Julia and Drew were relaxing on their deck -- their favourite place in the whole world :) and Julia found herself needing more shade.

Not wanting a big, bulky umbrella stand to take up a bunch of precious space, her gaze fell upon her railing and she mentioned to her fiance Drew how nice it would be to utilize the existing railing as a place to mount the patio umbrella.

Drew, an aerospace machinist by trade, loves to solve problems... and decided to make a project out of this new challenge, coming up with a solution for clutter-free, hassle-free shade on their patio.

From October 2018 to May 2019, Drew was like a mad scientist in the shop every weekend developing prototypes. He’d bring them home and together, he and Julia would put them to the test on different railings and in different conditions, compiling a list of revisions for the next evolved prototype.

That’s when they started to realize how many different decks and railings there are in the world! And all the different umbrellas to consider! Oh, and what about the wind factor? They couldn’t have the umbrella causing any harm to the railing, that’s for sure. That's when they really dug in and did full out testing and development.

Around this time, it also dawned on them that it wasn’t just umbrellas that the Rail EZ could mount! T.Vs, tables, and even telescopes… the options were endless.

They held the highest standard for all of the materials and ended up using solid anodized aluminum and stainless steel for the system.