Gear Patrol

After being told he needed a license to sell his personal Land Rover Defender 90 to friends, Matthew Perlman decided to go all in for his passion. His company, West Coast Defender, brings 21st century updates — refinished exteriors, heated seats, power locking and other modern amenities — to classic machines. Sourcing Defenders from all over the world and backed by a staff of former Land Rover mechanics, Perlman’s leading the charge toward the rebirth of the iconic British SUV right here in the U.S. We jumped at the chance to fire up the cameras and chat with him about his passion, why these cars are so special, and how one handles being held at the Turkish border for no reason.

One of only three people to have skied solo to the North Pole — the youngest to do so by over a decade — Ben Saunders is also an avid cyclist, Twitter presence and Land Rover enthusiast. We chatted with him about his own heroes, what scares him and his next epic adventure.

Canadian-born Steve Dubbeldam, founder of Wilderness Collective, has been described as a “serial entrepreneur”, having begun multiple fashion collections and co-created an online magazine with his wife. His latest venture is Wilderness Collective, supplier of “Legendary Adventures for Men”. We sat down with Steve to discuss his approach to adventure, what men stand to gain from the trips he arranges and what went into starting a company built to satisfy man’s thirst for exploits.

Plenty of guys think they’re grill masters. But Russ Faulk, vice president of product design at Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet, actually happens to be one. After asking him to add his personal notes to our tips for mastering the grill, we caught up with him to talk about life, family, battling squid and American craftsmanship.

Alex Walker grew up in a National Geographic photo spread. Instead of a lawn with a picket fence or a city playground, the fourth generation East African’s childhood stomping grounds were the tea fields of Mufindi, the bush of southern Tanzania and Kenya’s Mau forest. Today he makes his home in Masai Mara, Kenya, one of the most famous wildlife ecosystems in the world. After staying at one of Walker’s camps on our adventure in Kenya, we were curious to hear more about what makes this safari guide tick.

Kevin Krigger is a 29-year-old derby rookie and the rider of Goldencents — a favorite in this year’s race. As a native of St. Croix, though, Krigger will share the honor of being the first Virgin Islander to compete in the race. More importantly to some, he’s also the first black jockey to compete in the event since 2000 — and he has a chance to be the first black rider to win the Derby since 1902.

Talk about working your way up from the bottom. Chris Morris came to Woodford Reserve’s parent company, Brown-Foreman Corporation, in 1976 as an intern. The native Kentuckian stuck it out, rising to the position of Master Distiller as American bourbon rose, too, from a soda additive to a super-premium product on the same level as its haughtier cousins. We caught up with him as part of our summer preview to hear some drinking stories, find out what’s next and hear about his love of the Kentucky Derby.

There are globe trotters, and then there’s Lee Abbamonte. Though he doesn’t consider himself a “competitive traveler” per se, he is the youngest American to visit every country (196) in the world. He is 34. We got to chat with him about his life in and outside of the suitcase.

Martin Miller has been hatching money-making schemes ever since he can remember. His early business ventures as a schoolboy included hamster breeding and a magazine for local teenagers. The ambitious youngster’s first small-scale money-earning success came with a mail-order dating book called Success with the Fairer Sex. He was 14. In 1999, he struck gold in the gin business with his eponymous Martin Miller’s Gin. We caught up with him to chat about bucking industry trends, chess and what he’s working on next.

Pine pollen is a powder that contains the cellular material used to produce male sperm cells in coniferous plants. It’s available on Amazon.com as a supplement to increase testosterone, with some companies marketing it as a source of “perpetual youth”, claiming that it helps with everything from improving endurance to regulating prostate function. As part…

How far are you willing to go to get something you want? Abe Burmeister’s search for the perfect pair of pants led him to start a new breed of clothing company, despite having no experience in the fashion world. In our final Drafting It interview, we sat down with the Outlier co-founder to talk about…

Drafting It Series: Seth Rosen of CustomMade | Todd Carmichael of La Colombe | George Vlagos of Oak Street Bootmakers | Abe Burmeister of Outlier A hearty thanks to our friends at Amstel Light for helping make this series possible. Savor complexity. Savor Amstel Light.

Social causes are almost ubiquitous in the fashion / product / branding world, but it’s hard to find a company that takes its commitment seriously. Mac Bishop, founder of Native(X) is focused on his mission from the inside out: to collaborate with Native American artists and give them a platform to communicate their traditions and…

Question: How can technology change our lives in the future? In this follow up to the Smart Lives of Smart Men Part 1, our guests Michael Williams of A Continuous Lean, Evan Orensten of Cool Hunting, Anthony Sperduti of Partners & Spade, Ben Pieratt of Svpply, and Richard Blakeley of Thrillist concluded the evening in…

Question: How is technology changing the lives of men and the world we live in? Rather than look to the usual pundits for the same canned responses, we decided to hunt down answers by inviting a group of friends and colleagues to the Royalton Hotel penthouse for an off the cuff conversation over dinner and…

Adventure, and the gear you take along for the ride never ceases to enthrall us here at GP. David Munson, CEO of Saddleback Leather Co. is a kindred spirit in that regard. Subsequently, we decided to sit down with him and pick his brain on everything from the best strategies for approaching world travel, to…

Gant has a long-standing tradition of helping men look their best, but a recent rival effort has thrust the brand back into the spotlight of men’s fashion. Characterized by modern tweaks on classic americana stye bred in the collegiate atmosphere, the company has also just launched a new online store, enabling anyone with a mailing…

We tend to believe that technological advancement in the last 20 years has changed the world mostly for the better. Still, the waning of film-based photography is the worst causality in our books resulting from the collateral damage of the digital age. Thanks to a passionate community of shutterbugs and the style elite, however, analogue…