Gear Patrol | Spirit of Adventure, Passion for Gear

Experience that shows

HoldFast is a new brand born from the passion of professional photographer and long time Gear Patrol reader Matthew Swaggert. After years of being frustrated with the overly complex, uncomfortable, and militia-styled gear that flooded the photography market, he decided to channel his experience and love of American heritage to create something better. The HoldFast [...]

Personal stylist, in a box

The popular direct-mail startup Birchbox has officially launched a one time edition of their subscription commerce service geared towards men. The limited edition box is filled with a trove of grooming finds from brand’s we’ve covered on site before including: Anthony logistics lip balm and shave cream, Jack Black moisturizer, Bvlgari eau de toilette, Supersmile [...]

Autodromo is a new watch brand that aims to capture the waning spirit of motoring. Its first three offerings dubbed the Veloce, Vallelunga (shown above), and the Brescia, all feature Swiss Made Ronda 4003.B quartz movements, big date calendar complications, and KI glass crystal with a sapphire coating. Their perforated leather straps and uncluttered modernist [...]

Getaway car

When the photos for the 2013 Ford Escape landed in our inbox we immediately thought two things. First, the superb job Ford did bringing the Vertrek concept to fruition without sacrificing the design. Second, how the dynamic Ford Focus (read: European) aesthetic actually works in small crossover utility form. Yes we too have a little [...]

Even if you aren’t up to date on your Navy knowledge, you may recognize the USS Carl Vinson Nimitz-class nuclear supercarrier as the ship that played host to the Michigan State and North Carolina basketball game last Friday. It was also tasked more formally with escorting Osama’s body out to sea six months earlier. As [...]

iCray

The Mac’s infamous spinning beach ball of death has a special place on our hearts… right alongside Beelzebub. And if you relish squeezing out every last ounce of performance from your Mac as much as we do then you probably empathize with our plight. Adding further insult to injury, things only get worse when you [...]

Their playability is anything but limited

Nike Golf’s latest metal wood offerings have just been released and while the “Limited Edition” moniker caught our eye, an upgraded face technology is what grabbed our attention. Nike is unveiling its own multi-face thickness technology with NexCOR and when coupled with an enhanced compression channel results in a hotter club face and higher ball [...]

Redefining animal cruelty

The internet meme Awkward Family Photos has certainly faded from its former glory days as the golden child of internet humor, but that hasn’t stopped authors Mike Bender and Dough Chernack from developing their next great wrinkle on the same embarrassing theme — Awkward Family Pet Photos ($10). As you’d expect from the title, the [...]

National Geographic Photo Contest 2011 Roundup The Atlantic One man, 100,000 toothpicks, and 35 years: An incredible kinetic sculpture of San Francisco This is Colossal Did Manny Pacquiao Just Become the Villain? Grantland Inside the Nest: iPod creator Tony Fadell wants to reinvent the thermostat The Verge Americans of the Year Esquire A Clear Explanation [...]

Take it to...

Companies like Logitech have done a decent job of providing consumers with an easy to use solution for controlling most IR-based home theater components — but if you like to take things literally, they still don’t deserve the title of “universal” remote. Commanding Bluetooth based devices like the PS3 for instance requires buying a separate [...]

Beats goes Business Class

It’s hard to believe that only three years have passed since Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine launched a line of headphones designed to bring their studio sound to the masses. History now shows the move was a prescient business decision that spawned a title wave of copy-cat products endorsed by anyone with a hip-hop single. [...]

Alice Made This cufflinks are inspired by a love for raw material aesthetic. Their industrial shapes are purposely made to mirror the precision metal turning process that creates them, which is predominantly used for high tolerance parts in engineering prone fields such as aerospace. Available in stainless steel, brass, and copper. ~$135 | alicemadethis.com

Fire escape hearth

Weighing in at 32 pounds, slightly less than the totalitarian Mongol it’s named after, the Genghis Kahn Hibachi ($180) offers up more than one way to get meat cooked. The stout, yet compact cast-iron grill provides three cooking schemes: flat griddle, 16-skewer shish kebab attachment, or a convex grilling grate with V-Grooves — an improvement [...]

Our weekend at the Golden City institution

All hotels are judged on their location, amenities, and service, but a unique sense of style is usually what separates the good from the remarkable. San Francisco’s historic Clift has all of these qualities in ample supply. Since being opened in 1915 on the corner of Geary and Taylor St., the luxury hotel has offered [...]

Fuel to the fire

Question: what does over one million dollars worth of app production and development entirely for the celebration of iconic classic cars look like? Answer: Road Inc. ($10). From the Murciélago to the Mulliner Fastback Bentley Continental R, the original Model T to the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing, Road is quite possibly one of the most [...]