A folding canopy frame is a scissor mechanism with a lot of pivots, and it fails in a predictable place that almost nobody inspects before buying.

The castings, not the legs

The corner castings take the load every time the frame is opened and closed, and they take it in shear.

Cheap castings crack there long before a leg bends. Once one cracks the frame will not sit square and the roof stops pulling taut.

What makes a frame stiff

A hexagonal or octagonal leg resists twisting far better than a round one of the same weight, and a thicker extrusion resists everything better.

Three truss bars per side rather than two is the other half of it: fewer bars means more unsupported span, which is why the roof sags and the whole thing racks in a gust.

How often it goes up is the real specification

Three hundred set-ups a year and eight set-ups a year are completely different duty cycles.

Buying a commercial frame for a club that uses it twice a term is money spent on nothing; buying a club frame for a market pitch is money spent twice.

Ask whether spares are held

A frame you can buy a casting or a leg for is a frame with a life beyond its first failure.

If a supplier cannot supply a single corner casting, the whole canopy is the spare part.