The Frantz TP-5000

Few pieces of gear have reached the legendary status these wraps have, more less a pair of knee wraps.

Wraps are an especially forgettable piece of equipment. If you didn't know, almost every knee and wrist wrap comes out of one of three or so factories in Pakistan. This is why so many wrap companies produce largely similar and/or forgettable wraps. The Frantz TP-5000 (TP standing for "Team Power" according to Strength and Anger) was not like this.

Every since, the only wrap similar to the TP-5000 in any way is the Overkill wrap. This makes sense, as Rudy Rosales (the man behind Overkill) was a seamster under the late Ernie Frantz before starting Overkill.

While I have never used TP-5000s personally, I have felt them. While used (and obviously old because I'm only 20 and was not around the sport to get a pair in hand when they were still produced) I immediately realized what all the old timers talked about: these were different. Stretchy yet with a concrete-like stiffness when cranked. It is truly something I have never felt in another wrap. 

The most common comparison is the Overkill wraps. I currently use Overkill wrist wraps to bench and have used their 3m knee wraps to squat a few times before. While definitely the most similar to Frantz wraps, I would say they are a bit thicker and stiffer. The stiffness, however, may just be due to the particular pair of Frantz knee wraps I held.  The only other difference that I noticed outside the aforementioned is less so related to performance and more to feel, but in my opinion the Frantz wraps I felt were much smoother. The Overkills, however, feel more like sandpaper against your skin when you wrap with them. 

I pulled this ad from the Nov. 85 edition of Powerlifting USA. The full page advert the first photo is from is really a blast from the past. This particular PLUSA is the oldest I own (as of time of writing) and the next oldest I own is from Feb. 91, and no later publications I have contain any ads from Frantz. 

While $9.00 in today's money would certainly be an absolute steal for a pair of universally praised wraps, when adjusted for inflation it's still stupidly cheap! It would equate to roughly $25 at time of writing in 2022. 

I was also able to find them pretty clear on the Mar. 03 issue, featuring Steve Goggins on the front breaking the 1100 lb squat barrier. If you look closely, given he left a tail on his wrap on the logo end, the TP-5000 logo is somewhat visible. 

Steve Goggins squatted his 1102 to break the 1100 barrier in these. Ed Coan, Larry Pacifico, and Doug Furnas all wore them; and lifters today who were around or knew someone around back then still wear them. While it's always cool to hear what greats lifted what inhuman weights in certain pieces of gear, it is truly impressive when an individual piece of equipment is used through multiple generations of equipped lifting. Even the span of PLUSAs mentioned in this article is almost 20 years, and I first saw them in real life at a meet (in use by a competitor might I add) in 2021, almost 40 years since that 85 PLUSA ad. I cannot emphasize how fucking insane that is. In 1985, in that same ad, Ernie advertised a bench shirt with a 25lb carryover, which pales in comparison to today's poly shirts allowing for almost 300 lbs of carryover, or band shirts raising the bar to over 400 lbs of carryover. However, these wraps, what little are left in circulation, still see use in meets. 

This is a truly great piece of gear that deserves to be remembered forever. 

I heard that towards the end, the quality of material Ernie was able to receive and produce wraps with became inconsistent in quality. However, I do not know to what degree the quality control issues were or what years this affected them. 

If you can find a pair of these for sale, consider yourself lucky! As always with equipment well before my time, if you have any additional corrections, stories, or photos to share, please email roman@equippedpowerlifting.club and I will add to this article!