It’s Never A Big Enough Umbrella And I’ll Be Damned If I Ever Get Even A Little Wet

SUVs have been shamed into downsizing, as have strollers. Now it’s time to work on umbrellas:

During a recent downpour in New York, Josephine Noah, 25, a business analyst from Jersey City, complained: “Every single time it rains I get hit. And it is always the larger ones.”

The culprit is the golf umbrella, which was once seen only on the fairways but is now increasingly popular for everyday use, especially among men.

Time was that the regular-size umbrella, 40 inches to 48 inches in diameter, ruled the market. Now, “everybody’s moved up to a 60 and 68,” said John W. Aycock, owner of Golfumbrella.com.

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Even street vendors see the shift. Modau, a Manhattan umbrella vendor who provided only his first name, said that until recently he sold only small black pop-up umbrellas, for $5 each. Then he started offering stick umbrellas for $10, and they have proved to be more popular, even at double the price.

According to stores, men are the best customers. “Men actually do come in asking, ‘What’s your biggest umbrella?’ Or, ‘Do you have anything bigger than that?'” said Rosa Rodriguez, a saleswoman at Rain or Shine, an umbrella store in Midtown Manhattan.

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Although there is no public health emergency, doctors and hospitals have treated results of more than a few mash-ups between people and umbrella spokes. “Most of the time they say they were walking and minding their own business, trying to keep out of the rain, and all of a sudden — bang! — from nowhere they got poked,” said Dr. Sheldon Jacobson, chairman of emergency medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan. Dr. Jacobson said he has seen facial lacerations and bruises and scratched corneas, all caused by carelessly brandished bumbershoots.