The Most Important Facts to Know When Choosing Banner Bracket Hardware for Outdoor Light Pole Banners – Or, How to Avoid A Banner Blow-out at 30 MPH!

If you’re looking to purchase banner hardware, I suggest you read this NOW!

With the installation of light pole banners (vertical banners on street poles), the primary challenge to sign companies and to banner companies is to do the best possible job they can in choosing the correct hardware. The next challenge is to install it according to the manufacturer’s instructions and guidelines. Too many times we have seen sign companies and end user customers base their banner bracket hardware choices on price alone. Or choose a bracket because it “looks” like it works and not make the choice on its real engineering or long-term durability.

This can be a dreadfully costly mistake. The hardware choice for vertical street banners is the most important decision in the entire process. I’ve heard some folks say, “the banners will only be up for a weekend” (or a month, or a summer, etc.) not realizing that a significant wind may come up the very next day to rip apart the cheap, unstable installation that looked so wonderful on that, gloriously calm day before (I actually observed this very phenomenon in Kalamazoo about 24 years ago when Tyvek® banners were placed on these ingenious (but very weak brackets made out of electrical conduit for a local art fair – the next day they were all flopping around in the shrubbery and fountains after a 40 mile per hour, blustery morning obliterated the entire grand presentation) ( I suppose I was the only one in town that thought it was funny…).

Besides any esthetic factors however, the real fact of the matter is that these banners and brackets are placed above people’s heads on city sidewalks or within parking lots. That, alone, should be about all you need to know to make sure that you choose hardware with care. You simply must make your selection based on the engineering and practical experience of manufacturers who have designed and tested the products to last and who have bothered to write instructions, guidelines and application suggestions based on technical knowledge. This is the same kind of expert manufacturer which can give you recommendations and testimonials from customers.

If this all sounds like a blatant advertisement for a product that meets all those qualifications, it is! We (Kalamazoo Banner Works by Consort) are the ones to talk to! I have written more about this in previous blogs titled something like “Banner Brackets and Fly Fishing Parts I, II & III”. But, I bring it up again in a slightly different way to emphasize the main point that the choice of which manufacturer you use, is the single most important decision when looking to put up these wonderfully popular vertical street banners. I will end this writing with three facts to ponder on this subject. First, I’ve never seen a reliable bracket that was made in China. Second, be wary of brackets with mechanical systems to rust and wear and, finally, be certain that the attachment method to the light pole (banding or bolts) are sized correctly for the size and number of banners your displaying (there is no room for “seat of the pants” theories here). If your supplier doesn’t give you that information, call or email us. We’ll get the job done properly.

Roger Lepley

“China, You Drive-a Me Crazy” or “Getting Knocked-Off Is Not As Much Fun As It Sounds”

As a product designer, I’m reminded too many times that “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”. And, after 30 years of hearing that, it still never fails to tick me off. It happens every time some jerk in our industry can’t come up with his own product innovations so he just can’t help himself from copying what we’ve designed here at Consort. Flatter me some other way (like: “nice double bogie, dude”…).
And, what makes it worse, these counterfeiters don’t even ask if it’s OK! (Well, of course they don’t ask. Jerks are jerks for a reason…)

Just today I received a package that contained a Chinese copy of one of our (formerly) unique Messenger®-X banner stand products. From a few feet away, one might be surprised to know that it isn’t our product – a pretty good knock-off, you might say (a “knock-off”, in case you aren’t familiar with the term, is defined as an unauthorized copy of something). However, once you really compare the two stands in operation, sophistication, weight (ours is precise aluminum tubing, theirs is heavy steel) and overall strength and stability, you know why it’s cheaper. But, of course, uninformed buyers tend to opt for the less expensive products, don’t they?

How many emails have you received lately for Rolex watches? I’ll bet there are plenty of those knock-offs being sold every day in the US.

The good news is that we design and manufacture things that people like. The not as good news is that some people like them enough to copy them (some are protected by US property rights laws – an expensive proposition - and some are not). Our challenge always has been to trust that higher quality and excellent customer service will drive the best and most discerning customers to us. Fortunately, it has usually worked that way for us.

As for China, the masters of counterfeiting and knock-offs, we do purchase our RTR Retractor Banner Stands from China because they are the only folks making those and they do a pretty good job. But, I hope to limit our Chinese purchases to only what they do well and to avoid buying Chinese knock-offs of other US manufacturers' products.


Roger Lepley