PlayAbly Podcast Episode 24: Revolutionizing Rainy Days: How Brella Shoppe is Disrupting the Umbrella Market

Turning Rainy Days into Runway Moments: How Brella Shoppe is Redefining an Untapped Market with Shauna Cowit

In this episode of the Playably Podcast, we sit down with Shauna Cowit, founder of Brella Shoppe, to explore how she’s transforming umbrellas from boring afterthoughts into must-have fashion accessories. Shauna shares how her "toxically optimistic" mindset helped her create a design-forward, high-quality umbrella brand — and why consumers are finally ready to care about what they carry on rainy days.

We dive into her product development journey (hint: 30+ samples and a failed squishy handle), the marketing lessons she took from Nickelodeon, and how she’s using gamification and shoppable games to inject personality and boost customer engagement. Plus, Shauna reveals how her partnership with ShedRain (aka the Coca-Cola of umbrellas) is about to take Brella to a national stage.

⚡️ If you're an ecommerce founder, retention marketer, or brand builder, this convo is packed with takeaways on customer loyalty, authentic branding, and breaking into overlooked markets.

👉 Check out Brella Shoppe’s new DIY umbrella game built with PlayAbly — an interactive way to design your own umbrella and engage with the brand beyond the transaction.

🔗 If you’re curious about ecommerce gamification, Shopify engagement, and how to use interactive experiences to drive customer retention, you don’t want to miss this one.

Welcome to the PlayAbly Podcast, where we dive into the art and science of gamification, customer engagement, and driving conversions. 

At PlayAbly, we turn passive audiences into active customers through shoppable games and playable experiences that transform how brands connect with their customers. Book your free demo here.

Thanks for tuning in to the PlayAbly Podcast! Ready to engage your customers like never before? PlayAbly creates branded Shoppable Games that drive results. Don’t forget, mention the podcast during your free demo, and get $500 off (book here). Learn more at playably.ai

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Transcript

 And we're back with another episode of the Playably podcast. We are in our second episode of this series where we are interviewing DTC founders and today we have Shauna Cowit with us. She is the founder of Brella Shoppe, who just launched their Playably, DIY umbrella game. Shauna, welcome to the show.

Thank you for having me. Excited to be here. 

So I'd love if you could introduce yourself and umBrella Shoppe to our listeners. 

My name is Shauna. Hello. I am the founder of Brella Shoppe, which is a high quality design forward umbrella brand, designed to make your rainy days better. 

I Love the designs, especially that they're double layered because I'm in Hawaii. you don't use umbrellas for the rain really, but we use them all the time for the UVs. so I was checking out your, website. the Instagram, and online, you've described yourself as a toxically optimistic person who just wanted to make people's rainy days better.

how did that mindset shape how you built Brella Shoppe's brand? 

before Brella. I was on the brand marketing team at Nickelodeon, and I was a Nick kid.

coming home from school every day, I would turn on Nickelodeon and made my day. when I started working at Nickelodeon, I had that in mind and always thought about I wanted to make these kids days better, but being in corporate America people don't really get kids humor.

I'm still a kid at heart. a lot of my ideas would get watered down. They wouldn't get the jokes. I'd have to over explain it. at the end of the day, I just wanted to make people's days better. with that, clear intention, one day it was pouring rain, and I see all these people with horrible umbrellas.

I lived in Williamsburg, so it was all these, fashionable people, Gucci loafers, with really, excuse my language, but shitty products. I had that light bulb moment where I like these people need a tool to make their rainy days better.

It just clicked. with such a clear intention, it made the marketing. feel so authentic from this, ground zero. This is the foundation of the brand. We're here to make your rainy days better. keeping that in mind with every single detail, like the green details.

Umbrella green, Pantone 2025, that was inspired by grass and trees on rainy days. So bright and beautiful, but everyone's too miserable to notice. every little detail, I really tried to inject that toxic optimism into everything.

All the brothers are named after my nieces and nephews. Cause they're, they make my rainy days better. I just tried to really inject that love into every aspect. And it's cool. It came through so many of my customers look forward. To rain now because they get to use their umbrella and it makes them feel and look good on an otherwise shitty day.

and it's just amazing that having such a clear intention really comes through. to my customers. 



You're right. People are not looking up. They are walking with their heads down or the umbrella as close to their head as possible.

So you don't see anything that's going on. And I also love that the bright colors help, when you're crossing those busy streets and traffic. People definitely see you. 

Yes. And all the stitching is, reflective materials. So you definitely won't get hit by a car. Oh, I love that. don't quote me on that.

if you do, I don't want to get sued, but this is not legal advice. Thank you. We'll get back to the brand in a second. I just have to ask because you said that you were a Nick kid what was your favorite show growing up? What did you run home to watch? 

Oh my God. I loved all that and the Amanda show, and Keenan and Kel.

Oh my God. Ride or die for Keenan and Kel. Spongebob was my show. I still quote Spongebob 24 7. Probably half my jokes are straight out of Spongebob and I don't even realize anymore. ride or die. Blue's Clues was huge for me. I actually got to work, You saw that Steve came back two years ago and he like talked to the camera.

That was me and my team, working really closely with Steve, our boy. 

Oh, shut up. I love that. Oh my 

God. I, oh man, I cried so hard. 

This is from my little Levy award. pretty cool. Everyone liked it. Got me a nice award on my shelf. 

Nice. 

So launching umBrella Shoppe, you launched into an untapped market.

You saw that there was a need. What has been the biggest challenge and opportunity in educating customers about why they need a better umbrella? 

The biggest challenge, is changing consumer behavior. A lot of people, there are two things that a lot of my customers And a lot of, things that I'm trying to change in other people.

One of them is buying an umbrella while it's raining. A lot of people notice it's raining. They go to a drug store, they get a umbrella, it breaks. And they repeat that behavior every time it rains because the umbrellas always break. The other one is they leave it. A lot of people forget their umbrella.

In places very common. My analogy to that is when I buy Amazon sunglasses, I leave them on the beach. If I had Prada sunglasses, I'll make sure they're in my bag before I go. those are the biggest challenges. changing those consumer behaviors, 

There's so much opportunity, because, I like to think of it as an elevated necessity, designed for necessity, similar to how people didn't have reusable water bottles before S'well, and now there's S'well, Hydro Flask, Stanley, Oala, all of them, now it's like social suicide if you have a plastic water bottle,  I view it like that.

I feel like the more umbrella players there are, it'll build out the category and people will realize. That it's a necessity and having a high quality one completely changes your day, your mood, your entire experience of bad weather.  

I actually really agree with that because I'm a big Star Wars nerd.

So I have a light up lightsaber umbrella and I love when it rains because it glows. Yeah, I'm just running around with my little glowstick umbrella. 

That's amazing. I love that. that's so cool. I'm noting that and keeping that in my back pocket. yeah. and there's so much opportunity in an untapped market,  In my personal opinion, when I first started the brand, there were no category leaders.

Now, obviously I'm very familiar with the biggest manufacturer and umbrellas in the country, which is not me. but a lot of people don't know umbrella brands. and it just felt like this untapped space where people can. Play and explore just like there are so many new innovations to water bottles now because swell they started it.

 so it was a risk for sure. Every time I would tell someone that I was Starting an umbrella brand. They're like, why? I can't name one umbrella brand. but doesn't that smell like opportunity to you? Because my entrepreneur ass, that is an opportunity to me. Other people are intimidated that there are no other players.

Why would you be the first? that doesn't really make sense to me, but again, Optimist.

Leading the umbrella revolution. 



Yeah. 

Revolutionizing the rainy day experience. And I saw that last September you got into Wolf and Badger, which is not only a big moment for independent brands to get showcased there, but also one of my favorite stores 

Just everything cool comes from there. I feel like you can never have a bad purchase. but how has that impacted sales, awareness, customer perception? 



 it definitely gave Brella some credibility in the fashion space. I think a lot of people Thought and sometimes still think of umbrellas as just a necessity.

it gave Brella some legs to stand on in the fashion accessory world. marketing wise I, didn't really have any marketing spent in 2024. I wanted to learn, I was not putting any pressure on myself to spend a bunch of money and then regret it.

I wanted to learn about my audience, learn what works, test different content, figure out the ropes before I, went all in. Wolf and Badger, their marketing is amazing. If you even think about umbrellas and have searched Wolf and Badger before, you get ads for Umbrellas at Wolf and Badger.

it's pretty incredible. marketing. So instead of spending on my own marketing and competing with a million other brands spending what 30 a day, I allocated that money to Wolf and Badger. that was my marketing spend because their reach was incredible. their email list is around, 800, 000 subscribers.

So that was my marketing strategy, being in Wolf and Badger. that was a really cool experience. it's an awesome store. I love buying stuff from there. it felt like a really nice fit for Brella's first debut as a style and fashion focused brand rather than a weather brand. 

Many first time founders struggle with product development. what went into creating this durable, stylish umbrella that truly stood out? What are the hard lessons that you learned? What was difficult for you that, other founders or want to be founders should be aware of?

I started my, year and a half of back and forth with manufacturers on Alibaba, trying to nail down the perfect product. I have. at least 30 samples that I paid way too much for and I was hitting a wall because of the manufacturers.

they overcharge you if you don't have a good relationship with them I wasn't able to make my customizations yet my goal was to find the best possible. Umbrella, then add the branding of the design that I like, I really was finding high quality product and a trusted, manufacturer.

a lot of the trial and error came from trying to find my manufacturer, and a solid product. I was hitting a wall and about to give up and through these amazing networking events, which is how Angelo and I met, I found this 3PL that has amazing relationships with factories now they Call them a product consulting business.

 they had manufacturer that could take Brella to the next level quicker. I trusted them with my vision. I worked with them on every detail and I originally was going to do, I don't know if you remember this Conair brush from the nineties 

really squishy handle. Oh yeah. Do you remember? I was going to make the handles those, because it was just really form fitting for the hand. I wanted it to be comfortable to hold, and I got the first sample, my first sample was the Miley, with, This squishy handle and it was so weird and I was like, oh no, like this was my vision and it got crushed.

I was like, this is no one's gonna buy. This is like pervy and weird yeah, we scratched that at the last minute this was like July and I launched in December. it was really down to the last second. I had it in my head that I launched in December, but 

I didn't publicly announced that date, so it could have moved But in my head, it was happening. so at the last minute, I switched the handle. it's ABS plastic, Yeah, it was a very long process finding perfect product. I had this wind test that I would do with every umbrella.

So I have 30 umbrellas in my apartment that flip inside out my weird wind test was like me just slamming it down. Quick as possible, and would all flip inside out. when I finally got this one, it didn't flip. I was like, Oh, my God, this is it. it had all the features I wanted.

the umbrella bag, carryable and easy for people to Not leave at a bar because they don't feel like holding it. 

I think that there's nothing more embarrassing than being in the rain and having your umbrella flip. Inside out. I know that other people probably aren't judging you, but I just feel mortified whenever it happens.

And it's not my fault. I know how to use an umbrella, I swear.  

yeah, it is so embarrassing and awkward and you're getting wet and you're trying to rush it. And it's just like one of those fight or flight panic moments. after every storm in New York city, there are so many broken, flipped umbrellas on the street, littered everywhere.

that was also something I wanted to change because we love earth, 

I've seen online that you've mentioned being from a family of entrepreneurs. When you were starting the business, were they giving you advice? 



two things 

stand out to me. one of them, My brother would always say every day that I'd come to him with a thought, a problem, whatever he would literally just right back tunnel vision, like tunnel vision, just keep going.

if it's not an educational or inspirational conversation. no need to distract yourself from the goal. the goal at the end of the day is to sell umbrella, sell umbrellas. would literally text me tunnel vision, sell an umbrella. I think that's really important for, founders.

I'm happy that I kept my head down and didn't keep looking at competitors. if you were inspiring me or educating me, amazing. clear intentions when talking to people, part of that tunnel vision conversation.

the other thing was just be authentic, be as authentic as possible. people buy from people, not. brands. I was really uncomfortable with being on camera at first. my education and experience in branding and marketing. I was not an influencer. my brother was like, You need to be you because you're the brand people don't care about umbrellas.

People care about Shauna who's obsessed with umbrellas, okay, yeah, so I gave that a whirl and it worked, but yeah, authenticity and tunnel vision, very important. 

 Every video I've seen of you on. Instagram, the reels that you've posted, the clips that you've posted, it's clear you come from brand because you're very good at it.

the way that you communicate about Rella, about the products is just so specific. And then you get a sense for what it is, it really builds up your brand. I don't even own one. I'm like, Oh, these are super cool. And I definitely want to get one. but with your product being, highly visual and experiential, what are those strategies that if you can share your secret sauce allow you to communicate online so well about the brand?

Wow. thank you. I think passion, like you have to show your passion and I think that's really important. I see a lot of people talk about their brands, but they don't look excited. By what they're doing. and I think that really tells a lot. I just feel like it genuinely excites me talking about Brella.

every video it honestly. just happens. I will say focusing on the main point and not mushing your, main message with other things, I got whipped into shape at Nickelodeon a large brand where we had to be very clear with our messaging, especially talking to kids and playing within that thinking outside of that box.

But it's a very small box. Here's the point, what's the weirdest and wackiest way you can prove this point. I really took that into Brella. honestly, because it's also core to my nature, having a very clear point and getting to that point in whatever way you want is very important.

everything I post has an objective. I really like the trend, trying to be cutesy. That's not really my approach with social. Everything has an objective. Everything has a point. that's my marketing brain, coming into play. everything needs an intention behind it. 

And then heading into the business side of things in DTC, normally people, aim for subscription or retention. And I know with Brella, you really want people to hold onto the umbrella. do you have a plan for trying to get repeat purchases, customer loyalty, referrals, word of mouth?  

I get a lot of repeat customers because people love their umbrella so much they end up gifting it. That's been huge for me and my customers that is the biggest sign to me that, it's working.

People are drinking my Kool Aid, really changes the rainy day so much. They want to improve rainy days for someone they love. that word of mouth, also I'm trying to get people to buy multiple so they can style it every rainy day and lean into their rainy day style.

that is one of my goals. That's something I'm going to lean more into this year by posting more rainy outfit of the days and working with influencers so that they really style it. I think that is going to be important this year for Brella. right now, 

I offered, 20 percent off for referrals, in my order tracking emails, I'm pretty sure. And if it's not in there, I'm going to make sure it is after this. Also, UGC, if you post  content, I'll give you 30 percent off. love your brella. Post your brella. 

And then I have to ask, just with everything going on, current administration, everything changing day to day, going back and forth, like, how do you prepare yourself for the unknown?

 There's no way to prepare. I try not to worry about things I can't really control. I have been, softly looking for U. S. manufacturers. thankfully and selfishly, my inventory landed in the U. S. last week, so I'm probably good for a couple months, which is really nice, and I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

I try not to stress about things I can't control. That's really my main thing. I'll figure it out when I get there, which sounds horrible because I should be preparing, but honestly, tunnel vision, I'm just selling umbrellas. I'll figure it out as I go. It's worked so far. 

That's great.

we actually had a podcast drop today with our CEO founder, John Chang, about tariffs and what people could do. Just like opportunities that are there. I think there's a couple. It's like a 20 minute podcast. It's pretty digestible.

Okay, yeah. I'm going to listen to that after this. but Angelo, you guys met at a networking event, , and brought you to Playably so that we were able to have the interactive on your site. 

I met Shauna at Ecom Coffee Collective. Shout out to Sam at Yopo for coordinating that. Sam organizes  📍 these coffee happy hours, in the early stages of Playably, I don't know if we had a demo yet, or maybe if we did it was just the very first one, I remember,  📍 showing it to you,  📍 and you thought it was really cool,  📍 You mentioned you  📍 had an idea  📍 for a coloring book, and   📍 I said, let's do it!

 

I can't believe you made it come to life! it came out amazing, I'm so excited. 

, what was the origin for the idea to have the design? 

At my launch party, something that's core to Brella, obviously making rainy days better, but injecting personality into something boring and mundane.

at my launch party, I actually had a stack of empty brellas. And markers, and I had people design their dream umbrella. I said, if you win, you'll get an umbrella named after you. it was a hit. I have a hundred and fifty drawings. And it's a great thing to do in the corner of a party when you feel awkward or something.

Just go and color and people come over and color with you. It was a really successful, adorable little thing that so many people bonded over and made amazing designs. Some of them were silly and unusable, but some of them are really great. it was such a hit and I really wanted to incorporate that somehow on the website.

I feel like it's core to the brand. to play and to see joy and toxic optimism, it was important for me and it was so funny when you said, something about games for your company. I was like, I've always had this dream.

You're like we can do that. I was like, no way. and it just worked out. And then we actually launched it today. Yeah. Really exciting. 

something about coloring as an adult, it's just very therapeutic. 

It's so nice, and it's like Microsoft Paint, it's perfect.

You said you wanted like Microsoft Paint, so we were able to do that. I've been following a lot and I'll share my videos 

online too. I'm excited to see. 

Am I a child? But I guess that's like the whole brand. That's fine. 

That's the point. normally with clients a lot of our brands use gamification in a transactional  📍 way. They're after those sales, it's play, you win a discount and then you buy or you come back and buy. But your coloring activity is a lot more about engagement and creativity and fun.

Why is that the right approach for Brella Shoppe? 



 it's important for people to spend time with the brand. it doesn't lead to sales. It really doesn't convert. I just want people to enjoy who we are. And by we, I mean I, because I have no one on my team, I want people to understand the brand ethos and the brand mission, which is to play and inject joy into.

personality lacking things. it was just to spend time in the brand space. it was important at the launch party and gets people to play is important. 

We also love play, but it's so hard to get anyone to do anything.

Attention span is really low and we're bombarded with ads. So it's hard to get into a brand story. the way we did it was really fun, but it's also, true to you. So it feels authentic we always aim for games.

 📍 to feel like not a throwaway, like a spinner. It's not meant to be gimmicky. It's meant to be an extension 📍  of the brand storytelling. not gimmicky. Exactly. 

Something we hate more than 

a spinner. 



For other founders considering interactive experiences on their website or gamification, possibly working with Playably, do you have any advice for them about how it fits in with the storytelling or going after more of the engagement rather than the sale? 

I would say that, from my experience in gaming, if you can get people to engage and to retain I downloaded this mobile game a couple of weeks ago and I spent way more money than I should have, but it's very engaging.

I play it every day. we see the same thing happening with, DTC, where if you can get someone to engage, if you're able to take that, first interaction, and they remember the brand and keep coming back through a game, through email, through whatever interactivity it is, then they will eventually spend. 

Building brand affinity. 

Finding brand awareness too, I have  📍 an umbrella. I don't bring it out if I'm going to drink at night because I don't want to lose it, if you're in a restaurant, and put it in with, all the other umbrellas, I'm like, dad, don't do that.

Yeah, because you don't want someone to steal it,  

Steal it, yeah, someone would totally steal it. 

Yeah, I was thinking that when you're talking about changing consumer habits at the beginning and you're like, people were forgetting or whatever. And I'm just like, but what about the people who steal it?

They'll want to steal it more. So 

then you can carry it around now. I'm like, that's genius. 

So you can put it at your table. 

And it's not like a pain in the neck, hanging on the table It stands on its own. So we can just. Park it by you. And then no one steals it. But honestly, if they steal it, I don't blame them.

It's a great umbrella. 

If you're going to steal an umbrella, you would steal a Brella umbrella 

yeah, that should be a whole campaign. 

So 

then what is next for umBrella Shoppe? Anything that you can share or want to promote? 

So I can announce for the first time that umbrella is going to be, partnering with Shadray the Coca Cola of umbrellas, to hit the mass market and get people's rainy day.

Style up. so that's very exciting. we're going to be launching, with brand ambassadors very soon. I was a brand ambassador when I was in college, for Adidas and it was killer. So I'm really excited to bring that, to Brella and honestly make the program better than.

When I was a brand ambassador. umbrella's about to be way bigger this year because we're partnering with a really amazing company that I'm excited to be a part of. We'll be under their umbrella. Ha. 

That is amazing. You will. stay very busy with that over the years, especially as a one woman show, but at least now you'll have lots of help going to the expansion.

I'm excited to, have a team working toward a common goal because doing it alone for so long, can't do everything. There's only enough time in the day. So very excited to have a team to help build the baby. I feel like I should also say I'll be brand director of Shed Rain, so you'll see more of Shed Rain.

 

amazing. 

Yeah. 

Shauna, thank you so much for joining the Playably podcast. for all listeners, be sure to check out Brella Shoppe. That is shop S H O P E. Their game, their DIY Brella game is online now. Look for the green play now button and design your own Brella.

We'll catch you next time on the Playably podcast.