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I spent 3 years working on a coat hanger [video]

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Re: I spent 3 years working on a coat hanger [video]

#71

Post by ImageXav »

amanzi wrote: post #16

Looks so simple, but I guess that's a sign of good design. I was also surprised something like this didn't exist already. But my first thought was that it will almost certainly be cloned and sold en masse pretty quickly, so I hope she gets enough revenue from it to pay for her time.

This is an extremely useful design. I never thought I'd get excited about something like this but I recently moved to an old house with chimney flues running through every room, resulting in shallow alcoves that are of differing sizes.

A fitted wardrobe would be pricey (~$4000), barely fit depthwise and half of the space would just be covering the flue if we wanted it wall to wall.

On the other hand I can just buy 3/4 of these for each wall and still come out ahead. The grooves in the rods are well thought out and mean that I can saw them to size myself, as can anyone.

The only drawback I can think of is having clothes up directly against a wall. This could obstruct airflow and be an incentive for mould to grow.

Might be time for my first ever pledge.

Re: I spent 3 years working on a coat hanger [video]

#72

Post by kube-system »

eru wrote: post #35
jacknews wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

o/s is where you share your designs freely, not just rip others off. China copies everything and everyone else, but then still tries to keep it's own secrets.

There are non-GPL licenses in open source. So MIT license does allow you to 'just rip off'.

The use of "rip off" when referring to a copy, typically means copies done illicitly or of poor quality. Being permitted to do so is antithetical to this.

Re: I spent 3 years working on a coat hanger [video]

#74

Post by godelski »

amanzi wrote: post #16

Looks so simple, but I guess that's a sign of good design. I was also surprised something like this didn't exist already. But my first thought was that it will almost certainly be cloned and sold en masse pretty quickly, so I hope she gets enough revenue from it to pay for her time.

> Looks so simple, but I guess that's a sign of good design.

I find that this is tends to be the rule, not the exception and it's really reworked how I view things. I've started to almost (more jokingly than seriously) believe that the less novel something appears the more it actually is. The real mark for a good work seems to be "wow, how did you spend so much time on that? It's so fucking obvious" combined with "why has no one else done this?" But it is also easy to post hoc attribute something to being "well that's just x and y, so not really novel." But far too many things can be trivialized that way.

I wanted to say this because I think especially in engineering circles we have this wild novelty paradox. Where we can understand how our work, despite all outward appearances, is exceptionally nuanced and has minor details that are critical but when we judge others' works we don't consider such details. I think this is because most details are baked in when you learn of the new thing. But we got a good litmus test: is anyone else making/producing/doing this "super simple blatantly obvious" thing. If no? It's probably deceptively complex. (It's also why you should laugh at anyone who starts a sentence with "It's so simple, you just...")

Re: I spent 3 years working on a coat hanger [video]

#75

Post by user3939382 »

Zanni wrote: post #63

I came across the Kickstarter [1] for this as a Facebook ad and passed over it for all the reasons folks are citing below. Folding hanger? What's the use case? But watching the video, she's really put a lot of thought into this. The system with the paired rod is pretty slick. I love the notches for keeping the hangers spaced. This solves a problem not everyone has (not me, for instance--I have full-size closets), but…

Cue the low-quality foreign made knock off branded as “Amazon’s Choice” in 3… 2…

Re: I spent 3 years working on a coat hanger [video]

#76

Post by throwaway2990 »

This is so bloody stupid that it’s amazing. It literally solves a valid issue. I have a closet that isn’t deep and have short coat hangers for a bunch of clothes but this would allow my clothes to not sag off the end and fit into the closet nicely and neatly.

Off to kickstarter I go.

Re: I spent 3 years working on a coat hanger [video]

#79

Post by spaceman_2020 »

user3939382 wrote: post #75
Zanni wrote: post #63

I came across the Kickstarter [1] for this as a Facebook ad and passed over it for all the reasons folks are citing below. Folding hanger? What's the use case? But watching the video, she's really put a lot of thought into this. The system with the paired rod is pretty slick. I love the notches for keeping the hangers spaced. This solves a problem not everyone has (not me, for instance--I have full-size closets), but…

Cue the low-quality foreign made knock off branded as “Amazon’s Choice” in 3… 2…

And then the copies of the Chinese copies from Amazon itself…

It’s theft all the way down

Re: I spent 3 years working on a coat hanger [video]

#80

Post by Reason077 »

amanzi wrote: post #16

Looks so simple, but I guess that's a sign of good design. I was also surprised something like this didn't exist already. But my first thought was that it will almost certainly be cloned and sold en masse pretty quickly, so I hope she gets enough revenue from it to pay for her time.

> ”it will almost certainly be cloned and sold en masse pretty quickly”

Wouldn’t it be worth taking out a design patent on a product like this? It might not stop people making similar designs, but it would give you protection against outright clones.

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