Hangboard re-imagined - GravityBoard

Hi guys! We tried to re-imagine the old design of hangboards. We created something with a more organic feel. We are curious if someone is interested in our new design.  https://dudesvsgravity.com/gravityboard/ 

It looks very slick and pretty.

But if you are looking for input... I wouldn’t buy it. It looks like it would be hard to find the exact same hand placement from hang to hang.

One of the things I find annoying about Rockprodigy hangboard -the two long varied-depth slots. Despite the little bumps that are meant to help you position your hand, it feels very variable.

Lattice hangboard, or Eva Lopez’s boards are the opposite of this. Just a simple edge, same depth/curvature all the way across. No matter how wide or narrow your shoulders are, everyone can find a comfortable width, and no matter how you try, you can’t “cheat” the hand position. No dips/undulations to press your thumb into, or rest the side of the finger against...

that’s what I really want from a hangboard. A simplicity of hanging the same way, every time... not a pretty sleek shape. 

what she said...

climbing outside with the wind in your hair, sun on your skin, and the smell of flora and fauna (poison ivy and bird shit) has an organic feel to it.

hanging from a grip, staring at a clock, inhaling chalk dust, and listening to slayer has an .... inorganic feel to it.

Pulled from your site:

“With GRAVITBOARD, we tried to stray away from the standards that have been available on the market for many years. The old designs limit us while training and are not aesthetically pleasing. So we decided to try and combine functionality and aesthetics”

This just seems like a stretch of reinventing the wheel. The reason boards are a “standard” is they get the job done...they’re established as tools that provide consistent results when used correctly. “Old designs” don’t limit you, YOU limit you. Some are prettier than others, but my focus is not on aesthetics when I’m doing a hangboard session, it’s to test myself and track progress with data on a board that provides controls such as set, measured edge depths.

I’m all for revamping things and bringing fresh ideas to the market, but you shouldn’t be knocking the “old” and “limiting” designs that have made strong climbers for decades, you should build on that and see how you can improve the experience. 

another (major) problem with this hangboard is that there is a bunch of reverse curvature on the grips (ie the edge is sloped such that it your index finger is lower than your middle, ring, etc).  this is going to rotate your wrists in a bad direction and wreck them.  this essentially makes a lot of the grips worse than useless and greatly limits the number of useable grips.

out of curiosity, have you guys ever really used a hangboard very much?  this last thing would seem pretty obvious if you did.

(edited to add the following)

now would probably be a really bad time to add another hangboard to a pretty saturated market.  with the covid vaccine here and springtime on the way people are going to be flocking to gyms and outside.  there are going to be a shit-ton of barely used hangboards for sale.  financially speaking, i don't see jumping into this being a good idea.

I wouldn't use it.

People hangboard to have a quantitative measure of their strength. You need to have identical edges for both hands of varying sizes that you can place your hand on consistently every time. Without that, you're only able to train by feel and that's not a very good way to train.

A very elegant design for an object. This is definitely a board that would look nice and be visually pleasingin my living room, where my current board is, and I could see the appeal of it being marketed as such. However, as others have put much better than I could there are concerns over the basic function of the object. Simplification of the curvature to a more standardized depth, addition of features that can act as jugs for additional use would go a long way towards recapturing the original intent of the board while preserving your aesthetic direction. 

slimwrote:

out of curiosity, have you guys ever really used a hangboard very much? 

I mean they are Slovenians, from the land of uber strong comp climbers. I'd give them the benefit of doubt.

Jan,

Don't let the MP crowd get you down, they are a hard bunch to please and don't like change, even more so than the regular population.

I would definitely give it a try if I saw one in the gym. Not everyone is a cyborg trainer trying to measure everything to the nth degree. I could see your board being a nice change of pace with the varying contours and edge depths.  Good luck with your idea.

It’s beautiful and I’d definitely like to try it. That said, they’ll probably bury me with my Beastmaker 2000, so you know… tough competition there. 

Wouldn't buy, looks like a terrible hangboard. Very pretty though, maybe consider a career shift to automobile design. If you stick to hangboards, make a super simple wood hangboard with an adjustable depth edge. 

Gene Bankswrote:

Jan,

Don't let the MP crowd get you down, they are a hard bunch to please and don't like change, even more so than the regular population.

I would definitely give it a try if I saw one in the gym. Not everyone is a cyborg trainer trying to measure everything to the nth degree. I could see your board being a nice change of pace with the varying contours and edge depths.  Good luck with your idea.

Don’t bother speaking for everyone on here, assumptions are unnecessary. No one voiced opposition for change; they presented an idea and asked for feedback, and this is a product that should stay in the rough draft stage and be improved upon before rolling out. Those that take their climbing more seriously than others aren’t cyborgs, we’re disciplined, and tracking data and progress is a common thing; if you choose not to do that that’s fine, but don’t bash others for it because you decide not to take it there. Utilizing a hangboard blind and aimless like many do is a breeding ground for injury. If they choose not to include measured edges or other controls to track progress, then it’s a nice hanging art piece at the most, but you could save your money and get the same experience in a gym or outside. 

Gene Bankswrote:

Jan,

Don't let the MP crowd get you down, they are a hard bunch to please and don't like change, even more so than the regular population.

I would definitely give it a try if I saw one in the gym. Not everyone is a cyborg trainer trying to measure everything to the nth degree. I could see your board being a nice change of pace with the varying contours and edge depths.  Good luck with your idea.

walking by and randomly hanging on one at the gym for a few seconds isn't the same as buying one.  would you buy one?  didn't think so...

slimwrote:

walking by and randomly hanging on one at the gym for a few seconds isn't the same as buying one.  would you buy one?  didn't think so...

You know you want to buy one, and mount  it vertically to practice bottomed out finger jams!

i can see one of these hung up in a fancy sprinter van, eternally doomed to being a chalkless wall piece. 

D Elliotwrote:

Don’t bother speaking for everyone on here, assumptions are unnecessary. No one voiced opposition for change; they presented an idea and asked for feedback, and this is a product that should stay in the rough draft stage and be improved upon before rolling out. Those that take their climbing more seriously than others aren’t cyborgs, we’re disciplined, and tracking data and progress is a common thing; if you choose not to do that that’s fine, but don’t bash others for it because you decide not to take it there. Utilizing a hangboard blind and aimless like many do is a breeding ground for injury. If they choose not to include measured edges or other controls to track progress, then it’s a nice hanging art piece at the most, but you could save your money and get the same experience in a gym or outside. 

Not speaking for anyone but myself, just making an observation. Also, not bashing anyone for their training methods or how seriously they take their training, just pointing out that "there are many ways to skin the cat".  Interesting that you seem to think that if people aren't "disciplined" like you, that they must be blindly and aimlessly hangboarding. Who's making assumptions now?

D Elliot wrote:

I’m all for revamping things and bringing fresh ideas to the market, but you shouldn’t be knocking the “old” and “limiting” designs that have made strong climbers for decades, you should build on that and see how you can improve the experience.

This is precisely what they are trying to do. Again, it's weird that you're getting all caught up in the words being used instead of the concept itself. 

slim wrote:

walking by and randomly hanging on one at the gym for a few seconds isn't the same as buying one.  would you buy one?  didn't think so...

Speak for yourself. If I tried it out and found it to be beneficial, I would probably buy one. 

would you buy one without trying it out first? it's probably going to be around 80 to 100 bucks would be my guess.

most folks who are going to invest in a hangboard know enough to realize that this isn't going to be the best board for the money.  just trying to give them some practical, grounded feedback.  if i was bringing something to market i would either want a "hell yeah i would definitely buy it" or a "hell no i would definitely not buy it".  it's the "maybes" that cause you to lose your shirt.

Gene Bankswrote:

Not speaking for anyone but myself, just making an observation. Also, not bashing anyone for their training methods or how seriously they take their training, just pointing out that "there are many ways to skin the cat".  Interesting that you seem to think that if people aren't "disciplined" like you, that they must be blindly and aimlessly hangboarding. Who's making assumptions now?

I get where you're coming from, but overall I think the pool of 'casual' hangboarders is pretty small.  Most people don't enjoy hangboarding as an activity, they enjoy the results.  So anything that inhibits getting those results is a huge minus for most people - myself included.  If they wanted to have fun at the expense of making bigger gains, they would just climb instead.

From what I've seen so far, I would pass on this.  Call me a cyborg, but I do not like the aesthetics-over-function approach.  Unless hanging on this thing somehow feels like a non-stop party, it's not worth the functional tradeoffs (or risk of injury).  I think it's very telling that 75% of the content on the home page has nothing to do with the actual product - although the floating climbing wall is pretty cool.

Gene Bankswrote:

Not speaking for anyone but myself, just making an observation. Also, not bashing anyone for their training methods or how seriously they take their training, just pointing out that "there are many ways to skin the cat".  Interesting that you seem to think that if people aren't "disciplined" like you, that they must be blindly and aimlessly hangboarding. Who's making assumptions now?

This is precisely what they are trying to do. Again, it's weird that you're getting all caught up in the words being used instead of the concept itself. 

Speak for yourself. If I tried it out and found it to be beneficial, I would probably buy one. 

It’s not weird, it’s weird to you. Their claims could have been worded a little less bombastic, and It’s a bit of a pretentious way to go about it; their claims assume that old boards are limiting...how so? Because they’ve been around a while, that equals limiting growth? False. Also, their claim on current boards not being aesthetically pleasing? Point to any current board on the market and ask a climber if their use of this board would be dependent upon if that board is ugly or beautiful, I would make a solid bet that it’s usefulness and practicality are more important than looks.

 Plus, you’re twisting my words to suit your counter argument that if you aren’t disciplined, then the board is useless to you, which is untrue. I claimed without measured edges or other controls, to me it’s an wall art piece, and someone would mostly likely be better suited to save money and hang on any available edge elsewhere if controls aren’t necessary to them. People constantly misuse hangboards all the time, which is a fact, even with measured edges.

Also, how exactly would you determine if you’d buy it or not, aside from it’s exquisite glamour factor? 

Slim,

I agree with most of your points regarding the difficulties of bringing a product to market. I was just pushing back on your assertion that I wouldn't buy one. Yes, I would like to try one first.

D Elliot,

Still don't know why you're getting all worked up over their "bombastic" language and "pretentiousness". Have you never seen an advertisement or marketing brochure?

The simple point is that this hangboard may not be right for you and your training program, but that it may be beneficial to others.

Gene Bankswrote:

D Elliot,

Still don't know why you're getting all worked up over their "bombastic" language and "pretentiousness". Have you never seen an advertisement or marketing brochure?

The simple point is that this hangboard may not be right for you and your training program, but that it may be beneficial to others.

No need to call into question things that aren’t relevant to the actual argument, which this is just a simple argument, and I’m not in the least bit worked up. Their design is more “aesthetic” than practical, in my humble opinion, and their claims are unfounded and amusing, even as a marketing ploy; although, I even call into question the “functional art” design of this when it’s reminiscent of one hanging on someone’s skinfolds: