A pop-up canopy looks like a commodity. Four decisions separate one that lasts five seasons from one that is scrap by the second.

Ask for the frame specification, not the size

Leg profile, extrusion wall thickness, truss bars per side and the corner castings.

Two canopies described identically as ten by ten can differ by half their weight, and the money is all in those four numbers. A supplier who will not state them is telling you something.

Work out the ballast before the artwork

On tarmac, paving or an exhibition floor a stake kit does nothing. Weight plates or filled bags are the only anchor.

Get a stated weight per leg, and increase it if you are adding sidewalls — a walled canopy stops being permeable and starts catching everything.

Insist on dye sublimation

The roof lives in the sun and is folded along the same lines every single time it is packed.

A surface print cracks along those folds. Sublimated dye is in the fibre and cannot.

Plan for how it gets stored

Canopies mostly die in the bag, packed damp and left. Ask whether the bag is wheeled — because a bag that is dragged is a bag that gets replaced — and dry the roof before it goes away, every time.

What to send when you ask for a quote

Artwork, how often it goes up, what surface it stands on and whether you wall it. Those three answers pick the frame, the ballast and the wall set between them.