The modern clothes hanger---like the ones you probably have in your closet right now---is based on a design that is over 100 years old. Milwaukee native Reuben Luria thinks it’s time for an update.
Luria is the inventor of The Bespoke Hanger and the founder of Bespoke Brands LLC, a Milwaukee-based startup that is bringing custom-fitted clothes hangers to consumers. By combining his redesigned hanger, which fits and protects the neck and shoulder of clothes, with 3D body-scanning technology, Luria wants to fill your closet with clothes hangers that are your perfect fit.
“If you ask somebody, ‘Do you go out and buy clothes that don’t fit you,’ you’ll pretty much get 100 out of 100 answer, ‘Of course not,’” Luria said. “In the same way that your clothes fit you, the hangers fit you.”
The Bespoke Hanger looks more like a human body than traditional clothes hangers. Luria designed the hanger with a round neck to prevent creasing in collars and long, thick shoulders to prevent denting.
The Bespoke Hanger combines ergonomic design---the process of creating products with users in mind---with mass customization.
After placing an order online, a customer sends Bespoke Brands his or her neck and shoulder measurements. Bespoke Brands uses pre-manufactured individual parts to assemble the hangers to the customer’s specific neck and shoulder size.
Customers either submit their measurements manually or take a selfie through a mobile app. To create the app, Bespoke Brands partnered with Netello, a company that provides software for 3D body scans and analysis.
Luria says he invented the design for The Bespoke Hanger ten years ago, but the combination of manufacturing and technology solutions he needed to produce custom-fitted clothes hangers wasn’t available until recently.
“When I’m revisiting a problem that’s 115 years old, I’m not looking for only part of the solution,” Luria said.
Now, with technology like Netello powering his customer journey, Bespoke Brands wants to reinvent the hanger.
The modern wire clothes hanger is likely based on the design of Albert J. Parkhouse of Jackson, Michigan--just across Lake Michigan from Milwaukee where Luria designed his hanger. In 1904, a Detroit-based attorney filed a patent for a “garment hanger” on behalf of Parkhouse’s employer, John B. Timberlake of Timberlake Wire and Novelty company.
While inventors have improved the technology and materials of hangers, Luria says, the fundamental design of the hanger has not changed for over 115 years.
“There’s a little bit of geography, there’s a little bit of design and there’s a lot of time in between” the 1904 design and the Bespoke Hanger, Luria said.
The next step, Luria says, is a successful Kickstarter campaign. Success means finding enough customers to go into full-scale production of Bespoke Brands’ flagship product, the Bespoke Shirt Hanger.
The Shirt Hanger is priced at $4.99 each, and will be discounted on Kickstarter for $2 each.
After a successful launch of the Shirt Hanger, Luria plans to expand the product offering to include coat, suit and pants hangers.
The full product lineup “both fits you and it fits your lifestyle, the way you want to use the hangers,” Luria said. “This is a hanger that’s made for everybody.”
Bespoke Brands plans to launch its Kickstarter campaign this fall.
