Eleiko Oppen Barbell Collars

The Öppen Barbell Collars are Eleiko’s take on an open-face weight collar: rather than sliding down the sleeve like a spring or standard lever collar, the C-shaped collar hooks in next to the plate and clamps shut with a single-handed lever, so plates can be loaded and unloaded without ever removing the collar from the bar. A rubber interior keeps all contact off the bare metal sleeve — reviewers specifically call out that it avoids the plate-scratching some magnetic aluminum collars (like the Rogue OSO) cause — and integrated magnets let the collars stick to a rack, stand, or the plate itself for quick, one-handed placement and storage. The design, borrowed from Eleiko’s open-ended deadlift bar, won the RedDot and iF Design awards in 2021 and a Swedish Grand Award of Design in 2023.

Independent testers rate day-to-day holding power highly — Garage Gym Reviews reports zero plate movement through repeated overhead-lift drops — but two separate testers (Garage Gym Reviews’ “Coup collar” stomp test and Gear Mashers’ jump test) found the rubber grip slips or tears under extreme stress that comparable aluminum collars like the Rogue USA Aluminum shrugged off. Both video reviewers and the StrongFirst forum also flag the price as the collar’s weakest point: it typically runs higher than magnetic aluminum alternatives, and several forum commenters see cheaper open-design collars (Gopher, PRX Talon) as comparable value.