Gear Patrol | Spirit of Adventure, Passion for Gear

Wearable bug zapper

Repelling bugs in the outdoors usually means hiding in your tent, smearing mud all over your exposed skin or dousing yourself from head to toe with a noxious chemical that comes out of a bottle with lots of skulls and crossbones on it. Recently, some clothing companies have started selling insect repelling shirts and trousers, [...]

These Boots Were Made For Workin'

A couple of hundred miles south of its source in Northern Minnesota, the Mississippi River, after passing through Minneapolis and St. Paul, flows past an achingly charming town called Red Wing. Nestled below towering limestone bluffs patrolled by bald eagles, Red Wing sits like an oversized model railroad set. Its downtown Main Street is lined [...]

Racked Up

Drive down the main street of any outdoorsy town like Boulder, Jackson Hole or Ely and every other Subaru you see will have some sort of roof rack on it, carrying a quiver of bikes, boats, skis or cargo. But rarely will they carry all of the above. That’s because most of the rack systems [...]

Auto Icon

At the 1975 Paris Auto Show, Ferrari released a new model that would set a new direction for the company and reinvent the design language for all exotic supercars thereafter. The 308 GTB replaced Ferrari’s Dino 246 and quickly became the most recognized of the Modena-based manufacturer’s cars, even to this day. Decidedly modern in [...]

Your Life on Your Wrist

If you’re a runner, cyclist, hiker or skier, you (hopefully) know how important it is to carry emergency contact and medical information. It’s also a good idea to carry some money in case you bank far from home or just if you want to get a mid-ride ice cream. The problem is, where do you [...]

The boots that America built

England may have its Doc Martens and Australia has its Blundstones, but America’s boot is the Red Wing 877. Worn by countless workers, farmers, hunters and hipsters since its introduction in 1953, the 877 is revered for its comfort, durability and timeless styling. Still made in Red Wing, Minnesota with little changed for 60 years, [...]

There’s a sign in a bar in Cozumel, Mexico that reads, “Remember when sex was safe and diving was dangerous?” There’s a man in Plymouth, England named Ray Ives who surely remembers. Ray is a former professional salvage diver who, at the age of 75, still plies the depths in search of the treasures that [...]

Here's to the Forgotten Roadster

When you think of the classic British sports cars of the 1950s and ‘60s, MG, Jaguar, Aston Martin and Triumph tend to come to mind first. But arguably the most beautiful of the genre was the series of roadsters made by Austin Healey during the company’s short run, with their long sweeping haunches, short rear [...]

Better Brain Bucket

Belgium is arguably the most rabid cycling nation in the world (sorry France). So it’s no surprise that the country that produced Eddy Merckx, the Tour of Flanders and embrocation would also produce some of the best bike helmets. Lazer is the world’s oldest helmet company, having started out making those old leather hairnets way [...]

Everything You Need and Nothing You Don’t

Lotus has always built cars that are meant to be driven hard and not coddled. Small and lightweight, with surprisingly modest engines, the guiding principle of company founder, Colin Chapman, was to remove extraneous bits and bobs to tip the power to weight ratio in favor of the former. This principle was most evident in [...]

Ocean Twelve

The International Watch Company has always done things a little differently. First of all, the firm wasn’t founded by a venerable Swiss family in the remote mountains of the Jura or in the Vallée de Joux. Rather, it was an American entrepreneur from Boston, F.A. Jones, who set up shop on the banks of the [...]

You never know when you’re going to need some illumination

Whether you’re caught out after sunset on your bike, troubleshooting an uncooperative ’74 Beetle, plotting your pre-dawn summit bid, or finding a blown fuse in a dark basement, a good light source becomes invaluable. The problem is, you usually need different lights for different purposes and the one you need is rarely where you need [...]

See socks differently

Socks are often the red-headed stepchild of a man’s wardrobe. Abused, overlooked, and unappreciated they’re often an afterthought. That is, unless you buy the right socks. These are the right socks. Dahlgren is a small, family-run sock company based in Oregon that knows the value of focusing on one thing to get it right. And [...]

Worn and Well Worn

Author’s Note: It’s no secret we’re all about surfacing the latest and greatest, newest and shiniest gear. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have a healthy respect for careworn, well-made gear from the past. Because in the end, good quality stuff should last a while, perform for years, and become careworn itself. In this era [...]

River Deep, Mountain High

Starting a campfire in a rainforest is no easy chore. I summoned up some backcountry knowledge gleaned from watching the Discovery Channel and gathered a handful of “old man’s beard,” the moss that droops Dr. Seuss-like from the limbs of trees. “Good tinder,” I remembered Bear Grylls saying, as I laid a healthy bed of [...]