Heroclip Review

JUMP TO: QUICK SPECS / PROS & CONS / HOW IT WORKS / POSSIBLE USES / SIZING, WEIGHT & LOAD / MATERIALS / COLOURS / SUMMARY

Author: Sam Brilleman

The Heroclip is a carabiner with a twist.

Quite literally.

Marketed as a “hybrid gear clip” the Heroclip is — in it’s simplest form — a standard carabiner. But attached to the spine of the carabiner is an arm that swivels 360° which is then attached to a rubber tipped hook.

This makes the Heroclip a much more versatile alternative to a standard carabiner, offering up as many possible uses as you can throw at it.

 

Using the Heroclip to support our broken clothesline that wouldn’t stay up by itself

 

You get the use of a standard carabiner but the benefits of a 360° swivel hook. The concept seems slightly confusing until you see it in action, at which point you say “wow, this thing is pretty nifty”.

Of course at the end of the day the Heroclip is just a fancy gear clip. And it does come with a non-trivial price tag. But if you are in the market for a carabiner, a hook, or a gear clip, then the Heroclip is almost certainly the most versatile and functional one you will find.

QUICK SPECS

WEIGHT:
0.7 oz / 20 grams (Mini)
1.1 oz / 31 grams (Small)
2.0 oz / 57 grams (Medium)

MAX LOAD:
40 lbs / 18 kg (Mini)
50 lbs / 22 kg (Small)
60 lbs / 27 kg (Medium)

DIMENSIONS (W x CLOSED H x OPEN H):
 1.8 x 2.25 x 4.25 in / 4.6 x 5.7 x 10.8 cm (Mini)
2.4 x 3.00 x 5.60 in / 6.1 x 7.6 x 14.2 cm (Small)
3.0 x 3.75 x 7.25 in / 7.6 x 9.5 x 18.4 cm (Medium)

MATERIAL: Aluminium (plus some steel, nylon and rubber components)

 

PROS

  • Both a carabiner and hook in one

  • Swivels 360°

  • Hook has a rubber point to stop slippage

  • Available in a variety of colours

CONS

  • Quite pricey for a carabiner

  • Aside from hanging stuff up, not that easy to find a use for

  • Hook on the mini and small sizes doesn’t always fit onto a table frame

HOW IT WORKS

The Heroclip has an aluminium carabiner with a stainless steel gate. The outer edge of the carabiner — starting from the bottom of the spine and ending at the top of the gate — is surrounded by a hook made from the same material as the carabiner. I guess you could say the hook is “spooning” the carabiner, or something like that.

The carabiner and the hook are connected by a nylon swivel. The swivel is connected (by a rivet) to the spine of the carabiner at one end, and connected (by a second rivet) to the eye of the hook at the other end. The swivel is able to rotate 360° through its centre.

When you push back the carabiner gate you are able to twist the hook, say 90°, so that it is no longer spooning the carabiner. You are then able to pivot either one of the rivets on the end of the swivel, or turn the swivel through any part of its 360° rotation. This gives you the freedom to set the carabiner and hook in any relative position to each other that you wish.

 
 

Perhaps the most common is to have the point of the hook and the nose of the carbiner at opposite ends. That way you can place the hook over an object (e.g. a table edge) and clip an object onto the carabiner to hang. But there are many more possible arrangements and use cases as I describe below!

When you no longer want to utilise the hook, you can rotate the swivel back into the original position, push back the carabiner gate and place the hook back so that it is spooning the carabiner. When the carabiner gate is closed, it traps the rubber point of the hook between it so that the hook will stay in place. You can then use the Heroclip as a standard carabiner.

POSSIBLE USES

I’ve tried to gather a bunch of use cases for the Heroclip, but there are no doubt countless more. If you can think of novel additional uses then feel free to drop me a line and suggest I add it to this list. Someone else may find your creative idea super useful!

The Heroclip is mainly used for hanging stuff up. Essentially the Heroclip is able to hang anything with a strap from anything with a ledge, lip or rail.

 

The Heroclip in it’s most natural state — hanging a bag from something! In this case my backpack hanging from the balcony ledge.

 

The most common use case is hanging a backpack or handbag from somewhere — be it a wardrobe rail, a table’s edge, a toilet stall door, a tree branch, a fence, or a car seat headrest. It can also be used for securing smaller items like keys or a drink bottle to your backpack.

Of course the Heroclip is strong, with maximum recommended loads in the range of 40-60 lbs. That means you can also hang larger and heavier objects from it. This might be something like a child’s bike or a gardening tub.

 

The Heroclip being used to secure our clothesline whilst the supporting hinge was broken.

 

If you are willing to carry the extra weight when hiking, it can be particularly useful in the backcountry. For example it can be used as a carabiner for bear bagging, or to hang your hiking pack from a tree or rock.

Lastly, if you can twist it into the appropriate shape, the Heroclip can be suitable for propping something up. The most obvious being a cellphone playing Netflix.

Got any particularly novel use cases for the Heroclip? Feel free to drop me a line and I can add them here. Someone else may find your suggestion super useful!

 

The Heroclip mini propping up my Samsung Galaxy cellphone.

 

SIZING, WEIGHT & MAX LOAD

SIZING

The Heroclip is sold in three sizes: mini, small and medium. Be sure to see the top of this article for the dimensions of each size and be a bit careful with which size you choose.

Although the mini carabiner might seem ultralight and ultra-packable, the small size of its hook can mean its functionality is more limited. For instance the hook on the mini can struggle to fit around some table edges.

 

Be wary of which size you buy — The Heroclip mini was unable to fit onto the edge of our dining table.

 

WEIGHT

The weight of a Heroclip ranges from 0.7 (mini) to 2.0 (medium) ounces. So pretty much any of the sizes are justifiable for everyday use around town. Although if you are taking one backpacking then the ultralight mini is probably the way to go.

MAXIMUM LOAD

Maximum loads supported by the Heroclip range from 40 lbs (mini) to 60 lbs (medium). So for most tasks they will easily be strong enough.

The mini size would easily support a fully loaded daypack, whilst the medium size would even support a dual suspension mountain bike. Although I wasn’t actually able to fit my 2.2 inch mountain bike tires into the medium hook, so maybe just stick to hanging up road bikes.

One thing to be aware of is that these carabiners are not suitable for climbing, so don’t go scaling El Capitan with the Heroclip.

 

The Heroclip is available in three sizes: mini, small and medium.

 

MATERIALS

The Heroclip is made from a mixture of lightweight materials — aluminium, steel, nylon, plastic and rubber.

The main body of the clip is made from aircraft grade aluminium. The aluminium is machine cut and anodized which gives the Heroclip a high quality smooth, but matte, finish. The anodizing should in theory also help with durability against abrasion, but the Heroclip doesn’t seem particularly resistant to scratching.

The swivel component and tip of the hook are made from a composite nylon. The tip of the hook also has a small rubber point that helps stop the hook from slipping off surfaces.

Stainless steel is used for the carbiner gate. And nickel plated high carbon steel rivets are used for keeping the various components intact.

 

In this photo you can see the various materials making up the Heroclip — including the steel rivets, the nylon swivel, and the rubber point on the hook.

 

COLOURS

The Heroclip comes in a variety of colours. Some are pretty standard whilst others are more playful. The colour options seem to differ by size and they also differ in their availability.

If you are feeling patriotic then perhaps consider “Go Seattle” (green and blue). Or for those of you who love the bush then perhaps the “Woodland Hero” (camouflage and black).

On the other hand if — like me — you are less adventurous in your colour choices then “Stealth Black” and “Shades Of Gray” are both pretty nice and neutral.

SUMMARY

The Heroclip is a pretty cool little invention. And the quality of the build seems sturdy and reliable.

Of course not everyone can find a use for this type of accessory. But if you arrived at this article then you probably can.

And if you are in the market for a new carabiner, hook, or gear clip then the Heroclip is almost certainly going to be the most versatile and functional one you will find.

DISCLOSURE

Heroclip provided me with free samples for this review. However the views expressed here are all my own.

MORE INFORMATION

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Happy hiking and take care out there in the wild!