Inspired by necessity, the Tough Hook is a hanger for your body armor. The designer, Tarik Lazri needed something to support his armor and equipment when in the FOB. Using I-beam construction his creation offers a 150+ lbs load capacity and a built in handle grip for easily transporting equipment.
He has placed the concept on Kickstarter in order to raise $11,000. He only has 18 days left. Like Obi-Wan Kenobi, you are his only hope.
What Tarik will use the money for:
Production of the first 5000 units including the mold and hangers
Website completion and other
Shipping
Assembly
Professional photographs
Automation software (shipping, bookkeeping, contact management)
Professional public relations firm to help promote and grow the Tough Hook brand
There are multiple rewards available including the Troop level which results in a Tough Hook making its way to a deployed service member. Get in on it!
www.kickstarter.com/projects/699164092/tough-hook
Tags: Kickstarter, Tough Hook
Not exactly ground breaking. Scuba diving companies have long sold something that works just as well and looks very similar for BCD and regulators.
An example:
http://www.scuba.com/scuba-gear-5/030114/Underwater-Kinetics-BCD-Regulator-Hanger.html
True, you could give your money to a SCUBA company or you could help a GI get a company started.
Legit Eric.
EXACTLY!
The uk model says it can only hold 20 pounds. No way that could hold my gear with plates in.
Carry 20lbs with the uk or up to 150 with the rough hook
It’s very derivative of the “super bc hanger” made by Underwater Kinetics, my dive gear has been hanging on one for 10 years…
10 years? You might want to take it down from time to time and make sure it hasn’t gotten ruined from disuse. 😀
I looked for quite some time for a heavy-duty hanger we could offer for armor. The UK design was a let-down due to the shoulders not having any features to keep things from sliding off.
Then, while visiting Mr. John Carver’s office (then at Eagle), I noticed the hanger of my dreams sitting on his desk. And we have been selling them briskly for the last 5-ish years. (Made in USA)
http://www.tacticalproshop.com/product_p/tps-sh-blk.htm
The last thing I want to do is dash the dreams of an entrepreneur, but ideally this new one would have a feature to set it apart. I don’t know, maybe a design feature that helped air out gloves… Something different / better.
Matthew – you must have missed this one; http://allwetwatersports.com/uk-super-bc-hanger.html this is the version that I’ve used for years…
The tough hook holds 150 lbs compared to the UK’s 20
It looks pretty good, and as a collector of load bearing equipment myself, I could use about 30 of them, but it’s just too expensive. The two linked earlier in the article retail for under $7 each, about a third of the cost of the Tough Hook!
I would also suggest a change to the design of the Tough Hook, in that I don’t think the reversible option would be required, if the carry handle was to be made a bit taller and open at one end, allowing it to go over the bar of a wardrobe. This would reduce the size, weight shipping cost and manufacturing cost of the product.
Ummm so you have 30 sets of gear (im assuming at least some of which have armor)…yet this is too expensive? Riiigghht.
Not too expensive for me to buy, but not competitive with market rates for equivalent products. I’d love to support the guy, but if you want to be in business, you need to have a business case.
Also, I don’t have 30 sets, more like 15 at the moment, but I also tend to hang up the smaller backpacks and as a collector, I know I’ll be getting more when something takes my fancy 🙂
Being in Australia, there are heavy regulations on civilian ownership of ballistic armour and ITAR is a bitch to deal with so unfortunately, I don’t own any plates. Even empty, most of my sets are certainly too heavy for standard hangers and once you load them up with tools and equipment they can get up to 10 – 15 kg or so each, depending on what is in there of course.
Hey one thing to consider that could distinguish you as a more than a maker of tactical tan SCUBA hangers is portable stands. Nobody’s really doing a stand appropriate for a variety of settings (team room/office/home, etc.). Make out of same material as the hangers, portable, possibly with a fixture for a gear hanger and a belt and helmet. Or not.
The carry handle on that is really well thought out, just grab it, flip, and go. Hopefully I’ll be able to scrounge up enough extra to chip in.
Not sure about plates, but literature with soft armor says its not supposed to be suspended, rather laid flat, and hanging can void the warranty. Will have to see if i can find the paperwork for my newest vest.
And so the nagging goes.
A vet comes up with a great idea, thinks the stuff inside out and we start arguing about stuff that can’t even compare.
I’m just thinking here but this item is great for rest rooms and all those places where you just have to take you gear off and you CAN’T let it lie around. if you put it on a plain hanger it will break.
Same goes for the back packs.
Only problem ,as stated ,to find a place strong enough to fix he hanger …