When I first moved to Portland, Oregon, I worried about how I’d survive the endless, gray, rainy winters. A friend advised me to find a way to get warm—really warm—at least once a day. I don’t have regular access to a sauna or a hot tub, so I take a hot shower every morning to defrost my chilly toes before I stuff them into wool socks and leather boots. That hot shower is an indispensable part of my day.
When the box from Nebia arrived, I pounced on it. For a showerhead, Nebia has a very glamorous origin story. In 2010, cofounder Carlos Gomez Andonaegui was working as the CEO of Sport City, Mexico City’s largest gym club chain. He and his father designed the Nebia prototype to save water in the showers, with the novel idea of using atomizing nozzles normally used in agricultural and aerospace fields.
He met Nebia cofounder Philip Winter in Mexico City, while Winter was working at Endeavor, a nonprofit that encourages entrepreneurship in different parts of the world. After bringing on another cofounder, Gabriel Parisi-Amon—a former Apple engineer—Nebia installed a prototype in an Equinox gym in San Francisco. It quickly attracted the attention (and dollars) of various Silicon Valley illuminati, most notably Tim Cook.
The original version cost $500. Several years later, Nebia has partnered with venerated faucet manufacturer Moen for a much more accessible version at $199. (On Kickstarter you can currently preorder it for a $40 discount.) Nebia sent me