Why Did Hang Ease Go Out Of Business? 

Ryan Landis is the founder of the company Hang Ease. He launched the company when he was in third grade. The company manufactured and sold collapsible clothes hangers.

Landis appeared on Shark Tank season 5 episode 27. He gave an outstanding pitch and thought that he had an excellent business idea.

He appealed to the sharks for an investment of $80,000 in exchange for a 30% stake in the company. He managed to secure a deal from the sharks. But is it still in business? 

Let’s learn about the details of Hang Ease.

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A Short Note On Hang Ease

Hang Ease was a company that manufactured and sold folding hangers with a unique hinge inserted in the middle. Whenever you pull the shirt, the pressure that is created by the hinge to fold and the shirt comes off easily.

In this way, one would never break hangers anyhow and unnecessarily. Unfortunately, this business idea did not work out for a long time. Here are some features of the product: 

• The product is a foldable hanger that can be stored and used quite efficiently. 
• The product can be folded from the centre in half and can be opened with a single pull from both sides. 
• The product is available in multiple colours. 

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Who Is The Founder Of Hang Ease? 

Hang Ease is a product born from the hard work of a child in third grade. He invented the product as part of a science project in his school.

The founder of Hang Ease got the solution to the problem of storing hangers in the closet. In the Science exhibition, a parent found the idea of Ryan useful and allowed him to sell his product at Walmart.

The product was then launched in 100 stores and a parent was generated for the product. At the age of 20, he wanted to sell his product to multiple stores all over the country and online. 

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How Was The Hang Ease Company Launched? 

Ryan Landis invented the Hang Ease collapsible hanger when he was only ten years old. He always broke hangers after Ranger from pulling off his shirt hanging in the cupboard just like the other kids of his age. 

Ryan was moved by that situation and as he wanted to be an entrepreneur and inventor he developed a prototype for a kids-friendly collapsible hanger.

He managed to get his product sold at Walmart in 2006. It was a good milestone for a young boy who was still in school.

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How Was Hang Ease Going Before Shark Tank? 

The founders of Hang Ease got the inspiration for their unique ideas from various sources Ryan Landis, from Plano, Texas, a third-grade school project gave him the idea for a time and money-saving idea that finally led him on the road to the Shark Tank.

Just like the normal boys, eight-year-old Ryan always tried to pull his shirts right off a hanger and at the time doing this the hanger or the shirt always got damaged. 

The school project, which was named ‘Invention Convention’ asked students to go through their own homes, find an issue, and invent a solution to that issue.

Ryan tried out the hangers in his cupboard and ultimately developed a hanger with a unique hinge in the middle. The hinge would let the hanger fold up when downward pressure was applied to it. In this way, the clothes as well as the Rangers would be saved from getting damaged.

Ruan showed his entire project at an exhibition at the school and luck favoured the fortunate young inventor, in the form of a school friend’s mom, who also happened to run a business that had contacts with big retailers.

She was able to help Ryan in obtaining his invention stocked in the retail giant Walmart in 2006 and he managed to get successful sales.

But it was a matter of sorrow that the pressure of school work soon became a focus for Ryan and he reluctantly stopped all business operations after completing school.

In 2014, Ryan completed his education and expected to get one of the sharks as his partner in the Hang Ease business. With this aim, he came up on Shark Tank in April 2014.

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What Occurred To Hang Ease on Shark Tank? 

Ryan was expecting to get an investment of $80,000 in exchange for a 30% stake in the Hang Ease business when he came up on the Shark Tank show.

He described the sharks about the third-grade school project and his inspiration for a collapsible hanger. He told them about the innovative design that was perfectly suited for a shirt that was pulled off of it and the ease with which the clothes were put back on.

Ryan started his pitch by mentioning his previous involvement with a major retailer in short and the following stagnation of the business while he focused on school.

He finished his pitch by asking which one of the sharks was willing to assist him in bringing his childhood dream back to life. He presented his pitch very well but the sharks were not so interested in investing in the business.

Barbara Corcoran inquired, being suspicious whether he had that in his cupboard for ten years. Ryan ascertained he had as he handed her a sample. When she took it she asked if he had dusted off these things. 

Robert Herjavec asked which large retailer Ryan had been involved with before. When Ryan disclosed that it had been Walmart, Robert Herjavec was surprised. Not only Robert, but the other sharks also became surprised after hearing this. 

Kevin O’Leary looked up unexpectedly at the disclosure, and Barbara seemed to be blinking out a contact lens in surprise.

Lori spoke first. She wanted to know what had occurred with Walmart. Ryan started to depict that he had managed to sell 400,000 hangers with the retailer and Mark Cuban broke into laughter after hearing the figure.

Robert Herjavec broke in to inquire how Hang Ease Hangers had even gotten into Walmart in the first place. Ryan described his school friend’s mother who had great business contacts. 

He explained how she had walked through his school hall when he was showing his project and had liked the idea so much that she was eager to help him get Hang Ease Hangers stocked in the huge chain of stores.

Robert Herjavec was eager to know what the sales achieved from the association had been. In reply, Ryan said $200,000. After that, Robert asked how much profit Ryan had made from those sales.

In reply, Ryan said that he had made nearly $70,000 at the time which was a highly remarkable figure for a boy who had been only eight years old at that time and Mark Cuban gave an admiring look at the young entrepreneur. 

Just like Mark Cuban, Robert Herjavec also was highly impressed after hearing about the previous accomplishments of Ryan but he was still concerned.

He was unable to understand why Walmart had quit stocking Hang Ease hangers if they had sold so successfully.

Ryan started to describe that he did not think the hangers had been marketed properly but when he answered that he sounded uncertain and unconvincing.

Lori pointed out the pricing. It was finally proved that Ryan’s product was not greatly competitive with traditional hangers. Furthermore, it was four times as expensive and more than the usual price of a premium, improved hanger. 

Lori Grenier inspected the hanger thoroughly and inquired whether Ryan had filed for a patent. In Reply Reyan said that he had a fully issued utility patent on the product. 

Lori declared that she had another query and then she said that she had seen other products like this out there. Ryan looked to be shocked for a few moments but he pulled himself together enough to reply if that was true. 

Honestly speaking he was not shocked after hearing the news of potentially competitive products, in violation of his copyright, he became sad after knowing that Lori knew about them.

The young businessman ascertained that he had conducted a lot of research into Rangers and he had not found any similar products. However, the other sharks started to agree with Lori.

Mark Cuban could recall a similar device to the HangEase system on luggage bags. After listening to this, Ryan only nodded his head as he was unable to find an appropriate answer for the Texan billionaire.

Robert then asked Ryan to clarify what exactly made the hanger so unique. Ryan depicted that the hinged middle of the product had been specially designed to be perfect for a downward pulling motion and that was why many people took shirts from a hanger.

Mark Cuban supported Ryan on that acknowledging that he too pulled shirts from his cupboard in just the same way. 

Kevin O’Leary had remained quiet so far. He said that he was unable to understand why retailers or individuals would bother to purchase the hanger as he could not find the need for it.

Mark Cuban again safeguarded Ryan’s interests. He told Kevin from his personal experience he had found that whenever the shirts are pulled from a conventional hanger it may damage clothes on display, or the hangers themselves. 

Lori approved that and said that it was a common problem but she had mentioned before that there were a lot of identical products she had found before. 

Robert Herjavec said that he had not found the application of the product and that is why he left the deal. Ryan politely thanked him for giving his valuable time.

Kevin O’Leary declared that Ryan did not have a scope to survive with the HangEase hanger as it has a highly expensive price tag. He also added that he did not find the purpose of the hanger and came to a conclusion by indicating that the entire thing bored the crap out of him.

When Kevin said it directly and was going to say he wanted to leave the deal Lori made a small noise of horror. 

Barbara Corcoran did not like the businesses that had undergone a period of rest.  She had prior experiences with such firms.

She had found that their inventors lacked their former passion and had not obtained success with the business and that is why she left the deal. 

Only the sharks Mark Cuban and Lori Grenier left. They liked the Hang Ease product. However, they were worried about other competing products and whether Ryan’s assertion to have a patent-protected product was fully justified.

Mark was ready to invest $80,000 in exchange for a 30% stake in the business but he said that the deal would be contingent on patent verification. Mark affirmed that he would be very glad to have Lori in the deal if she wanted to join them. 

Lori thought for some time as Ryan almost faded under the pressure. She finally agreed to join the deal, telling Ryan that he deserved a chance. The young businessman quickly accepted the deal without wasting time. 

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Hang Ease Shark Tank Update

As of 2023, the company is not active in business any more. In fact, after appearing on Shark Tank, they had never updated their website which is unexpected as the entrepreneur was very excited about the product. 

In 2015, they shut down their official Facebook late and they were not active on any other social media platforms. 

Considering all these things, it is assumed that their deal with Mark Cuban and Lori Grenier never went through. The original reason is unknown to all. But, indeed, there is not a single trace of Hang Ease left anywhere.

So,  the question arises as to whether the product was a scam. Probably not as they manufactured a huge number of hangers after all. 

We guess that they might have faced some financial problems for which they were unable to take the company further.

So, where is Ryan now? As per his LinkedIn page, we have come to know that Ryan has been serving as a senior assistant buyer for men’s activewear at JCPenney since September 2021.

Before getting appointed there, he worked as a buyer for men’s accessories. He worked as a senior merchandise planner for luxury sportswear as part of the Neiman Marcus Group from 2016 to 2019.

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Final Opinion

Despite getting an outstanding deal from the Shark Tank episode, the deal with Mark Cuban and Lori Grenier was never closed. After the show, Ryan never revived the Hang Ease business.

He was given the latent in 2007 and could have tried to restart the business. Being an inventor and entrepreneur, Ryan Landis got engaged in other projects. After the Hang Ease Shark Tank episode, he had already started another business. 

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