I love the idea of an inverted umbrella. One of my struggles with getting my umbrella and me into the car is that I end up wet. With a normal umbrella, I open the car door and quickly move into the opening. Still holding the umbrella upright to protect me and the car interior, I get into the car seat. I then close the car door as much as possible. Finally, I lower the umbrella sidewise (so that closing the umbrella doesn't result in all of the water from the top instantly sluicing onto me), shut the umbrella, pull it into the car, and close the car door the rest of the way. The pulling it into the car part is where I get wet.

Sometimes I pull the umbrella in and stash it in the footwell next to the door. This results in the least amount of water on me but I do usually get some water on my pant leg and I have to avoid brushing against/stepping on the umbrella for the rest of the trip. If I'm the driver and I don't have a passenger, I'll put the umbrella into the footwell of the passenger seat. This results in drips across my lap and the console as the umbrella has to go over both to get to the passenger side but once there I can forget about the umbrella.

The inverted umbrella avoids this problem as it is a DRY umbrella once closed and I can easily stash it next to me. I haven't tried putting it in the passenger seat, but I think the way to do it is to give it a half minute to drip onto the floor mat and then move it over. This feature is what I bought the umbrella for and earns 4 stars.

This is not a perfect umbrella though! First of all, someone asked the question if there was a button and someone replied YES. Well, that was an important detail to me too and the person who replied must not have understood the implicit question: While this umbrella technically does have a button, it is NOT an automatic open/close umbrella. It is completely manual. Since it is also a long, non-compact umbrella, it means that you have to stretch way up (above the car door frame) to open/close the umbrella. Not terribly convenient and slower than auto open/close which means more opportunity to get wet.

Second it is a long, non-compact umbrella. The coverage isn't that much more than my compact umbrella so I do wish this folded but I don't know if that is not possible because of the inversion technology. I will use this umbrella for at-home but it won't be my travel umbrella nor the umbrella I carry if it is only maybe-going-to-rain because of its size.

Third, once it is closed, the little pins at the end of each rib are longer than the center pole. If you were to walk along and tap this umbrella on the ground as I have done with other long umbrellas, you are likely to break the umbrella because the pins are hitting the ground, not the tip. I wish they had made the tip longer. If you stand the umbrella up by itself with the Velcro strap off, it is resting on the tip (it is cylindrical and flat on top). If you stand it up with the Velcro strap wrapped around it, it is resting on the pins.


Finally, I am not a fan of the handle. The gap in the circle is just big enough to keep catching on things and too small to be of any use. I can't slip my wrist through it.

I'm keeping the umbrella, I will use it for at-home, and I am now a fan of inversion technology; but I won't be buying more inverted umbrellas until they improve a bit more. I was going to buy as Xmas gifts for everyone in my family if it was the perfect umbrella but it is not there yet.

PS: I love the red exterior/black with white dots interior color combo. It looks so nice. Most of the inverted umbrellas offer color/pattern on the inside and the outside is just plain black. Some of the patterns (cloud on the interior) are offered by everybody. As far as I can tell, the color combo I picked is only offered by Bagail.com. Quality seems very good.