The shade catalogue.

Barlow Tyrie’s book carries no wind figures anywhere. Caravita prints one, on a single model: Big Ben was tested by structural engineers in a wind tunnel, and the book states plainly that its 3 × 3 m version withstands winds up to 100 km/h — “Wind-stable up to 100 km/h!” in Caravita’s own words. No other Caravita or Barlow model in the tables above carries a comparable figure.

Symo prints a different kind of number, and prints it often: not a tested story about one flagship, but a Beaufort-scale rating stamped on seventeen of its umbrellas as a standard spec field, each tied to the specific base sold under it. Geisha, for one, is rated 4 Bft (28 km/h) on its own Geisha base and 6 Bft (49 km/h) on the heavier Rondo base — the umbrella does not change, the rating the base earns it does. Inventing a figure for a model that prints none would be a lie; so would flattening this range to “one maker rates, the rest are silent”, which is not what the books actually show.

Caravita names six separate fabric ranges — Acrylic, LUMERA Acrylic, Tentmesh, Ferrari Precontraint 302, ProNature Acrylic and TempotestStar FR — each with its own weight and technical rating printed alongside it. Symo names eight — Sunbrella, Airtex, Symacryl, Sunvision, Orchestra, Flag fabric, Raffia and Lace — each selected per model rather than offered as one default across the whole range.

Barlow Tyrie prints none of that colour-programme apparatus at all — every Napoli and Sail parasol in its book is upholstered in the same named cloth, Sunbrella® .302 Canvas, with no colour count printed for it in this catalogue. Where the books draw a solution-dyed-acrylic-versus-polyester line, this page draws it too and no further: Barlow’s own text calls .302 Canvas “100% solution-dyed acrylic yarn”, and Symo’s Sunbrella carries the same description against its own “100% polyester” Airtex and Flag fabric.

Barlow Tyrie spells its own arithmetic out on the page. The Napoli Cantilever’s freestanding base takes twelve concrete slabs, 45 × 45 × 3 cm, marked “not supplied” — and the book carries its own sum in print: “12 slabs x 14kg = 168kg + 42kg = Total 210kg.”

Caravita prints a straight table of nineteen named bases, running from lighter plates like Oslo’s 42 kg up to a 450 kg steel plate reserved for Grande — the largest umbrella in the book, printed up to 8 × 8 m square or Ø 10 m round, 79 m² of shade. Heavier canopy, heavier plate, exactly as printed on Grande’s own page and again in the base table itself — not a rule this page derived from the two.

Barlow Tyrie on its Sunbrella canopies: “Although Sunbrella® fabric will not mildew or mould, we recommend that the canopy is cleaned regularly to prevent the accumulation of dirt on the fabric. A stain repellent has been applied to the .302 canvas-colour fabric to make the cleaning process easier.”

Most Symo umbrellas come with a Polyester Ripstop® protective cover as standard, and Symo gives Cape Wood, Colosso, Gemello, Grandioso, Macsymo, Quattro, Sobrino and Sonata a ten-year warranty against colour fading.

Replacement canopies and frames →