This may or may not be a good alternative depending on what your objective is for collecting the gear, but one good solution for this I've seen people suggest is to implement a glamour book system. People could add a piece of gear to the book (in some versions of the suggestion, this destroys the actual gear item in the process) but once added to the book, you could freely use the item as a glamour whenever. The book interface could include a checklist or completion percentage, allowing you to keep track of how complete your sets are.