Instead of the traditional setup of metal ribs covered in fabric, the canopy itself becomes the structure. No ribs. No fabric stretched over a frame. No failure points waiting to betray you on a windy Tuesday.
When folded, this thing measures just 3.5 by 23 centimeters. That’s genuinely pocket sized, and I’m not talking about cargo pants pockets either. It compresses a full one meter canopy into something smaller than most water bottles. The canopy unfolds with what they call “1-degree of freedom motion,” which is engineering speak for “it opens with one smooth movement and doesn’t fight you.”
But here’s where Ori gets really interesting. They didn’t just reinvent the umbrella’s mechanics. They added an OLED display right into the handle. This isn’t some gimmicky addition either. The display shows you real time air quality data through something called AirSense, measuring particles and UV levels right where you’re standing. There’s MoodShift, which adapts the display visuals based on weather and your preference. You can customize the display themes, and everything operates with a simple tap to open or close.
The design itself is gorgeous. Available in iPhone grade aluminum housing with finishes in silver, rose gold, and sky blue, it genuinely looks like something Apple would make if they decided to tackle rain gear. The comparison to Dyson and Apple isn’t just marketing speak. Founder and CEO Modestas Balcytis explicitly said that’s the goal: to become the premium design brand in a category that hasn’t seen real innovation in 170 years.
And he’s not wrong about that timeline. The basic umbrella design has remained essentially unchanged since the mid 1800s. Sure, we’ve gotten automatic open buttons and wind resistant frames, but the fundamental architecture of fabric on metal ribs hasn’t budged. Meanwhile, we’ve completely reinvented phones, watches, even how we vacuum our floors. The umbrella just sat there, breaking in the same predictable ways, generation after generation.
The umbrella market is massive too. We’re talking $7.4 billion annually, with 1.2 billion units sold every year. Yet there’s no iconic umbrella brand. No household name that owns the category. It’s a completely fragmented market of cheap airport kiosk purchases and forgotten drugstore impulse buys. Ori sees that gap and wants to fill it with something people actually want to own and show off.
At $249.99, this isn’t an impulse purchase. But neither was the first Dyson vacuum or the original iPhone. Premium pricing positions this as an investment piece, something that should last years instead of months. With four patents filed covering everything from the folding architecture to the locking system and smart core, Ori has built serious intellectual property around this design.
The first Founder Edition units are expected to ship globally in 2026. Whether Ori succeeds in becoming the Dyson of umbrellas remains to be seen, but they’ve definitely created something worth paying attention to. Sometimes the most innovative products come from rethinking the everyday objects we’ve stopped questioning. And honestly? I’m ready to see umbrellas get the glow up they deserve.
