I spent 3 years working on a coat hanger [video] • Hacker News Board

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

#371

Post by woadwarrior01 » Fri, Nov 17, 2023, 4:02 PM UTC

Workaccount2 wrote: post #356

woadwarrior01 wrote: post #335

I just saw the Kickstarter[1]. The margins on these coat hangers look so good that it'd make NVIDIA blush. [1]: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/simonegiertz/coat-hinge...

The margins are likely not that great. Small run hardware manufacturing is extremely expensive. It's not until you are doing volumes in the millions, the factory has invested in custom tooling, and you're buying material by the truckload straight from the manufacturer that prices really start to collapse. Right now she is probably getting the steel off the shelf, the plastic pieces from a small shop, the forming from…

Wooden hangers retail for around €1 here, and it's ~2.5x cheaper if you look at AliExpress. Note that both are retail, the wholesale prices are probably half of that. €19 for a hanger is ridiculously expensive, even if they're individually hand made. Granted it includes shipping, but even if shipping is 50% of the cost, it's still absurdly expensive.

She mentions in the video that the plastic pieces are injection moulded over the wire, that's a clear indication that it isn't all done by hand. This is very likely being manufactured in a factory in China, with a 1000-2000% markup. But it's got a great story attached to it, and that's what sells it.

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

#372

Post by sciuromorpha_ » Fri, Nov 17, 2023, 4:03 PM UTC

mgaunard wrote: post #333

cricalix wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're comparing the output of a small business with a multinational behemoth that has the advantages in procurement and manufacturing due to volume. What's the point of making that comparison and effectively negging someone's work?

People buy products based on the value proposition of those products, not because they are hippies that want to support independent technology makers. I don't understand why factual statement and reality checks get modded down; this is just plain denial.

What an odd reply. Where possible, I will try and support independent technology makers, often even if that means it's a slightly worse/different product.

Just because you're cynical and jaded, doesn't mean that everyone else is. You're not giving a factual reality check, you're just being an ass

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

#373

Post by victor9000 » Fri, Nov 17, 2023, 4:05 PM UTC

bear141 wrote: post #341

Can’t this already easily be accomplished and even flatter to the wall simply by using a hanger with a swiveling head? Only downsides compared to this invention would be the way the different items nested together and the fact that they stuck out to the sides 50% of each hanger at the ends?

Seriously, and you can accomplish something similar with a regular hanger and just a single nail. You hang the hanger on the nail flat against the wall, then the next hanger can be daisy chained on the exposed neck of the previous hanger and so on.

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

#374

Post by werdnapk » Fri, Nov 17, 2023, 4:10 PM UTC

fxtentacle wrote: post #214

traceroute66 wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Want to make AI things? Make them. Want to make coat hangers? Make them. Want to make a book stand? Make it. Or, you could just, you know, buy them. My beef with people who say, like you do that 3D printers are cheap or you can buy an arduino/pi/whatever, is simple. People consistently fail to value their time, and the startup cost. The startup cost because your thinking works on the assumption that people know how…

Sadly, 3D printers are still cheaper. I once needed to make a few customized gears out of food safe plastic. I asked several online services for quotes and I called several on-location shops in northern Germany. The quotes I got were all around $1800 per unique gear shape. Since I needed 4 different shapes (i.e. $7k for outsourcing), it was much cheaper to buy a 3D printer, watch some tutorials and spend two working…

I have multiple small plastic components that have broken for my appliances and use some quick fixes to get the appliance working again, but they eventually break again. These cheap pieces of plastic can never be purchased alone and require buying a much more expensive part which includes the cheaper plastic piece.

Saying that, 3D printing really seems like something I'd like to start doing and build my own parts to fix things myself. Any recommendations on a printer to use?

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

#375

Post by SparkyMcUnicorn » Fri, Nov 17, 2023, 4:14 PM UTC

mgoetzke wrote: post #343

mgaunard wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For that price I can purchase 3 Google home smart displays which do all this and more. I guess the main advantage would be always-on with little to no power consumption, but all your pictures still have cables.

For me (i built something similar) the main advantages where: - I control my own data - It is e-ink, not glaring into my face - Screen is way bigger - Screen is hanging on the wall, I do not have to look down - Less energy consumption of course and most importantly: - Google home displays are not actually helpful at all in this respect (we have one in the kitchen too) as they do not show calendar info well at all. Fo…

I agree with everything you're saying, but I do want to note that you can put just about anything you want on Google's displays by casting.

HomeAssistant has built-in support to cast lovelace dashboards onto them, and it works surprisingly well. Even has touchscreen support, which I didn't know was possible with casting.

https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/cast/#home-assist...

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

#376

Post by hammock » Fri, Nov 17, 2023, 4:17 PM UTC

The GIF on the kickstarter is a nice TLDR: https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/043/049/335/c230c7314b0668e...

Why doesn't it fold in the opposite direction, so that the fold faces out rather than in? Seems to me that orientation would be better for organization and finding what you're looking for at a glance in the closet.

If the hook part could be rotated (as is in common design of other hangers), such orientation could be easily accomplished. As the hook is fixed, it cannot be.

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

#377

Post by runamuck » Fri, Nov 17, 2023, 4:19 PM UTC

Karellen wrote: post #284

fxtentacle wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me, this really shows that marketing is now the most crucial skill. It has become easy and affordable to design products, the process is now almost fully commodified with all those OEM and production services. The only thing that now stands between your idea and financial success is your ability to reach the target market, i.e. marketing. Also, such a slick KickStarter campaign typically costs $10k plus ad spend i…

> To me, this really shows that marketing is now the most crucial skill. It has become easy and affordable to design products, Um, did you see how many prototypes she went through? And also, 3 years - it's in the title. Designing products that kinda-sorta work might be easy and affordable. Designing products that work well and don't have annoying edge cases is still hard . Unless you think that Simone Giertz is unusu…

The sweat equity of 3 years and dozens of prototypes only contributes to 5% of the product's success. Marketing will drive 95% of the return.

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

#378

Post by runamuck » Fri, Nov 17, 2023, 4:22 PM UTC

grbsh wrote: post #323

fxtentacle wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me, this really shows that marketing is now the most crucial skill. It has become easy and affordable to design products, the process is now almost fully commodified with all those OEM and production services. The only thing that now stands between your idea and financial success is your ability to reach the target market, i.e. marketing. Also, such a slick KickStarter campaign typically costs $10k plus ad spend i…

This is something I’ve come to appreciate much more recently - how hard (or at least unnatural) marketing / sales is. A social media following (upon the right audience) is turning into a new metric for economic power, and it’s a skill in it of itself to self-promote tactfully. What’s the best way to learn marketing skills? Books, courses? I feel like there’s a lot of trash to sort through here. I have a product I’ve…

You will need to dive in, hit road blocks, fail and regroup to learn sales. Books/ courses can give you motivation, but you will learn most of the art through "the school of hard knocks."

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

#379

Post by cosmojg » Fri, Nov 17, 2023, 4:25 PM UTC

hammock wrote: post #376

The GIF on the kickstarter is a nice TLDR: https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/043/049/335/c230c7314b0668e... Why doesn't it fold in the opposite direction, so that the fold faces out rather than in? Seems to me that orientation would be better for organization and finding what you're looking for at a glance in the closet. If the hook part could be rotated (as is in common design of other hangers), such orientation coul…

I'm having a hard time imagining this. How would you get it to lie flush against the wall?

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

#380

Post by runamuck » Fri, Nov 17, 2023, 4:26 PM UTC

bambax wrote: post #236

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…

Yeah, it's kind of cool. But $20 for one foldable coat hanger is pretty outrageous, esp. considering that wire coat hangers you get at a cleaner's are virtually free, and you can fold them by hand. Not the same thing! Sure! But close. And almost free.

I paid about $22 each to fill my closet with cherry wood coat hangers from the Container Store.