Why we now use UVE, not UPF
SnoozeShade launched in 2010. Back then, if you wanted to explain how well a sunshade blocked the sun, there was one number available to you: a UPF rating.
So that is the number we used, along with everybody else in the nursery industry.
So that is the number we used, along with everybody else in the nursery industry.
But - UPF is a clothing standard. It measures fabric held flat against skin, which is exactly the right test for a rash vest or a sun hat, and not the right test at all for something suspended over a pram with gaps at the edges to let air move. That was true in 2010 as much as it is now. There simply was not a better option. There is now.
Australia has a standard written specifically for shade fabrics, and it gives a UVE rating: Ultraviolet Effectiveness. We first tested against it in 2019 (as I always like to test new standards). Now, based on advice from ARPANSA (the Australian government agency responsible for radiation protection), we've made the decision to move across. Every SnoozeShade sunshade is rated Most Effective, the top band there is.
Australia has a standard written specifically for shade fabrics, and it gives a UVE rating: Ultraviolet Effectiveness. We first tested against it in 2019 (as I always like to test new standards). Now, based on advice from ARPANSA (the Australian government agency responsible for radiation protection), we've made the decision to move across. Every SnoozeShade sunshade is rated Most Effective, the top band there is.
If you are buying a rash vest, look for UPF. If you are buying a sunshade, look for UVE.
Why UPF was never built for a pram shade
When a laboratory tests fabric for UPF, it measures how much ultraviolet radiation passes straight through a flat piece of fabric held against the skin. Nothing gets in from anywhere else, because there is nowhere else for it to get in from. For a rash vest, that describes real life accurately.
A sunshade is a different object doing a different job. It sits above and around your baby rather than on them, and it is designed with gaps at the edges so air can move freely. Meanwhile, outdoors, ultraviolet radiation does not only travel straight down from the sun. It scatters across the whole sky and bounces off pavements, sand and water, so it arrives from every direction, including from the sides. A fabric held flat against skin never has to deal with that. A shade does, constantly.
The Australian standard for sun protective clothing says as much in its own text: products such as umbrellas and shade structures, which are not close to the skin, will provide a lesser degree of protection. ARPANSA is blunter still on its own website. Because of the scattered radiation entering around the edges of the product, that standard is no longer appropriate for evaluating such items, and using a UPF rating for them is incorrect.
None of which makes a good shade fabric any less protective. It means the number on the box was answering a question nobody was asking.
What UVE measures instead
In 2018, Standards Australia published AS 4174, Knitted and woven shade fabric. It is written for exactly the sort of thing a sunshade is: a fabric doing the job of a shade rather than the job of a garment. Instead of a protection factor, it gives an Ultraviolet Effectiveness rating, shortened to UVE and expressed as a percentage.
ARPANSA sorts UVE results into three bands. A fabric blocking between 80 and 90.9 per cent of ultraviolet radiation is rated Effective. Between 91 and 94.9 per cent is Very Effective. At 95 per cent and above, a fabric reaches the top band: Most Effective. Below 80 per cent, no rating can be claimed at all.
Why I waited until now
AS 4174 was published in 2018, and I had our fabrics tested against it in December 2019, not long after it appeared. I test against things I do not need to test against. This was an extra test, and I wanted to see how the fabric did. Both double-layer constructions came back Most Effective.
And then I sat on it. I was pleased with the result, but the standard was new, and if I am honest I was not confident enough at that point in my own understanding of the difference between a UPF number and a UVE number to start putting UVE in front of parents. Publishing a rating I could not properly explain would have been worse than not publishing it at all. So I stayed with the established standard and waited for the right moment.
Since then I have had the conversations I should probably have had sooner. ARPANSA's position is not ambiguous. For a shade that sits above a child rather than against their skin, UVE is the appropriate measure and UPF is not. Nobody in this industry is asking us to change, and no regulator is making us. I have decided this is the right time, and that UVE is what parents should be looking for. It is the same shift the industry has already made on air permeability and CO2 rebreathing: move to the measure that reflects what the product actually does.
There is a second reason, and it matters to me more than the first. A UPF number is easy to print on a box, and nobody is required to publish the testing behind it.
A UVE rating is harder to claim casually. It comes from a specific standard, tested at an accredited laboratory, and you can be asked to produce the report. If a parent is going to use a number to judge whether something will genuinely protect their baby, it should be a number that is difficult to make up. That is the part I actually care about.
What our fabrics tested at
In July 2026 we sent the fabrics back to be retested under AS 4174:2018, by ARPANSA at their NATA-accredited government laboratory in Victoria. The reports came back in July and August, and the results were better than the 2019 ones. Every double-layer construction we sell sits in the top band.
99%
Black double layer
Rated Most Effective.
98%
Black double layer, lighter weight
Rated Most Effective.
97%
Silver outer, black inner
Rated Most Effective.
These are fabric constructions rather than individual products, and every one of them is made from our EziBreez® air-permeable mesh. Across the range, the double layer on every SnoozeShade sunshade tested at 97 per cent or above.
The SnoozeShade Original versions tested between 97 and 99 per cent, and because Original has no panel to open, that figure applies all the time. SnoozeShade Plus Extra tested at 98 per cent, and SnoozeShade Plus Deluxe and SnoozeShade Twin Extra at 97 per cent. SnoozeShade for Car Seats uses the same black double layer as Plus Extra, and SnoozeShade for Infant Car Seats Deluxe the same silver outer and black inner as Plus Deluxe, so they carry the same ratings. On every shade with a zip-up see-out panel, the whole-product figure is "up to", because you can pull the outer panel down and leave just the single layer in place.
There was a second piece of good news. We also tested the zip-up see-out panel on SnoozeShade Plus Extra, the single black layer you can leave closed when your baby is awake and wants to look at the world. We have always described that panel conservatively as blocking around 80 per cent of UV, because that was the figure we could stand behind. The new testing showed it does better: a flat 87 per cent, an Effective rating in its own right, from a single layer designed to be seen through. Plus Deluxe, Twin Extra and the car seat shades use the same black single layer for their zip-up see-out panels, and I am planning to have those tested separately too.
A note on the numbers. These are three different fabric constructions with different weights and colours, not three attempts at the same thing. All three sit comfortably inside the top category, which is the part that matters.
You will see both numbers for a while
This will not happen overnight, and we would rather say so now than have you spot a mismatch later and wonder what is going on.
Packaging takes months to work through. There is SnoozeShade sitting in warehouses right now with a UPF figure printed on the box, and there is SnoozeShade in production at this very moment that will arrive with a UPF figure printed on the box. Those products are made from exactly the same fabric as the ones described on this page. Nothing about them is out of date except the number on the packet.
Online we can move faster, so that is where you will see the change first. Over the coming months, UVE percentages will replace UPF figures across our product pages, and then on packaging as stock cycles through. If you find one of each and they appear to disagree, they do not. They are two different ways of measuring the same fabric, and UVE is the one built for the job.
What this means for you
Your SnoozeShade is the same shade it was last week. Same EziBreez® air-permeable mesh, same yarn, same knit. What has changed is that it now carries a rating built for the job it does, and that rating puts it in the highest category available.
It is worth knowing when shade matters. In the UK, the sun is strong enough to damage skin from mid-March to mid-October, even when it's cold or cloudy. Once the UV index reaches 3, it's time to think about shade, and the middle of the day between 11am and 3pm is when it matters most.
NHS advice is that babies under 6 months should be kept out of direct sunlight, and that older babies should be kept out of the sun as much as possible. The NHS also says to attach a parasol or sunshade to your baby's pushchair, and never to cover a pushchair or pram with a blanket, because it can lead to overheating.
One thing worth saying plainly: shade is one part of sun protection, not all of it. A high UVE rating should not be relied on as the only form of UV protection. A shade deals with the ultraviolet radiation coming through the fabric. It cannot deal with everything bouncing up off a hot pavement.
Most Effective is the top band there is. That is where every SnoozeShade sunshade now sits.
Questions parents have asked us
What does UVE mean?
UVE stands for Ultraviolet Effectiveness. It is the rating given under AS 4174:2018, the Australian standard for knitted and woven shade fabrics, and it measures how a fabric performs when it is doing the job of a shade rather than a garment. Results are given as a percentage. Anything at 95 per cent and above is rated Most Effective, the top band.
Why doesn't SnoozeShade use a UPF rating any more?
UPF is a clothing standard. It measures how a fabric performs when it is held against the skin. A sunshade is suspended above your baby with gaps at the edges, so ultraviolet radiation can scatter in from the sides. Australia's radiation protection agency states that a UPF rating is not appropriate for shade structures, so we use UVE, which is.
Which SnoozeShade blocks the most UV?
Every SnoozeShade sunshade has a double layer that tested at 97 per cent or above, so they are all rated Most Effective, the top UVE band. The individual results ranged from 97 to 99 per cent depending on the weight and colour of the fabric. In practice the difference between them is small. On shades with a zip-up see-out panel, the single layer blocks over 80 per cent and is rated Effective.
Does UVE cover both UVA and UVB?
Yes. The standard measures ultraviolet radiation transmittance across the ultraviolet spectrum, which takes in both UVA and UVB. There is no separate UVA figure and UVB figure to weigh up against each other. It is one combined measurement of how much ultraviolet radiation reaches your baby through the fabric.
Is my older SnoozeShade less protective than I thought?
The opposite, if anything. The fabric has not changed, only the way it is measured, and the new testing came back better than the last round. The zip-up see-out panel on SnoozeShade Plus Extra performed above the figure we had been quoting. If you bought a SnoozeShade five years ago, it is the same EziBreez® air-permeable mesh now rated Most Effective.
My packaging says UPF. Why does the website say UVE?
Because packaging takes months to cycle through and a website does not. There is stock in warehouses, and stock still in production, printed with a UPF figure. It is the same fabric either way. As packaging is reprinted, the UVE percentage will replace the UPF figure. UVE is simply the measure built for shade fabric.
Who carried out the testing?
The fabrics were tested to AS 4174:2018 by ARPANSA UVR Services at Yallambie in Victoria, Australia. It is a NATA-accredited laboratory, NATA being Australia's national accreditation authority for testing laboratories. The most recent reports are dated July and August 2026 and cover our double-layer and single-layer constructions.
Does a high UVE rating mean my baby needs less sun protection?
No. Shade is one part of sun protection and works best alongside the rest. NHS advice is that babies under 6 months should be kept out of direct sunlight, and older babies out of the sun as much as possible, particularly between 11am and 3pm. A shade deals with the ultraviolet radiation coming through the fabric, not the radiation reflecting up off the ground.
When shade fabric is used for purposes such as shade structures for human protection, the ultraviolet effectiveness (UVE) may not be an accurate guide to the protection provided and may be less than the measured value due to factors including variations in design, height and size of shade structures, stretching of the fabric, the distance of the fabric from the persons, the direction of sunlight, and the physical location of the persons within the shade structure (e.g. at the edge or at the centre).
