Hockey Equipment Drying Stand

Very quickly into my first season playing hockey, my equipment started to smell terrible. I would put my stuff back on after not playing for a week and my equipment would still be wet! My friend told me about a drying rack she'd bought on Amazon and when I looked it up, it was $70.

For a little while, I persisted with my stinky and wet equipment. I would leave my bag open after practices but even then it would take several days to dry and fill my small apartment with a smell that the ventilation couldn't compete with. I then decided to try to make a drying rack for myself. I found a picture of one online and went from there.

Planning ahead is not usually my strong suit, but since I didn't have a car and wouldn't be able to go to Lowes for several days I relearned the CAD skills that I'd faked learning in my engineering classes and made a model.

I quickly realized that the stand would end up looking startlingly similar to a five-foot tall person, so it would need to break down easily or my roommate would kick both it and me out of the apartment. I decided to make it out of PVC so I could break it in half when it wasn't being used to dry things and it could be completely disassembled during the off-season.

In all I would need 165" of PVC broken down into the following sections:

• 7 x 7" sections
• 4 x 9" sections
• 2 x 12" sections
• 2 x 18" sections
• 1 x 24" section

Iwould also need the following connectors:

• 2 x 2-way connectors
• 5 x 3-way connectors
• 1 x 4-way connector

I ended up buying all the connectors, plus two 10-foot pipes. I got the 0.75" thick pipes which ended up just about the right size. In all, it cost about $24.

Other supplies that were not included in that price, are as follows:

• PVC cement (I did not use this, although I think I might in the future)
• Some type of saw

After buying the materials, I used my Dad's friend's chop saw to cut the pipe into pieces. Attached is a crop of the picture that my dad took of me cutting the materials which was highly embarrassing at the time but now I kind of appreciate (I mean, what else are dads for?).

Assembly is pretty self-explanatory. I decided not to cement any of the joints together because I want to be able to break it down completely during the off-season.

• My helmet hangs on the middle vertical pipe.
• My gloves slide over the upper vertical pipes.
• My shoulder pads rest on the upper horizontal pipes.
• My elbow pads are strapped around the upper 90-degree connectors.
• I have suspenders on my pants so my pants hang from the upper horizontal pipes as well.
• My skates go upside-down on the lower vertical pipes.
• The straps on my shin pads are looped around the lower vertical pipes, resting on the end of the lower horizontal pipes.

Enjoy the final product!

Tips to make your equipment not smell bad:

1. Clean your equipment: Wash it in the washing machine! Everything short of your skates and helmet can go into any normal washing machine. Hang it in the shower or on your brand new drying rack to dry - DO NOT PUT IN DRYER.
2. Spray a mixture of half water half vodka on the equipment every time you take it off.
3. Hang up your equipment to dry for at least 24 hours. If you skip the spraying down step (probably a good idea if you need your equipment the next day) still hang it up to dry.