Say hello to the Rainshader, the friendly umbrella Whether the 'Rainshader' provides good facial protection is another question. Picture: Rainshader Source: news.com.au FINALLY, people are getting serious about umbrellas. The humble umbrella has tried to protect our heads from the rain for hundreds of years, but except for a sturdy few they haven't done a particularly good job. Most break at the slightest gust of wind. City slickers scratch you with their spokes as they jostle to get their brolly in a better position. And a lot of the time you still get wet. No more. A growing band of entrepreneurs, both overseas and here in Australia, have grasped the opportunity to design a friendlier and more durable umbrella. Stephen Collier, a US businessman, has developed a simple alternative with his 'Rainshader' brolly. It was inspired by a lightning bolt brainwave: Why don't we just turn the edges of the umbrella down so it's shaped like a helmet? "Traditional umbrellas have a lot of drawbacks in busy environments as they can blow inside out and make it difficult to navigate through crowds," Mr Collier told phys.org in one of the understatements of the year. The basic design of the umbrella hasn't changed for centuries, so the time is ripe to make it more suitable to modern settings. The Rainshader protects a brolly wielder from rogue umbrellas - and it's not a threat to others. It could break the poncho's chokehold on sports crowd rainwear. It was especially designed with sporting events in mind. Brolly manufacturers here, too, have begun hawking umbrellas with advanced mechanics. Two brands, Blunt and senz umbrellas, claim to have put their umbrellas through extensive wind tunnel tests. Weather experts predict it will be brolly season for many Australians over the next few months. The Bureau of Meteorology says we're likely to see wetter than normal conditions across southern QLD, northern NSW, much of the Northern Territory and the north tip of WA from now until the end of July.