Hanger Network's Ecohangers: Recycled Paper Hangers Equal Marketers Dream

BY BERYL SHERESHEWSKY

There’s a new reason to get hung up over the environment. Where does great marketing and green ethics meet up? In your closet. Simply put, it’s all about hangers these days. Every year, over 3.5 billion wire hangers are produced in the United States.  Ending their lives eventually in a landfill, these shirt teasers lay in wait for the next 100 years or more, while Mother Nature takes her course. Created in 1869 by O.A. North in Connecticut, the wire hanger hasn’t changed much, until now. Spotting a key opening in the industry, Hanger Network has revamped the hanger, adding an economical and ecological twist.

In a world were advertising rules, from bus sides to highway posts, coffee mugs, t-shirts and sign waving Uncle Sams, there isn’t much virgin ground left. Bob Kantor, the chief executive officer of Hanger Network, took a blind leap of faith. “You can't flip the channel or turn the page when you're getting dressed," Kantor said, “We provide targeted, adult consumers with a branded apparel message at the moment it's most relevant."

So the wire hanger has lost its grip. With a branding message, it hasn’t hurt the company that they are 100% green. Made from post-consumer recycled materials, companies are spreading their message in over 35,000 dry cleaners across the country. From Hershey’s Chocolate to Princess Cruise Lines, closets will never look the same.

To those bent wire hangers that have long ago lost their shape and ability to support my winter jackets, thanks, but no thanks. While the rest of the world is redefining their ways of seeing, I am all for defining my ways of hanging. It’s a green lover’s world, and for businesses to find a way to profit, I’ll toast to that. 

Having traveled around the world, Beryl Shereshewsky, a recent University of Colorado, Boulder graduate, realized that in life, she wanted to accomplish three things. One, travel more, two, write about what she saw and three, save the world. With the recent advances in the green movement, she realized that she could be a superhero writer and write about saving the world. Combing her powers, she now writes for various eco and travel sites across the web, changing the world one article at a time. Feel like chatting?  E-mail her b.shereshewsky@yahoo.com.

Comments

[Sam Jones]

Hi Beryl,

Thanks for introducing Eco-Hangers.I really like what you are doing with your green initiative ,much appreciated.

Be Well!
Sam Jones