This thing is great. Super lightweight and easy to assemble. My wife had zero trouble assembling it herself in about 10 minutes. We had multiple people stop and ask about it. I took this picture with one of those $250 wind shades next to us. What the pic doesn't show is that expensive wind shade getting in the way of the folks under it. When the wind changes direction you have to pick that thing up and move it. The ZiggyShade does not require that. It started to rain that same day. The canopy held the rain off but the wind picked up and we had to take it down. Then it got wet sand all over it. And the storm passed. So we set it up again in about 3 minutes but only set up the lean-to version (with two poles). Within about 10 minutes, the sand on it was dry enough to brush off with a towel and was entirely dry in about 30 minutes so I could pack it up. Tip: Others have said it but it's a good idea to wind up the bags in their own cords to avoid tangles. But man it's amazing. Plus we use it at the pool with the provided tent stakes. Never buying a framed canopy again. Whenever this thing goes, I'm getting another one. May even get another one just for the hell of it.

Speaking of getting another one, if ZiggyShade is reading this, if anything goes wrong can I contact you with replacement parts? You have a customer for life.

Update: For the folks saying it doesn't do well in wind, angle the poles out and pull the sand bags out more to make the shade more taut. We have 28+ mph gusts today and it worked just fine with these tweaks.

I prefer this sun shade over the shamboni

Family of Irish descent here, all with crazy fair skin... you can imagine our lives on the beach with regard to sunshades and sunscreen! We've used all sorts of sun protection over the years from regular golf umbrellas to beach umbrellas, to pop-up tent style sunshades to U-shaped crescent things. None of them come close to the ZiggyShade! I am totally won over.

We bought the family size, which is plenty big for most uses. It provides a lot of shade and we were all able to fit under it when we wanted to (3 adults, 2 teens). For more than 5 people, I would recommend the jumbo size or maybe two smaller ZiggyShades.

The design is easy to set up and take down. Follow the directions exactly and you should have it set up in about 3 minutes (filling the sand anchors takes the longest, but with everyone helping, this goes very quickly). The sand anchors work great for keeping the sunshade in place, even with seriously strong offshore breezes. The poles are shock-corded together, so they are very easy to work with and you don't need to worry about losing pieces in the sand. The awning is made of a lycra-type fabric that feels like a swimsuit. It is satisfying to work with, provides excellent shade with UV protection, and dries super fast. The whole kit packs up quickly and easily into its little carry bag. The completely packed up bag is small and lightweight compared to every other option we have ever used. It was easy-peasy to toss into our towel bag or over a shoulder for the trek to the beach each morning and the return trip later in the day. No one begrudged the task of carrying the sunshade back to the car, a first for this family.

The thing I like best about this design is that it allows for ALL of the breezes to come through to help keep you cool. Every other option we've tried either provided pitifully small amounts of shade (umbrella) or trapped the heat in so you felt like you were suffocating.

I cannot recommend this enough! I'm going to be giving these away as Christmas gifts this year, no lie.

Note 1: the sunshade *must* be oriented to face the wind. This means that the highest end will face the breeze, wherever that may be coming from (not necessarily the water). Over a week of use, this meant that our ZiggyShade was usually pointed SE rather than NNE where the ocean was. This did not cause any problems nor did it reduce the shade, it just meant that when you entered the shelter, you needed to enter from the beachside rather than the shoreside. It affected our view a smidge, but not much (we couldn't see the sky quite as well looking over the water, but had a great view of the beach, the water, and our family).

Note 2: YOU DO NOT PUSH THE POLES INTO THE SAND. At all. They simply sit on the sand and are held in place by the pressure of the Lycra tent/shade part. The rubber knobby bit is the top, which the shade sits on top of. People who are reviewing this and talking about shoving the poles in the sand are doing it wrong! If the wind gets really ferocious, you can angle the poles a bit to create more stability and you can loop the guy lines around the ball top of the pole (on the outside of the shade). Expect the fabric to sway in the breeze, but the anchors and poles should not.

Note 3: The sand anchors are actually squares of Lycra fabric that you fill with sand or pebbles, then use the drawstring to close it up. On really windy days, we needed to partially close the "bag," then add some more sand, then close it fully.

Edit June 2021 After two more years of use, I wanted to update our review. We've now used the Ziggy shade on a camping tour around Lake Michigan, in South Carolina on Hilton Head, in Chicago, and now multiple times in Florida. It is still in perfect condition and works flawlessly, as long as you orient the Ziggy with high end in the direction of the wind. If the wind shifts significantly, you may need to reorient your shade.

Even in 25 mph winds, this shade has held up--while others on the beach had their shades rolling and flying away!

We like the Ziggyshade. Very easy to put up and take down. Compact carry bag with strap is great. If you're on the beach, the included shovel actually does a good job filling the bags with sand. We tied the ropes up to make them a little shorter so we didn't have to take up the entire beach. Held up well to pretty windy days on the Texas coast. The ONLY negative is that the stretchy material does not offer very good protection from sunburn. Picture is of the sun through the fabric. This is not meant to be a negative review, just a warning to those who may need more sun protection.

I'd give this product 4.5 but that's not allowed, so I dropped it to four because I found the instructions inadequate. My first setup was a disaster and I was really bummed out because this seemed like just the thing we needed for our Bahamas trip. I spent some time puzzling over what went wrong, figured it out, and our second (and subsequent) setup(s) were great. Maybe other people figured this out right away, but here are my tips:

- The sandbags. These are not bags, but squares of fabric with drawstrings around the edges. Don't ask my why I didn't get this right away, but you pile sand on the square, then pull the strings that line up with the guy lines. In retrospect it seems pretty easy to figure out, but I had four adults scratching their heads and jury rigging these things.

- The poles. You need to push them down into the sand. A foot is good, more if you can manage it. I think these should be spiked on one end to make this easier. If you don't push them down they will fall over. Again, maybe this came naturally to others.

- The wind. Many folks say its good in the wind. I had a light breeze and it was killing me. The key was to face the *high* end into the wind, not the low end. Facing away from the wind meant the tent was pushed down to the ground. Facing into the wind lifted it up and kept things steady.

Bottom line, I think incorporating this advice/details into the instructions would be simple and would save customers time and energy. Once I had these things figured out the product performed beautifully. Plenty of room for two adults (or three if you like each other), good shade, good visibility. Product packs up nice and small (think camp pad, but skinnier)--we were able to fit it into a duffel we checked for our trip--and is lightweight. Very glad we had this along.