Gear Patrol

After closing up his former shop (RIP Freeman Transport), Ben Ferencz decided it was time for reflection. He took some time traveling around between his home in the Montana mountains and New York City. Spent time with good friends. Did a few collaboration one-offs with the likes of Hickorees Hard Goods and Jack Spade. Realizing…

For most people, the term travel guide triggers visions of stout books, stuffed to the margins with 10 point font and the occasional over-saturated color photo. Boutique firm Herb Lester and Associates rebels against this stereotype by working with exceptional illustrators and designers to create beautiful guides to the world’s great cities. Each detailed edition…

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…

When the Jamaica Tourist Board invites you to Jamaica for five days of culinary and cultural adventures, you don’t say no. You pack some sandals and swim gear, and you leave some extra space in your bag for local rum. Turns out there was very little beach time on the trip, but as this writer…

Luggage powerhouse Tumi has revealed a new limited edition collaboration with the style-focused, globe-trotting team at Selectism. The midnight blue duffle was designed, first and foremost, to be the go to solution for quick business trips, without being confused for your run-of-the-mill carry-on. Subsequently, it includes all of the standard features you’d expect for keeping…

What do you get when you cross a great brand, an Airstream and a trunk show? You get the AETHERstream: a mobile shop chock full of goods like well-cut jackets and sweaters, to other appointments including wireless internet, dinner table, bed and even a suspended fire pit. Conceived by Thierry Gaugain, a former Philipe Starck…

Eric J. Kuhn idea for FoundersCard came to him while leading his startup, Varsity Books, down the path towards an IPO. At the time, Kuhn took advantage of hotel and airfare discounts provided to his investment bankers and questioned why hard-working founders couldn’t receive similar perks. He also felt the sense of community among startup…

“Open Road” is an ongoing series of dispatches written and photographed by guest correspondent, Foster Huntington, during his epic cross-country adventure for his upcoming book by Harper Collins. Foster is the creator of Arestlesstransplant and The Burning House. Check out previous parts of the series here. My alarm went off at 2:15am on Thursday, the…

It may be -26°F outside, but inside the comfort of your thermal glass igloo, it’s far from rough. With a campus of 20 glass ensconced igloos, Igloo Village in Kakslauttanen, Finland is a star-gazing bonanza. Capture views of the Northern Lights and Arctic stars while you bask in a fully appointed room dome complete with…

Editor’s Note: Foster Huntington is the talented force behind A Restless Transplant and the hugely popular tumblr The Burning House. Recently, Huntington embarked on an epic cross-country adventure to document unique individuals and the things they care about for his upcoming book to be released by Harper Collins. After sharing his plans with us first…

If your messenger bag is starting to feel a little mundane or just isn’t up for the challenges of your best Jason Bourne, we’d like to introduce you to the ITS Tactical Discreet Messenger Bag ($350). Now in its second generation, this hardcore messenger bag is the result of a collaboration between ITS Tactical, and Zulu…

Glancing down for a moment, my eye caught sight of the orange glow of the speedometer. The readout hovered at 50 km per hour. My head did the rough conversion as a fat drop of rain streaked across the plexiglass visor of my helmet. Things sure felt faster than 30 miles per hour. Then again,…

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…

Hawaii has always been one of those places that seems totally wild and far off. Yet, like Lada Gaga, it’s American. So when I was tasked by my better half with finding a summer adventure that didn’t require a subscription to Rosetta Stone and also had a beach, it became abundantly clear that Hawaii was…

Marking the second in-depth post of British marquee Bentley, we’re turning back the clocks nearly a century from our previous post. Tuesday 10am | There’s really nothing quite like seeing 80 years worth of history rumbling its way up to you, but here on a breezy Tuesday June morning we managed to see just that….

With an ambiance centered around summer activities ranging from ping pong to kiteboarding and amenities ranging from a sand-filled pool to an open-air beer garden, staying at Ruschmeyer’s ($250+) is a bit like walking onto the set of Wet Hot American Summer. Even the blondes walking in from the beaches seem to have an Elizabeth…

If there’s one piece of advice I can give first-time visitors to Bonaire, it’s to skip the iguana stew. Maybe it was all the diving I’d done, but feeling adventurous, I ordered the local specialty at Rosie’s Inn in the small town of Rincon. Rosie’s is a café along the dusty, windy road in the…

In recent years, stalwart denim purveyor Levi’s has expanded into beyond their blue-collar roots offering not only fashion forward goods suited for coal miners but for agency ladder climbers, as well. The brand’s social accessibility and blend of fashion/practicality have led to the Levi’s Workshop — a pop-up style event that offers exposure, equipment, training…

For the uninitiated, or those of you who haven’t heard, Tough Mudder is one of the forerunners of the now fully entrenched obstacle course challenges and race phenomenon. The brain child of former British Army Officer Will Dean, Tough Mudder combines military style obstacle course components with an 8-12 mile trail run. In the last…

If you’ve got a proclivity for the gadgets (as in your tech gear needs a bag of its own), a bit of the design bug and also happen to find yourself in London, there’s really only one hotel for you. A cross between British bespoke and Apple Store, central London’s Eccleston Square Hotel boasts enough…

7pm, Saturday | Somewhere at the crossroads of an overzealous stage-tech’s wet dream, a rave and Stomp is Fuerza Bruta — a kinetic aerial show that’s been running at New York’s Daryl Roth Theater for a few years. Yeah, we’re kind of late to this one. It’s not a show for everyone, but if you…

For many, a good summer can hinge on being by/on the water. Lululemon says they made the Pacific Beach Hoodie to “wear up the mountain, and to and from the gym”, but we’ve found it’s perfect for the cool nights and crisp mornings that come along with waterside locales. It features some of the softest cotton fleece…

Friday, 7:30pm | Unless you live in a mass-transit hub like Chicago, Washington D.C., or New York you probably don’t find yourself at train stations all that often — probably even more so during the off-hours. But here’s a tip. Next time you find yourself near a station, especially when its quiet, take a step…

The Flightdeck Air Combat Center ($69+) in Anaheim, CA, can provide anyone with the same experience Tom Cruise received while filming Top Gun. Specifically, you’ll feel (and very well may act) like you’ve properly commanded a real fighter jet for the rest of your life — while, in reality, you’ve done no such thing. That…

The canyons of the Shotover River just outside of Queenstown, New Zealand is unquestionably a picturesque setting. Here, visitors can enjoy the serenity of moving water and think about hobbits, dwarves, and elves to their heart’s content. But why do that, when you have the option to strap into a specially design jet boat, equipped…

If we were to quickly surmise what the Mondrian SoHo hotel is in just 8 words it might be along the lines of: “you might just think you’re a celebrity, also.” Perhaps it’s the crowd, casual meets jetset, or the river of high-heeled women, or highly-tuned design but it wouldn’t surprise us if the hotel…

If someone were to ask you where to find one of the world’s best getaways, your first instinct might not be East Tennessee. But an easy drive from Knoxville, TN at the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains you’ll find Blackberry Farms — 4,200 bucolic acres of pure getaway grandeur. A farm with a penchant…

Drive three hours south of Sydney to New South Wales’ Jervis Bay and tucked away on preserved land you’ll find Paperbark Camp. Founded in 1998 by Irena and Jeremy Hutching, the eco-friendly glamping upscale camping lodge touts everything from white-sand beaches with secret coves to pre-breakfast kangaroo spotting. Canoeing and torch-lit night hikes through eucalyptus…

Bobbing in the middle of San Francisco Bay I panted as I treaded water. My arms were turning to rubber and the wetsuit was chafing my neck. I needed to stop for a rest. My friend and kayak pilot, Kevin, paddled over and said, “Good job, you’re almost a third of the way done.” Really?…

Located in Oracabessa, on the north coast of Jamaica, the GoldenEye Resort isn’t a kitschy hommage to the classic game where you can play real-life scenarios of pistols, license to kill, in the Complex — not that we wouldn’t love that. But it does, however, have James Bond lineage. Once home to Ian Fleming, where…