About

How Sombra Came To Light:
One night, I was cruising the bicycle lanes in central London, when another cyclist flew by me.  He had one of those blinking, bright-red taillights, and in the dark it played some nasty tricks on my eyes.

The light was so intense that even as the cyclist pushed further away, I kept feeling disoriented.  With cars on my right and the sidewalk to my left, I was forced to stop so I would avoid diving head first into the curb.Needless to say I was annoyed, but my annoyance quickly turned to irony when I realized I had the exact same type of taillight, and that I was probably annoying other cyclists too.

The next day, I went online to look for an alternative, non-blinding taillight. However, all I could find were lousy, cheap-looking things that could barely be seen from ten meters away.  I admit, I would rather blind someone than have them not see me at all.

That evening, before going to bed, I turned my reading lamp on to catch up on some reading, and then it hit me.  A lampshade! Not only will it eliminate the blinding effect of my taillight, it will also make others see me from directions they never could before!

Months and hundreds of iterations later, this "lampshade" turned from an idea to a product I now call Sombra, which I will make generally available as soon as this campaign meets its goal.