Hi-Per Hanger [Review]
The Hi-Per Hanger from Black And Grey
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Let’s get this out of the way right off-the-bat. This, is a seventy dollar hanger. Technically it’s $30.95-$72.95 + shipping, and that is a pretty hard price-tag to swallow for a hanger. But, the real question is “is it worth it?” I’m asking from a purely practical perspective. The answer, as far as I’m concerned, is a whole hearted YES! If mine were stolen today I would go to the web site tomorrow and buy another one without hesitation.
For me it came down to the fact that standard plastic hangers were either prone to breakage, or well made but were too skinny vertically to allow me to feed my pants through with the knee armor, and hangers with standard clamps to grab the waist on your pants simply aren’t up to the task of holding on to heavy motorcycle pants. Also, normal hangers aren’t wide enough to actually make the shoulders hang on them correctly. I could put up with the latter, even though it’s not good for the garment, but i needed somewhere to hang my pants, and after spending a nearly a thousand dollars on a new Jacket and Pants (I like my bones unbroken and skin attached thank you very much) I decided that I wasn’t going to screw around with hangers that didn’t work anymore. So I crossed my fingers and placed the order for an HP-3 which is the heavy-duty base hanger with plastic shoulder pieces and two heavy-duty clamps that can either be used to grab the waist of your pants or one for each leg. You can get them with more, or fewer, clamps.
As soon as I pulled it out of the box I knew I’d received one bad-ass hanger. The aluminum hanger at the core is really heavy-duty. I could hang my full body-weight from this thing no problem. The clamps live up to all that is implied by the word “clamp” They hold on hard and require a non-trivial amount of force to squeeze open. This, is a very good thing. You won’t have to be gentle when grabbing your gear out of the closet or carrying it across the room because they will not accidentally let go of your pants. The width of the shoulders on the hanger is adjustable with a couple thumb-screws, and there are 5 holes you can use to attach the claps to via some simple thumb-screws.
With jacket hung, and pants clamped I was convinced I’d gotten a good hanger, but it wasn’t until I’d picked it up from the hook that I came to truly appreciate how important having a bad-ass hanger was. You see, it’s not that your gear weighs an exceptional amount (mine is roughly fifteen pounds) it’s that all that weight is focused on one very small point. On my body the fifteen pounds of jacket, pants, liners, and armor isn’t a big deal, but when you lift it by the hook of the hanger you realize just how much force your hanger has to withstand in order to do its job, and it’s a lot.
When you’ve been sweating in your jacket all day you’ll be really thankful for how the Hi-Per Hanger’s shoulders keep your jacket open and allow the air to flow in and dry it out. You’ll also be happy to know that they’re not warping the shape of your shoulder pads over time.
There is no question that the Hi-Per Hanger is overkill for a hanger. But, you can’t include it in the same category as other hangers. That’s like comparing an industrial dump-truck and a pick-up truck. Yes, they’ll both transport your crap, but there are some tasks the Pick-up truck simply isn’t appropriate for. Similarly, the Hi-Per hanger is designed for a specific, task that average hangers simply can’t handle well.
If you actually care about having good gear you’ve probably spent at least $500 on your suit. Spending another $70 to keep it in good shape and dry your sweat from it seems like money well spent to me. And just to be clear; I’m still not comfortable with the idea of spending that much for a hanger, but it isn’t really just a hanger. The Hi-Per Hanger is a specialized tool for for the support and maintenance of the gear you spent good money on to save your life.
If you’re still not convinced, check out the review on WebBikeWorld.