Gear Patrol | Spirit of Adventure, Passion for Gear

Rack Opinion

Can a key rack inspire lust? It might if it comes from the Joshua Tree, CA shop of J.L. Lawson & Co. Applying three generations of machining knowhow, father and son duo Floyd Lawson and son Anthony have created an impressive collection of small steel goods and accessories. Their latest creation, The Rack ($58), might [...]

Pooch Goop Galoshes

A dog’s paws can withstand all kinds of extreme conditions, but that doesn’t mean traipsing around in the snow, hot sand, or grimy asphalt for long periods of time is good for them. One solution is to pick up some fido footwear like the Bark’n Boots Polar Trex. If you and your hound aren’t thrilled [...]

Better for you and the earth

We’ve blabbered more than Scatman Crothers about how to manually brew better coffee, but if you still can’t wean yourself from the convenience of the K-cup, foodie and tech writer Matt Buchanan points out that the Keurig My K-Cup Reusable Coffee Filter ($19) offers some reasonable middle ground. This exclusive filter for the K-Cup system [...]

Gunmetal Great

Le Creuset’s wares have always been a staple of upscale kitchens, but we’ve never particularly liked their boisturious color options. This exclusive gunmetal gray version ($300) of their classic 7.25-quart round french oven done in collaboration with one of our favorite Southern publications, Garden & Gun, however, provides a tasteful upgrade to the deep black [...]

Tool House Rocks

The “ultimate workshop” is one of those rooms that frequently crop up in a man’s dream home ramblings, right between mentions of the Holodeck and a putting green. Even for those who’ve never lifted a tool in their life, the allure of escaping to an oasis of tinkering, away from the rest of the house [...]

Always Analog

The Pelle Leather Journal ($30) is another worthy addition to your analog record keeping repertoire. Inspired by the hard to find and broadly loved Midori Traveler’s Notebook, it features a sturdy leather cover with elastic retainer band and the ability to hold up to three different notebooks in one cover. The covers are made in the [...]

Fanning the flames? There's an app for that.

The Escea DX15000 pushes the snowball of fire-controlling skills kicked off by our ancestors to the next logical platform — the smartphone. Besides being the first-ever contained gas fireplace available with a 60-inch wide flame, the Escea DX1500 features a Smart Heat intelligent control system that allows users to manipulate the fire via a smartphone [...]

Get Plowed

Your standard $3 snowbrush can’t seem to bear much load, making it tough to clean off your car without snapping it into plasticky bits. So when time (and avoidance of “snow elbow”) are of the essence, you just might want to give the Innovation Factory Snowmover 2.0 ($24) a go at the white stuff. Made [...]

Shot Class

For some strange reason, bar tools have consistently remained the lone torch carrier for Art Deco styling, long after the movement’s influences faded from architecture, cars, and graphic design. The 18/8 stainless steel Bullet Cocktail Shaker by Metrokane ($20) epitomizes this trend better than most and should up the caliber of your next home soiree, [...]

Receptacles for do-it-yourself aging

Used whiskey barrels are a hot commodity in the spirits market. Reposado and Anejo tequilas and many Scotches age their products in used whiskey barrels, which impart softer flavors and aromas than new casks. But even if you’re not buying barrels for a full-scale spirits operation, don’t let that stop you from procuring one for [...]

Chills beer in just five minutes

Technology is constantly striving to indulge our inner sloth. Manually setting reminders on your phone was deemed too arduous, so now you can speak them. Pulling out keys, inserting them into the ignition, and twisting was just pointlessly strenuous, so now we just push a button. Going to rent a movie at Blockbuster defined drudgery, [...]

Breaking Better

The latest addition to Stanley’s FuBar line of demolition tools features an overhauled design that combines the prying power of a typical crowbar with the cutting skills of a chisel. One end of the 14-inch steel-and-carbon bar sports a prying hook and nail puller we all know and love. The bottom half, however, replaces the [...]

Mowing down Motown

The Detroit Auto Show has hosted plenty of firsts over the years — like the unveiling of the Jeep Grand Cherokee in 1992. So it’s no surprise to learn that the 2012 show is still mowing new trails as the launch site for Craftsman’s new CTX-series of lawn tractors. Yes folks, you read that correctly. [...]

Pool hall meets dining hall

Short of procuring a magical wardrobe with a bridge to a pool playing dimension, the Fusiontable is an ideal solution for satisfying a billiards craving without wasting living space. Measuring 53″ x 91″ and standing 30″, the table is sized perfectly for six, ships with matching benches and is customizable in a variety of colors [...]

Meet your home's path to the future

Twine looks like the aftermath of a booze-fueled sleepover in Vegas between a pack of Post-its and a bar of soap. Its inanimate and rather blunt form-factor, though, hides the Twine’s ambitious purpose. The device was devised by two MIT Media Lab grads, who wanted to create an easy way to bring various household objects [...]