Gear Patrol | Spirit of Adventure, Passion for Gear

Stay tight, stay cool

It’s common knowledge among athletes that muscle compression is good during hard efforts. It’s also well known that icing muscles immediately after a workout makes for faster recovery. The two concepts have always been mutually exclusive though. Compression wear is all the rage, those snug tops and tights favored by pro football players and, regrettably, [...]

Shown actual size... maybe

The phrase “mighty Redwood” does not pertain to the Dawn Redwoods ($50) found in this kit. Instead, these Gary Coleman-sized plants are ancestors of the giant Cali variety and were assumed to be extinct until one was discovered in a Chinese rice field in the 1940s. As one of only two known deciduous conifers (think [...]

Heart of Darkness

We’ve all seen tuner cars gone bad. Take a perfectly good car and throw on parts that make it look like you hot glued a bookshelf on for a rear wing. Every so often someone does tuning right. In the case of the Aston Martin DBS Superior Black Edition, Anderson Germany has done just that. [...]

Power Couple

When you think of German automobiles, BMWs are probably the first to emerge in your mind as being the best. For the cognoscenti, BMW also makes some of the best bikes around. Case in point, the new 2012 BMW K 1600 GT and K 1600 GTL, utilizing an engine most often found in their cars, [...]

Fine Noise Makers

Etsy isn’t the first destination that comes to mind for audio gear, but stumbling across these jaw-dropping Mt. Man Speakers ($900) from Philadelphia-based maker Jesse Gerard, aka Carrot Grant, is a welcome surprise. Designed and made by hand from solid cherry, each speaker features twin copper-clad woofers, gold-plated binding posts for banana plugs or 12 [...]

$98 | Scotch & Soda

Your Pockets Will Thank You

Paul Hogan has his reservations about the value of a pocketable knife, but as our everyday carry series hints, we’re more secure in our masculinity. That’s why these super lightweight knives from Baladeo intrigue us. Sold in three different weights of 34, 22, and 15 grams (that’s 0.5 ounces), they won’t field dress a full-sized [...]

Wall-V

When we first heard that our favorite vintage-soccer shirt brand Bumpy Pitch was getting into the home decor game, we couldn’t help but anticipate what they had in store. Now that we’ve feasted our eyes upon them we can’t help but clamor for even more. The brand, labeled Flying Junction, offers 20th century inspired subway [...]

Shaved legs optional

Twin Six is a Minneapolis-based cyclewear company that is headed up not by businessmen but by designers and it shows. With a winking eye towards the cheeky and a touch of retro, Twin Six makes cycling jerseys for guys who don’t want to be billboards, superheroes or wannabe Euro racers. The graphics are tasteful, clever [...]

Meet the World's First Space Beer

Vostok 4 Pines Stout ($20) is the world’s first beer that’s certified for drinking in space and was developed by the 4-Pines Brewing Company and Saber Astronautics. Yes, the claim is a blatant marketing ploy, but you’d be surprised what a brewer has to deal with to make suds drinkable in space. First of all, [...]

Cinematographer and DSLR timelapse maven Philip Bloom has captured a dramatic time lapse the Seattle Space Needle using four cameras… pointed out his hotel window. It’s a refreshing alternative to your girlfriend’s-favorite-formulaic-ABC-doctor-drama B-Roll (seriously, it’s every other shot) and set to the only good takeaway of The Happening, James Newton Howard’s dramatic score. For you [...]

A Natural Progression From Boots

We first learned about Helm after spotting their excellent Ray Ray boots last summer. Now the craftsmanship-focused shop has added a line of great looking belts ($85) designed to match their footwear. All of the belt styles share names with their boot counterparts and use the same materials. Models such as the Ernest, Emi (shown [...]

Let's get cyclical

The dictionary defines a bicycle as “a vehicle with two wheels in tandem, usually propelled by pedals connected to the rear wheel by a chain, and having handlebars for steering and a saddle like seat.” That certainly covers the gist of the invention, but after centuries of design evolution, the world of bikes has grown [...]

Move over Big Ben

Who doesn’t love the Olympics? Well, instead of having the multicolored rings emblazoned on your hairy chest while rooting for your favorite Olympian, why not don something a few notches up on the classy scale? For the 2012 Olympic games in London, Omega commemorates the 25th time they have acted as the Official Timekeeper of [...]

It's All About The Paper

Balloon and confetti-themed patterns are both safe bets for those obligatory gifts in life (re: the family friend/neighbor’s punk kid’s graduation.) Rapping paper ($5) is perfect, however, for your best bud’s birthday or that upcoming docket of bachelor parties. Featuring the lyrics of classic hip-hop singles from the likes of the Sugar Hill Gang and [...]