Carrying around a handheld fan never really used to be a thing in the UK. We’d just wave around a bit of cardboard and call it a day. But hotter summers and the growing popularity of portable fans and neck fans in East Asia have helped push them into the mainstream.
A few years ago, it would’ve been hard to imagine brands like Dyson or Shark touching something as traditionally tacky as a handheld fan. They were the sort of thing you impulsively bought on holiday in Thailand when you got too hot. Could you really make a handheld fan premium?