Project Overview

The Pigtail is a unique and new way of storing your guitar in your closet. Perfect for those in studio apartments, student accommodation, or as the distraction in your office. It offers a safe and secure way of storing your instrument so it is always just an arm's reach away.

Organisation

The Cap Hanger Co

Team

Our project team consists of two partners who performed all the design and prototyping in house with our own 3D printer. We engaged a respected industrial designer to assist with sourcing a feasible manufacturer, and creating the final manufacturing documentation and bill of materials.

The Pigtail is our first product, and we are actively working on several other projects we hope to bring to market over the course of the next 12 months.

Project Brief

For many guitar players, it is an unfortunate hassle to have to pull the guitar case out from under the bed and especially so for those in student and small studio apartments or those with back problems. The Pigtail closet guitar hanging solution solves this issue by providing a simple, safe, and secure storage method for a player's valuable instruments. Reducing the need to dig a guitar out of a case means that the casual player is more likely to pick up their guitar and practice, and saves the regular player precious time so they can get to what they're really after.

As many guitars have significant monetary and emotional value for their owners, it was imperative that the product enables a safe and secure method to store the instruments. A solid steel core delivers the structural integrity, while the soft polythene coating prevents any scratches and protects the instrument surface.

Project Need

The Pigtail displays a new approach to guitar storage, in a colourful and unique design that stands out amongst the guitar accessories market. It leverages existing storage space that is safely out of the way and out of direct sunlight, while still making it easily accessible and avoiding the need to bend down to pick up an instrument from a case on the floor. The main goal of the product is to ensure your instrument is safely only an arm's reach away.

Additionally, traditional guitar storage products have always been sold in muted colours with similar designs. The Pigtail breaks out of this mould, giving players a new option when looking for guitar accessories. In the future, a variety of colours will further allow musicians to further personalize their experience.

Design Challenge

From the beginning, our ideas were to sustainably minimize our production costs while also decreasing our time to market, and ensuring we created an iconic style that would stand out amongst the competition. When investigating the current range of guitar accessories in market, it became clear that there was not much innovation happening, and most products were derived from similar designs, and required several assembly steps to manufacture.

Initial plans and designs involved custom injected moulding techniques, however after running into certain limitations we proceeded to a wire bending model. This allowed us to create the entire structure of our product in one step, decreasing our costs and manufacturing time, while providing a unique and iconic design. It additionally allowed us to use 3D wire bending technology in a new way by creating iconic and useful designs ready for sale from the manufacturer. This innovation on behalf of our contracted manufacturer was well accepted as we are leveraging their tools and expertise that traditionally have been used to create generic parts for other products such as car seats and head rests.

Sustainability

Sustainability is a key component of our business strategy, and includes environmental/community/business/economy components.

Environmentally, our product is made from recycled steel and plastic sourced in Australia. If the polythene coating ever becomes ripped, we can simply recycle the polythene and re-coat the steel to sell the product again. We have consciously aimed to minimize the steps required in the manufacturing process in order to cut down on the impact our product will have on the environment via shipping and industry processes.

In order to help support the communities where we live and do business, we work with Australian Disability Enterprises for our final assembly, packaging and fulfilment needs. This allows us to support our communities by helping those who may have trouble finding work in the traditional workforce.

Finally, the Pigtail is proud to display the Australian Made certification trade mark, which is a testament to our focus on Australian business and the local economy. By manufacturing and selling locally, we can not only cut down on shipping, but also make sure we are able to give back to the local economy and communities that support us by purchasing our products.