I've actually encountered one like this on the trail, it might have been by GoLite iirc but after the initial chuckle I quickly started to see the advantages, it's just non traditional I guess...I'm not going to be to so quick to judge until I look into this a little more...great post
So I have to ask...how many Mary Poppins jokes have you had to withstand?
They are really missing a marketing opportunity here...two burly hunter fighting and clawing up a rugged mountainside in the morning mist and as they reach the top they break into song while waving around there "trail umbrellas" in that Mary Poppins theme with a Dick Van Dyke thrown in...most of us buying this gear are just old enough to laugh our arse's off...
These umbrellas remind me a lot of the function argument I finally gave into as a young Marine when the chiggers were so bad we wore panty hose...yeah it worked...it only took me til almost 40 to talk about it...