SKY Shades - Latest News & Press Releases From SKYShades

Florida Governor Charlie Christ congratulates SKYShades on their campaign to help raise awareness of skin cancer and the importance of providing shade.

SKYShades®, one of the global leaders in supplying shade and tension membrane structures, today announced field-testing is underway at Lake Highland Preparatory School on a new "clean, green" technology - a SKYShades' umbrella that will use the sun's energy to create battery power to charge personal electronic devices. The umbrellas will use groundbreaking technology from Konarka Technologies in the form of organic photovoltaic material integrated into the umbrella's fabric membrane to create a source of renewable solar energy.

The economic slowdown hasn't affected SKYShades, Inc., an international tension membrane structure company based in Orlando. In January, its U.S. headquarters recorded a 400 percent growth in design/installation inquiries as compared to the same time last year.

Konarka And SKYShades Announce Development Agreement To Integrate
Organic Photovoltaic (OPV) Material Into Tension Fabric Material
Jan 30, 2008

Konarka Technologies, Inc., an innovator in development and commercialization of Power Plastic®, a material that converts light to energy, and SKYShades®, one of the global leaders in supplying shade and tension membrane structures, today announced they have entered into a development agreement for the purpose of investigating the creation of photovoltaic electrical power for SKYShade products.

SKYShades, the leading Global supplier of shade and Tension Membrane structures announced today that it is concluding a deal to commercialise the use of Organic Photovoltaics in its products.

SKYShades announced today that they have won a Design Excellence Award in the 2007 Orange County Urban Design Commission Awards Program. SKYShades took home the Award of Merit in the Commercial Projects Section with its uniquely designed Shade Structure at Images Auto Spa.

With Melanoma Monday and Skin Cancer Awareness both taking place during the month of May, two central Florida schools are receiving $50,000 worth of shade to protect their students from the sun's harmful UV rays. One Florida business is playing an active role in educating and building awareness on the importance of providing shade for children. SKYShades has donated shade structures to Millennia Elementary in Orlando and Lyman High School in Longwood.

It's a shady business, but somebody's got to do it. And there's room for more across the country, too. That's why SKYShades announced today that it's actively seeking franchise partners across the states to market and distribute its shade products.

SKYShades Makes A Move To International Franchising
Orlando Business Journal, January 26, 2007

Joe McKenna is switching the focus at his company from distributorships to franchising, a strategy he hopes will be lucrative enough to have it made in the shade.

Just one blistering sunburn can double a child's risk of getting melanoma later in life and with the Florida sun shining all year round it is still surprising to see how many playgrounds do not provide adequate shade for children to play under.

When Australian businessman Barry Maranta first visited a Central Florida school playground, he was shocked at what he saw. The sun was blazing. Kids were running around bareheaded. And there wasn't a scrap of shade "He said, 'Why don't all these kids have hats on?'" recalled Joe McKenna, an Orlando native who has spent most of the past two decades Down Under. "And I told him, 'It's not made compulsory here, the way it is in Australia.'" For McKenna and Maranta, the way Orlando-area residents are routinely exposed to the sun's ultraviolet rays is unthinkable -- and an unbelievable business opportunity.

During an event in Savannah, Ga., announcing the redesign of Savannah Quarters Golf Resort by Greg Norman Golf Course Design, Norman informed the media of the first WeatherStopper Golf Range shade structure in the United States. "This will enable members to practice in the extreme summer heat, during inclement weather and even at night," Norman said.