Gear Patrol Magazine, Issue Seven: The Style and Design Issue

Stunning Car Details

Notable Knife Designers

DISPLAY UNTIL DECEMBER, 10TH 2018

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Inside Horween Leather Company

Essential Overshirts

Affordable Dress Watches

1,000 Miles in Modern Grand Tourers

S E V E N

Rugged Fall Boots

The State of Brick & Mortar

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ORIGINAL OUTSIDER FEATHER LIGHT REVIVAL | MADE IN USA Since 1932, Danner has been making the highest-quality boots for the great outdoors. We built our company on the idea that superior craftsmanship matters – never sacrificing quality for quantity. A spirit of adventure drives us forward. And our respect for the wild keeps us grounded. To celebrate the release of the Feather Light Revival, we honor pioneer landscape photographer Ray Atkeson. For decades, his iconic images of the Pacific Northwest have inspired us and so many to tread confidently and explore.

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Trimatic symbolizes three Seiko inventions that ensure the highest levels of reliability and durability in its mechanical watches.

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THE EVOLUTION CONTINUES Snowboarding’s quickest and most intuitive boot to binding interface for Women, Men, and now Kids.

AVAILABLE NOVEMBER 5TH. V I S I T B U R T O N . C O M / S T E P O N F O R M O R E D E TA I L S .

GEAR GUIDE Style & Design 2018

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ENGINEERED OVERKILL

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BEHIND THE BLADE

Commuting is hell. Velomacchi engineers motorcycle gear that's tough-as-nails and made to last.

A look at the pocketknife industry through the lens of its designers, their knives and the features that set them apart.

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DEATH OF DESIGN

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THE NEW CLASS OF FITNESS MAGS

Can simple, elegant, purposeful vehicles exist today? The answer is no, but for complex reasons.

Fitness publications, covering everything from running to tennis to martial arts, that look good enough to keep on your coffee table.

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PROS KNOW BEST

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AHEAD OF THEIR TIME

Do athletes in the outdoor industry really have meaningful input on product design?

Four pros weigh in.

Five companies show that there’s more than one way to display information on a watch dial.

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MY THREE WATCH COLLECTION

What if you had to pare your collection down to only three pieces? Three watch industry heavyweights weigh in.

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THE ESSENTIAL FALL LAYER

On its own or worn underneath a heartier coat, the shirt jacket is an indispensable part of your cool-weather wardrobe.

FORMAT THRONE 140 MEDIUM 144 UPGRADE WARS

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FIRE WALKERS

These boots from Northwestern shoemakers are crafted to withstand flames, uneven terrain and a lifetime of wear.

148 OLDFASHIONED

Medium format cameras have never been more approachable. Here are three picks at three price points.

The story behind Cosm, the chair Herman Miller hopes will define a new generation of office seating.

Few home designs are as classic as the Georgian kitchen, and few companies do it better than Plain English.

ABOUT THAT COVER

This issue’s cover, shot on film by Nick Horween for 'Leatherbound' (page 190), is all about the thesis of this issue: style and design. It also demonstrates the breadth of storytelling that our team is striving for throughout the book. It’s a quiet moment and perhaps a bit atypical for us. But it represents a distinct moment for Gear Patrol — one where the definition of Product Journalism is at once expanding and honing.

We’re telling stories that don’t just get people excited about a thing or an object or a category, but in the people, places and processes that surround them. — h e n r y p h i l l i p s , d e p u t y p h o t o e d i t o r

TO FIND NEW STYLES AND GREAT FITS, VISIT WRANGLER.COM

FEATURES Style & Design 2018

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DREAM CRUISE

Grand tourers are made to extract the very best out of the driving experience. During a 1,000-mile trip through Michigan, we examined the spectrum of grand tourers to understand the current state of the car. — n i c k c a r u s o

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INTERVIEW: LISA YAMAI

This year marks Snow Peak's 60th anniversary. In this Q&A, the brand's creative director, Lisa Yamai (whose grandfather started Snow Peak in the '50s), talks about what she's doing to shape its future. — a l i c a r r t r o x e l l

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WHAT'S IN STORE?

The Internet has made it possible to get almost anything delivered to your door. So what's the point of stores?

These days, retailers are working just as hard to craft an experience as they are to make a sale. — j o h n z i e n t e k

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LEATHER BOUND

Chicago's Horween Leather Company was founded in 1905 with a singular mission: to make the world's best leather. Five generations later, it's become its own globally recognized brand. — s t i n s o n c a r t e r

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DESIGN BY ACCIDENT

The Grace family's kitchen-tool empire, Microplane, was anything but planned. We traveled to Russellville, Arkansas, to learn how Richard Grace invented his cheese-grating masterpiece — by accident. — w i l l p r i c e

YOUR OFFICE OUT OF OFFICE. INTRODUCING THE TOCAYO BACKPACK TM

Whether you’re in an urban jungle or an actual jungle, reliable gear is critical. The Tocayo backpack is our firstever bag built for both weekday and weekend endeavors, engineered for those who need to take their work with them wherever they go. Rugged on the outside and organized on the inside; it’s the everyday bag that’s mastered every detail.

GREAT DESIGN BEGETS GREAT PRODUCTS Offices have been on my mind lately.

At the end of August, I had the opportunity to visit the Swiss town of Schaffhausen, population 34,000, located about an hour north of Zurich. I was there on an invitation to attend the opening ceremony of IWC’s new manufakturzentrum, where, in celebration of its 150th anniversary, the company had recently centralized its key processes and watch manufacturing. After a look behind the scenes — in a word, "impressive" — I sat down for a coffee with Christoph GraingerHerr, who's not only the brand’s incoming 39-year old CEO but also the architect and designer of the facility. His charge with the factory was to "create a space of innovation for the next 150 years," he said.

That’s a hell of a long time, but it makes sense. IWC was founded by a former soldier, F.A. Jones, who uprooted his life in Brooklyn and moved to Switzerland to bring a decidedly modern approach to pocketwatch-making.

Like many watch brands, the story of IWC is heavily imbued with product design and factory lore. Products are born from places where people, ideas and tools are housed.

These facilities, whether they are factories, offices or headquarters, are essentially the product that bears products.

As my trip was ending, I coincidentally booked a red-eye to another mecca of innovation, Apple Park, the new home of Apple, for its annual September event where the brand unveils its newest wares. By the time you’re reading this, headlines will already have been inundated with stories about new iPhones and the Apple Watch, but the main attraction for me was the venue itself: Apple Park, an architectural manifestation of Steve Jobs, who, as Steven Levy reported for Wired, "was planning the future of Apple itself — a future beyond him and, ultimately, beyond any of us."

Ahead of my trip, my curiosity swelled. What does the weight and magnitude of a facility that will design the next global culture shifting

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

product like the iPhone feel like? What facility bears the product?

All of this was on my mind as I wrapped up a large project of my own. Earlier this year, I set out to create Gear Patrol’s next headquarters — a humbler but certainly no less noble project. The goal: move our company into a new home within six months following an ambitious, perhaps preposterous, set of criteria that included amazing light, a prime location, cinematic aesthetic, modest budget and minimal time. No sane contractor would have agreed to the project, but as is the way at Gear Patrol, we said, "to hell with it," and took on the challenge ourselves.

The venture has not been easy, but nearly six months of turbocharged seven-day work schedules later, I’m fortunate enough to be typing out this letter from my desk at Gear Patrol's new offices at the corner of Manhattan’s Madison Square Park. It feels a long way from the days when Ben and I were working on my living room couch jockeying for coffee and wi-fi. Yet, somehow, the spirit feels the same. The stuff that matters is here: people, sturdy laptops, coffee and, above all else, a fervent obsession with products.

There are countless decisions and challenges that come with building an office, but the only way to succeed in this kind of project is by refusing to skimp on the principles of good design. To clarify, design isn't just a visual exercise. It’s also about planning intent, whether that’s an object, place or concept.

Good design prioritizes principles and ideas into results. The better the design, the purer those principles are in the final product.

Surprisingly, it turned out that the first step in designing a space that aligned with the Gear Patrol mission is light. Yup, light. Our previous office, located on the second floor of a low-rise building, was a decently fun space that we shared with another publication, Highsnobiety, but it was devoid of sunlight and chock-a-block with thoughtless, direc-

tional fluorescent lighting. The conditions made it great for escaping a fire but horrific for human beings. Over time, I saw the office extracting a mental price from our team no matter how much we upgraded or organized.

In a recent survey by Future Workplace called "The Employee Experience," people ranked access and proximity to natural light as the number one workplace attribute — above cafeterias, fitness centers and premium perks like on-site childcare and free food. That's because light is more than just a perk, it’s a necessity. So that’s where we began.

Since I’m only given space for so many words on this page, you’ll have to wait to read and see the tour of our new space on the web.

We’re pretty pumped about it. At its core, it’s a facility designed by and for the team to use as a tool to help them embark on the next phase of our work in Product Journalism.

Hopefully, the next time you come across something you enjoyed on Gear Patrol, including this issue — our first-ever focused on style and design — you’ll remember our prioritization of luminosity.

Before I sign off, I wanted to take a moment to thank our amazing Editorial, Creative and Partnerships teams for bringing this particular issue to life while I was buried in matters of Wyzenbeek versus Martindale double rubs and air flow studies. The stories, guides and photography in this issue embody our ongoing obsession with the genesis, design and stylish sensibilities of products, as well as makers and places behind them.

Eric Yang Founder, Editor in Chief @hashtagyang | eyang@gearpatrol.com

P.S. For all you typography nerds out there, you’ll notice a tiny but momentous change for the magazine. We replaced our time-honored use of Gotham for Hoefler & Co.’s beautiful Ringside font.

INTRODUCING OUR NEW LINE OF WORKWEAR

NOT FANCY. JUST MADE TO WORK.

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founder , editor in chief

senior associate editors

art director

ERIC YANG @hashtagyang

JACK SEEMER @jseemer

JOE TORNATZKY @jtornatzky

JUSTIN FENNER @justinfenner cofounder , managing editor

BEN BOWERS @benbowersgp

deputy photo editor associate editor

HENRY PHILLIPS @henrysp

NICK CARUSO @thenickcaruso staff photographer managing editor , editorial operations

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CHASE PELLERIN @chase_pellerin

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ALEXANDER STEIN @alexanderstein

ANDY FRAKES @andy.frakes

HUNTER D. KELLEY @type_hunter associate videographer

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staff writers

TUCKER BOWE @j_tb3 BRYAN CAMPBELL @businessbryan

issue seven contributors

issue seven contributors continued

ERIC ADAMS @ericadams321

JULIE KRAULIS @juliekraulis

DW BURNETT @puppyknuckles

JOE MCKENDRY @joemckendry

JOHN ZIENTEK @sieben_tagen

STINSON CARTER @stinsoncarter

STEPHANE MANEL @stephanemanel

ANDREW HAYNES @ahaynes01

KAILAH OGAWA @kailahogawa

associate staff writers

NICK HORWEEN @horweenleather

ANDREW CONNOR @andrew_m_connor MEG LAPPE @meglappe

TANNER BOWDEN @danger_bowden WILL PRICE @willcprice

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Select advertising in this magazine has been crafted by our creative studio team on behalf of individual brands to help tailor a message specifically for our readers. These sections are demarcated with GEAR PATROL STUDIOS /.

To learn more, please reach out to us at advertising@gearpatrol.com.

C r e a t i n g n ew h e i g h t s The new Montblanc 1858 Geosphere.

Spirit of Mountain Exploration. montblanc.com/1858

OUR FAVORITE BRANDS UNIQUE COLLABORATIONS ALL AT THE GEAR PATROL STORE

The Gear Patrol Tote Whether it’s the gym, the office or a weekend at the beach, the Gear Patrol Tote has you covered. We built this bag with specific features tailored to our readers: a comfortable shoulder strap, an inside pocket to stow smaller items and a slightly oversized design — because let’s face it, there’s always more stuff on the way back. p r i c e $45

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Miir × Gear Patrol Vacuum Insulated Bottle - Black We teamed up with the good folks at Miir to design a special edition of their 23-ounce vacuum- insulated bottle.

The stainless steel, powder-coated bottle features subtle laser etching and insulation that keeps your beverage tasting just right, no matter the weather. It's perfect for work, your commute or that next far-flung adventure.

store.gearpatrol.com

p r i c e $32

STYLE MADE SIMPLE.

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GEAR GUIDE MOTORING

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OUTDOORS

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FITNESS

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WATCHES

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STYLE

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TECH

HOME

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photo by chase pellerin

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MOTORING

Parts of the Whole by nick caruso ph o t o s b y h u n t e r d . k e ll e y i ll u s t r at i o n s b y j o e m c k e n d r y

It makes sense that a beautiful car would be made of beautiful parts.

And while the smaller components of some luxury vehicles aren't aesthetic masterpieces in their own right, they're often interesting works of engineering (and proper middle fingers to design conventions).

It's only a bonus, then, that the following elements are attached to uniquely desirable automobiles. Here's a handful of notable details that, in a sea of relatively homogenous vehicles, stand out as beacons of style and design.

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ISSUE SEVEN

Volvo Gearshift

by Orrefors Leave it to a decidedly Swedish premium automaker to offer an attractive yet understated crystal shift knob on top-trim levels of select vehicles. Volvo has been killing it design-wise as of late, with gorgeous new models debuting in rapid succession. But its attention to detail doesn't stop at the sheet metal. Inside the spartan yet luxurious cabin of Volvo's XC60 T8 is a crown jewel handmade by the Swedish crystal makers Orrefors. The brilliantly clear, stubby shifter in this SUV is as pleasing to the eye as in the hand. There have been many superb shift knobs and levers in the history of the automobile, but as modern examples go, this one is king.

XC60 Inscription T8 Engine: supercharged and turbocharged 2.0-liter inline four; 9.2-kW-hr lithium-ion battery-powered electric motor Transmission: 8-speed automatic; all-wheel drive Horsepower: 313; 87; 400 combined Torque: 295 lb-ft; 177 lb-ft; 472 lb-ft combined Price: $57,695

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ISSUE SEVEN

Bentley 'Organ Stop' HVAC Vent Knobs

Koenigsegg Dihedral Doors

2019 Jaguar F-Type Coupe Tail End

Bentley's charming, stodgy British nature shines through in this detail. Instead of a small flip-style tab like you'd see in virtually any other car, these organ stop pulls open and close each HVAC vent, giving an otherwise plain dashboard a lot of blingy texture. They also harken back to a time when everything on a car — whether it was on a coach-built Bentley or a Model T — was handcrafted and manually operated.

Unconventional door hinges can be functionally necessary — there isn't room in the real world for a wide supercar's doors to swing outward — but sometimes their existence is nothing but ostentatious peacocking. The Koenigsegg dihedral doors are mostly the former, but with a tangible dose of the latter: they push outward horizontally then rotate around an axis, eventually settling at a 90-degree angle.

In an homage to the inimitable 1960s Jaguar E-Type, the F-Type is a modern miracle of retro design. It doesn't look hokey, as some other recent retro-inspired vehicles have, but instead offers a contemporary take on a very sexy shape. The rear end lifts to such a sharp point that it impinges on trunk space; the kind of impracticality only the most dedicated enthusiasts accept.

2019 Bentley Continental GT Engine: 6.0-liter, twin-turbocharged W12 Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch Horsepower: 626 Torque: 664 ft-lbs Curb weight: 4,947 lbs Top speed: 207 mph 0-60: 3.6 seconds Price: $214,600

Koenigsegg Regera Engine: 5.0-liter twin-turbocharged V8; Three Electric Motors Transmission: Koenigsegg Direct Drive; rear-wheel drive Horsepower: 1,500 (V8 and electric motors combined) Torque: 1,475 lb-ft Curb weight: 3,510 lbs Top speed: 250+ mph (est.)

0-60: 2.8 seconds Price: $1.9 million (est.)

2019 Jaguar F-Type SVR Coupe Engine: 5.0-liter supercharged V8 Transmission: 8-speed automatic; all-wheel drive Horsepower: 575 Torque: 516 lb-ft Top speed: 200 mph 0-60: 3.5 seconds Price: $122,750 (base)

Lincoln 30-Way Perfect Position Seats

Second-Generation Ford GT Buttress

Alpina B6 Gran Coupe Wheels

Most automotive seats adjust four ways (they recline and slide forward and backward), while your dad's "nice" car may have an eight-way seat that also rises and lowers. Thanks to 11 separate air cushions, Lincoln's seats are customizable in 30 directions, meaning you can almost literally find the perfect position for your posterior (and back). Their articulation and appointments are second to none.

At once aerodynamically functional and outrageous, this buttress is unlike almost anything else you'll find on a road car.

It connects the rear-wheel housing to the main cabin, giving what would otherwise be a relatively skeletal carbon-fiber body the appearance of having much more surface area. It also allows you to see straight through the side of the car. In addition to looking alien, the buttress diverts airflow, reduces drag and increases downforce.

Alpina-modified BMW cars are hyperbole on wheels. Faster than a streak, these cars are big and brash, but they tend to feature minimal bodywork and other additions. The wheels of the BMW Gran Coupe, however, are a dead giveaway that car has been magicked into something special. The 20-spoke rims look magnificent at speed, but standing still is when they truly shimmer.

2018 Lincoln Navigator Engine: 3.5-liter twin-turbocharged V6 Transmission: 10-speed automatic; four-wheel drive Horsepower: 450 Torque: 510 lb-ft Top speed: 115 mph 0-60: 5.5 seconds Towing capacity: 8,700 lbs Price: $72,555 (base)

Second-Generation Ford GT Engine: 3.5-liter twin-turbocharged V6 Transmission: 7-speed dual-clutch; rear-wheel drive Horsepower: 647 Torque: 550 lb-ft Curb weight: 3,354 lbs 0-60 mph: 2.8 seconds Top speed: 216 mph Price: ~$450,000 Total built: 1,000

Alpina B6 Gran Coupe Engine: 4.4-liter twin-turbocharged V8 Transmission: 8-speed automatic; all-wheel drive Horsepower: 591 Torque: 590 lb-ft Curb weight: 4780 lbs Top speed: 199 mph 0-60: 3.6 seconds Price: $124,000 (base)

M OTORIN G

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Safe Design

ph o t o s : n u n o h e n r i q u e s

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ISSUE SEVEN

What do you do when you’ve made a living designing everything from toothpicks to super-yacht interiors — and then get bored?

Would creating your own motorcycle helmet designs be the obvious choice? It was for Nuno Henriques, more famously known on Instagram as @hellocousteau.

Considering Henriques's career saw stints at such legendary design firms as Phoenix Design in Stuttgart, Germany, KiBiSi in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Rémi Tessier Design in Paris, France, it’s easy to see how Henriques became frustrated with the helmet market. "I was never a graphic designer, never a helmet designer. I was simply looking for a helmet for myself and couldn’t find anything I liked. They all seemed to be the same, there was no individuality."

Since starting his Instagram handle @hel-

locousteau in 2016, Henriques has gained close to 20,000 followers and, on occasion, has received more than a hundred emails a day asking where to buy or order his helmets.

But to date, only a couple of the renders from Henriques’s Instagram have made the jump to reality — one for AGV, one for HJC and a oneoff race suit for Spidi.

Despite the widespread appeal of @hellocousteau designs, Henriques finds that bigger brands — the ones best equipped to bring the creative work to market — are sometimes the biggest hurdles. "People want change, people want different helmets, but the problem is inside the companies," Henriques says. "A lot of brands have contacted me to work with them, but if you do what they want, you lose your creativity and individuality. You just do

M OTORIN G

one more thing for them." Design ideas go into approval meetings with promising momentum only to suffer death by committee because "brands insist on making the same thing over and over," he says.

Why not, then, go the custom route and get a skilled painter to bring the designs to life?

That’s when his profits would skyrocket, after all. But Henriques isn’t in it for the money. In fact, he’s turned down requests from Hollywood stars, motorcycle racers and race car drivers — he doesn’t want his designs to come with some ultra-premium price tag. "The main idea behind @hellocousteau was not to make a lot of money, but to give people a choice," Henriques says. "That’s the reason I’m putting my designs on display: so someone can come and do something about it."

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Engineered Overkill b y b r ya n c a m p b e l l

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photos by henry phillips

It's a fact that commuting is hell, especially on two wheels. The daily rat race can take its toll, and your gear probably picks up most of its patina and battle scars as a result of the Monday-through-Friday nineto-five. Road debris and dirt, the beating sun, the pouring rain, traffic and possible falls and slides are all intensified by highway and traffic speeds. And so, gear must be overengineered for survival, which is where Kevin Murray, the founder and designer of Velomacchi, saw a gap in the market.

The name Velomacchi comes from an amalgamation of the Italian words velocitĂ and macchina, translating to speed machine. The name, partly inspired by Murray's time in northern Italy, draws influences from the region's style, craftsmanship and approach to cycling, motorcycles and commuting; it makes even more sense when paired with the brand's motto: Built for Speed, Made to Last.

A linen suit paired with brown leather dress shoes wouldn't stand up well to barreling down an open highway in rain and smog or worse, and neither would your precious belongings if stored in a bag made from pedestrian materials. As a motorcycle rider, Murray sought tough-asnails commuter gear out of necessity, but he couldn't find anything that met his standards. Nothing outside of military-spec packs and ballistic materials rose to the level of toughness he was looking for.

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Murray is a lifelong traveler. He globe-trotted as a kid and later got into adventure travel.

"I'd be gone for a year. I'd work for a year, save up money and then travel for a year. This was long before cell phones; this was when traveler's cheques were cutting-edge technology," Murray says. He admits that "having lived on the road for years at a time" is what led him to a career in industrial design. "I would pick grapes in Mildura, Australia, so we could go climb at Mount Arapiles for four months or so. Then we'd save more money and I’d buy a plane ticket up to Nepal or India, climb Everest and do a bit of trekking around there. I was full nomad. I just worked and lived along the way."

Eventually, Murray finished a degree in industrial design and joined The North Face in the '90s. He remained ever the globe-trotter, visiting Africa and Europe to explore new markets and test products. This was when the idea for Velomacchi, at first a pet project, was born. Murray left The North Face to start Syren Industrial Design, working with the USIA (Under Sea Industrial Apparel), which supplies SEAL Team operators, and the United States Coast Guard — organizations for which you would think there'd be nothing too tactical or too protective. "As I ran across really interesting stuff nobody else would touch, whether it was too expensive or whatnot, I would always kick it over to Velomacchi and experiment with new materials and processes. Once we commercialized it, we'd offer it to our military, public-safety gear or outdoor active lifestyle clients."

During this time Murray gained an in-thetrenches view of factories and manufacturers. A factory’s ethics and environmental approach, he says, is "critical" for his brands. "When it came time to start Velomacchi I had my pick of the top manufacturers around the world — in terms of environmental and social-ethos concerns, as well as performance and quality. And I really didn't focus in on cost or price point at all. I saw such a huge opening within the luggage market. There was such a gulf between the stuff we were building at The North Face for extreme conditions and what was being made for luxury. And that's where we wanted to position ourselves," Murray says.

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ph o t o : v e l o ma c c h i

Over the past year, Velomacchi has established its name in the adventure- and commuter-motorcycling community with products from its Speedway collection, including leather motorcycle gloves, 28-, 35- and 40-liter fully waterproof bags, impact cases for laptops, and other sundries like a tool roll and tie-down straps. The eternal battle between function and form is alive and well and few know this better than Murray. When it came to the design of his bags, he kept the Built for Speed motto front and center. "If you've felt our bags and the material we use, the reason it's so substantive is because a regular bike bag will cavitate at speed," he says. "At twenty-five miles an hour, your bag or a strap flapping in the wind is not a big deal, but at a buck twenty-five, it’s a distraction and distractions at those speeds can be dangerous and deadly."

Hence Velomacchi’s tri-point harness on the chest-straps take the weight off your back and shoulders and its straps tuck away or tie down. The adjusted weight distribution lessens rider fatigue and the hidden straps can’t repeatedly whip your sides.

ISSUE SEVEN

Early next year, Velomacchi will roll out its second line of bags and accompanying equipment to complement the brand's inaugural Speedway collection. Using what he's learned from the field testing and feedback of his first line, Murray designed the Urban Tactical collection to bring "military precision and industrial strength to the problems of carrying heavy loads at high speeds in extreme environments, while integrating a variety of battery packs and internal cabling to charge your devices." So whether your daily commute from hell drags you through the concrete jungle or through an actual one, Velomacchi is working on making sure your everyday carry and workday essentials get there with you, day in and day out, with engineered overkill sewn in with each stitch. Because if you can make it to work and back without falling apart, shouldn't your gear do the same?

to the right

Speedway Gloves $149 Speedway Backpack 28L $269 Custom Triumph Thruxton R $15,000

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The Death of Design b y e r i c a d am s

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i ll u s t r at i o n b y ka i lah o ga w a

Imagine if Jaguar unveiled the E-Type in 2018. But a bloated, modernized version of the classically beautiful 1960s automotive icon, akin to the rebirth of the Dodge Challenger, say, or the Ford Mustang. Those vehicles vaguely echo the shape and spirit of their predecessors but possess nothing that remotely approaches their actual visual or visceral experience. No, picture Jaguar literally coughing up the original E-Type on the podium in Geneva, with its wistful lines, diminutive presence and soul-enriching ride. Sure, it would have a modern suspension, finely tuned carbon brakes and an efficient engine that would turn over instantly 30,000 times in a row — but generally the same car. Could they build it? Could they generate something so simple, elegant and purposeful, a vehicle that could seemingly bend the world to its will? Chances are no — but the reasons are more complex than you might think.

First and foremost, you have the U.S. government. Beginning in the 1950s, and then accelerating in the '70s, government regulations have forced carmakers (necessarily,

thankfully) to make their vehicles safer and more efficient. They’ve achieved this via thousands of rules and regulations mandating everything from bumpers to airbags to anti-lock brakes to levers you can pull to pop yourself out of a trunk, and regulating such minutiae as headlight placement and the field of view in rearview mirrors. The regulations also go into great detail about crash safety, requiring manufacturers to design steering wheels that won’t impale drivers in front-end collisions and glass that won’t turn into sharp flying daggers when punctured, among many dozens of other rules.

These regulations alone have changed vehicle design drastically, to some extent homogenizing it by stipulating various minimums and maximums, but also dulling it thanks to prohibitions against, for instance, shiny chrome bumpers that can slice and dice pedestrians in a collision. Over the years, we’ve thus been left with vehicles that have grown larger, heavier and more complex, with fewer and fewer possibilities for truly creative design work. So producing a Jaguar E-Type,

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or something like it, in the same approximate packaging as the original would require herculean engineering prowess.

Purity of design is also frequently stymied today by the many masters of modern vehicle production, which go far beyond even the government's regulatory requirements.

Designers must answer to the practical demands of a given vehicle’s category — comfort, visibility, storage and other factors.

They must also yield to — or at least do battle with — the accountants over the cost of their grand visions, the customers whose whims can make or break even the most brilliant and bold visions, and the engineers who ultimately determine the manufacturing feasibility of a given component or entire design.

For instance, while it’d be lovely to have a full electrochromic glass canopy enveloping the entire passenger compartment instead of a boring roof with A, B and C pillars, producing such a thing would be outrageously expensive, if not impossible for safety reasons alone. The same is true for many such fantastic visions recently exhibited at auto shows — from the massive gullwing doors in the Lincoln Navigator concept to the 49-inch display screen in the dash of the Byton electric crossover. Just because you can draw it doesn’t mean you can make it, too.

Finally, new challenges tend to spring up in the wake of design flourishes, insofar as they demand further modifications elsewhere in the vehicle to accommodate them.

For instance, massive 24-inch wheels look wonderful when artfully integrated into a design, given their ability to instantly bump up proportionality to intensely satisfying levels. But big wheels can be heavy, take up space in the wells and limit turning radii — so they require larger, more expensive and heavier brakes, more complex suspension systems to accommodate all of those enhancements and compromises elsewhere to accommodate them spatially. Once you’ve fit them, you have to beef up the chassis to deal with the extra ballast at the corners and the unique performance dynamics of larger

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wheels and, finally, ask the consumer to pay over and again for wildly expensive tires to fit. In the end, a seemingly simple change can have a ripple effect across the entire vehicle and beyond, so designers today must defend and negotiate every stroke of their digital pens.

But all is not lost. Despite overwhelming constraints, great automotive design still exists, and not all cars are dull Soviet monstrosities.

Somehow, ultra-functional, if visually bland, Avalons and Impalas occupy the same roads as Aventadors and Chirons — machines that managed to wriggle through the government gauntlet to deliver startling, utterly magnetic compositions. Even a vehicle in a traditionally formulaic category can hit you like a visual sledgehammer, such as the Range Rover Velar, with its subtle sculpting and masterful control of proportion and shaping.

The future may hold even more promise.

As we draw nearer and nearer to the steady hand of automobile autonomy — and even its precursor, augmented driving — our collective grip on design may loosen. "By 2035, the things that we have to do now from a structural point of view might not be necessary," notes Oliver Heilmer, the global Head of MINI Design and the former president of BMW's Designworks subsidiary. "As cars are able to avoid crashing altogether, you’re freed up to design more and more as you wish. Vehicles can weigh less without all the reinforcement and because there’s less weight, you won’t need to have these heavy brakes. Lighter cars also waste less energy, so the motors don’t have to be as strong and are themselves lighter and smaller. All of that opens the door to new, exciting designs."

Imagine, then, setting off for work in something with the style and grace of that old E-Type, or the simple utility of an old-school Land Rover Defender, with all the benefits of modern engineering and safety, but none of the added bulk. Or imagine something new and completely different, the likes of which we haven’t seen before, made precisely as the designer envisioned.

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Just because you can draw it doesn't mean you can make it, too.

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MOTORING

The Citroën DS

Icon of Progress by andrew connor

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ph o t o s b y h u n t e r d . k e ll e y

"It is possible that the Déesse marks a change in the mythology of cars. Until now, the ultimate in cars belonged rather to the bestiary of power; here it becomes at once more spiritual and more object-like." – Roland Barthes, Mythologies (1957) I don't know if the French philosopher Roland Barthes had ever ridden in the Citroën DS when he wrote the essay, "The New Citroën" for his book Mythologies. But I'm sitting shotgun in a gleaming red DS21 Pallas from 1972, rolling at a leisurely pace through a forest some 25 miles west of Chicago's city center, and all I can think about is that quote. As sure as the sun will rise, Mythologies will be referenced in almost any discussion of the DS (which, by the way, is a phonetic play on the French word déesee, which means "goddess"). Experience one in person and you almost immediately understand why: Barthes fucking nailed it.

It's the line "more spiritual and more object-like," that gets me. Cars, at least good

ones, can be more than the sums of their parts, but it’s usually because of their driving characteristics. The DS, though, doesn't need to be driven. You merely need to observe its details and design up close and in person to see what Barthes meant by "object-like," and why he and the rest of the European populace viewed it as almost otherworldly when it debuted at the Paris Motor Show 1955. "It is obvious that the new Citroën has fallen from the sky," Barthes went on.

Start at the front where you'll notice the slim, long chrome hood ornament doubling as a handle. Move to the front quarter and witness the line of the front fender flow smoothly into the beltline of the greenhouse, then ever-so-gently drop off into nothingness at the back, forming a teardrop profile.

The chrome strakes that comprise the roofline similarly run uninterrupted and parallel with the bottom of the car, ending gracefully in a pair of rear turn indicators. The pillars holding the lid up are thin, accentuating the glass greenhouse and making the roof appear as

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though it is floating.

Then open the door and step over the chrome doorsill adorned with subtle, crosshatched texturing. Fall into the plush, cloud-like leather bench, which puts every other car seat ever made to shame. Gaze at the sleek, simple dashboard and the elegant single-spoke steering wheel, which has practically become a minimalist design icon in its own right. Pull the sculpted chrome door handle. Feel the supple leather loop grab handle mounted to the ceiling. Every little detail is a visual and tactile delight.

The DS was so thoughtfully designed, so ahead of its time, that the car remains a source of design inspiration today. In 2009, a panel of influential auto designers crowned the DS — over Ferraris, Jaguars and Lamborghinis — "the most beautiful car of all time."

Giorgetto Giugiaro, the founder of Italdesign, called it "the only example of a car really conceived 'outside the box'... just impossible to imitate." Leonardo Fioravanti, who designed some of Ferrari's most iconic cars, called it

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"a real road car that, at its time and perhaps still now, has represented the 'dream' in its extreme progress."

Progress. That's evident in the design, but it's also prominent in the mechanics. The DS introduced tons of automotive technologies decades before they became mainstream.

The European-market version, for example, featured headlights that turned with the steering rack to enhance nighttime visibility while cornering (these were retrofitted to this U.S.-market example). It featured the first disc brakes of any mass-produced car and

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what’s more, they were actuated by a (very) pressure-sensitive button, rather than a pedal.

Most crucial, though, was a self-leveling, hydropneumatic suspension.

When stationary, the DS sits low and flush with the ground, almost as if its wheels are retracted within its body. But upon start-up it slowly, silently and gracefully ascends, rear levitating first and then followed by the nose, until the entire fuselage is level and hovering several inches above the ground. Like a Harrier jet's vertical takeoff, it's an effect that feels alien, but it builds anticipation and is

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irrefutably satisfying to behold.

It also lends itself to a transcendently smooth ride. It simply glides over bumps. It's not floaty, cushy or wavering like many vintage luxury cars tend to be. You aren't isolated, either. You feel a connection to the road, yet at the same time, the car effortlessly irons out imperfections as if it instinctively knows where the bumps and potholes are. "Comfortable" is one way to describe it, but there's more to it than that. The DS provides an idealized feeling of motion, one that lets you feel attuned to the road but without the pesky

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“It is obvious that the new Citroën has fallen from the sky.”

ROLAND BARTHES

reality of poorly maintained road surfaces.

You do not have to drive the DS to understand its charm. Just riding in it, even at slow speeds through a serene setting, is a meditative experience. Sitting inside the car, hearing the faint purr of the inline-four engine and gently coasting along is enough to induce pure, relaxed joy. Without fail, people turn their heads and crack a smile as you go by. When you inevitably break down, pedestrians stop and cheerily ask questions as you wait for someone to give you a jump.

Sali Salievski runs Hi-Tech Import, an auto shop just outside of Chicago, and is the owner of this particular red DS. As we drove, he told me about how he'd admired the DSs he saw growing up in his native Yugoslavia, and how he dreamed he would someday own one of his own. He now has three. I asked Salievski the almost reductively straightforward question, "How does it feel to have and drive this car?"

His earnest and succinct response spoke volumes. "It's such an experience; a pleasure to drive. I am just so happy to have them."

Hardly gets more spiritual than that.

1972 CitroĂŤn DS21 Pallas Engine: 2,175cc inline-four Transmission: 4-speed manual Drive: front-wheel drive Horsepower: 109

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The Weekender Packing for a weekend away is an art form – particularly if it involves cold weather layering. A good holdall is large enough to store the essentials but gets the job done without being overly bulky. The key, aside from choosing a top-notch bag, is packing with authority. In the absence of a full wardrobe, packing pieces that can mix and match or ones that live in the same color family is the most indispensable trick of the trade.

Stock your luggage with garments that are casual enough for daylight yet able to be styled for an elevated look in the evening. A textured or patterned crewneck knit or two, dark-wash denim or a crisp pair of chinos are classic choices. Throw in a versatile jacket and a change of shoes – like a timeless Derby – and your weekender will be set for any getaway.

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Above ESCOBA R OL IVE N UBUC K B E LT $95 MALTTEA N AVY T E XT UR E D C R EW N ECK SWEAT ER $175 JHORGE DAR K R E D BUR N ISHE D L E AT H ER DER BY S H O E $250

Top Right LEGIT C HARCOAL C HEC K E D K N IT $175 PERCYPI ORAN G E T E XT UR E D C R EWN ECK SWEAT ER $175 KNITTS CAME L WOOL HOL DAL L $319 HANNEL N AVY B LOC K PATT E R N SOCK $16

Bottom GONDO G N AVY FUN N E L N EC K JAC KET $315 GRAVEE T OL IVE N UBUC K BAC K PAC K $249 ZAKERY N AVY SL IM F IT UT IL ITY T ROUS ER $175

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Pros Know Best Through necessity and desire, elite athletes sometimes become product designers, and the items they create have the potential to become classics. b y ta n n e r b o w d e n

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ph o t o s b y c ha s e p e ll e r i n

The phrase "designed by athletes" isn't new. In many ways, it's worn out, or, at the very least, misleading. Athletes and ambassadors provide support to nearly all gear makers, but how much pull do they actually have? Do they sit down to sketch plans for a new down jacket or simply suggest minute changes to an already-built prototype? Do they actually have a say at all or are individual endorsements mandated in the fine print of binding contracts?

The answer isn't entirely clear. Athlete beta exists on a spectrum that isn't straightforward or explicit, but there are companies that recognize that the things most hardcore users want can also be what the rest of us need. It's how we get seemingly kooky ideas like insulated mountain shorts or category-blending products like a climbing pack adapted for running.

These items are born from a mingling of necessity and desire, and the stories describing their creation are as compelling as the final products themselves. We asked four professional athletes who have played the role of designer to take us behind the curtain on how their favorite products came to be.

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Bight Gear Glacier Short

mike king m o u n ta i n e e r

" There was a guide that worked for [Rainier Mountaineering Inc.] that found three-quarter length zip-off long-johns when he was in Norway, and I thought that was a great idea. Because if you want to take your long-johns off after a cold night going into a warm day, like we tend to see on Mount Rainier, you have to take your boots and crampons and harness off. Having full side-zip long underwear was attractive to me because there are nights that I want to wear them, but I get too hot later in the day, so oftentimes I leave them behind and just end up being cold.

"I couldn't find them on the Internet or anywhere else, so I toyed around with cutting off my long johns and just wearing long john shorts. A couple years ago, I found a pair and cut them off. Then I bought some zippers and tried to sew them myself.

I'm no seamstress — they didn't turn out that well — so I took them down to an alterations shop and told them what I was looking for. The woman was like, 'What are these things?'

"When Peter [Whittaker] started Bight, he wanted

p r i c e $189

to try different pieces and to pursue some different ideas. We started throwing stuff out there and I brought in that pair of long underwear and a PrimaLoft short that La Sportiva was making that was too hot for what we were doing. No one was into it, Peter wasn't even into it — they all thought I was crazy. They were like 'Deal with the long johns or don't wear them.'

"So I started leaving the shorts in my kit bag at Camp Muir and people would try them and find they were functional. Gradually, Peter started prototyping for the first round of Bight gear, working with Polartec and their insulation, and he was trying to make gear that was designed with input from the people who lived in it. So they decided that we could make these [shorts] out of a thinner material with some stretchy panels for a better fit.

What they came back with was the Glacier Short.

You can put them on over your climbing pants, they have the full side zips so you can put them on over or under your harness and still finagle your way out of them."

For us, innovation must always serve function. For example, raising our bezel by 2mm has improved the grip.

Just a little.

When you care about watches, just a little matters a lot.

Aquis Date

pa r k e r w h i t e skier

Rossignol Black Ops 118 Ski "Chris [Logan] and I were filming with Level 1 Productions and we didn't have a ski that helped us ski the way we wanted to. We wanted a wider ski that you could land switch on and that was better for skiing deep pow.

"We hounded [Rossignol] for over two years. I got the cover of Freeskier's Buyer's Guide on a pair of [Rossignol's 2013] Sickles after they had stopped making them. It was, like, "200+ Brand New Products!" and the guy on the cover is skiing on outdated shit. Maybe that was part of it. Maybe they didn't want their top two guys skiing on old skis that they weren't even selling anymore. That doesn't look too good for the new line if the top dudes aren't even using it. I don't know what the turning point was or what gear switched, but they decided to make our ski.

"We gave the designers dimensions, the turning radius that we wanted and examples of skis that, in our opinion, looked good. We wanted a cambered underfoot and a rockered tip and tail so that we could have a bit more of a landing pad. Essentially, we gave them all the basic information and they sent us our first prototype and we were like, 'Don't change a thing on that ski. That's the exact ski that we want.' The Black Ops that we have now is identical to the very first prototype they ever sent us, but it's made with production-quality materials." p r i c e $699

Gloves for every way you play.

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s e t h wat e r fa l l m o u n ta i n e e r

Eddie Bauer BC EverTherm Jacket " I remember Patagonia came out with a down jacket years ago called the Primo, and it was a regular down-cluster insulated hardshell. I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I bought one and brought it to Eddie Bauer and was, like, 'We need something like this.' I remember getting full eye rolls from people — they were, like, 'You're crazy, you live in the Cascades. You want a hardshell but with down inside it? That's just going to wet out and clump up.' But I pushed it and pushed it.

"I work on Mount Rainier nine months of the year, so I get pelted by rain, wet snow, dry snow, supercold temperatures and wind. I need something that's going to last for a long time that I'm going to wear a lot — so I need venting, I need to be able to move in it, to exercise hard in it. But it's got to be tough and it's got to have real water protection, not a random shell that goes in the bottom of my pack. I need something that actually works hard, all the time.

"When [Eddie Bauer] came up with the concept to make down into sheets and to have the DWR on the down clusters, it was really cool. We put it in a jacket that was easy to build, easy to test and was marketable. That was the first product that came out. But the question was, 'What's next?' The BC EverTherm is the latest and greatest rendition of this perfect all-mountain jacket that I've been trying to get. It's as close as I've seen to the best ski shell, belay jacket, do-it-all working-person's mountain jacket. This jacket has evolved over ten years. I really wanted a down jacket, but I also wanted performance characteristics of a synthetic insulator, and I definitely wanted a hardshell, but without the heaviness of a hardshell. That's what the BC EverTherm is." p r i c e $499

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HAMILTONWATCH.COM

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joe grant u lt r a r u n n e r

Black Diamond Distance Pack " We started with this idea of building a hybrid. I loved Black Diamond's Blitz Pack, which is a light alpine twenty-liter pack. Essentially, what we wanted to do was to shrink the Blitz and... add that vest component to make it so it wouldn't bounce and you'd be able to carry stuff up front. Basically so that you could run with a Blitz Pack.

"So the idea for the pack was to have it be runnable but also keep all the alpine components — a more durable fabric, ice-axe attachments, a really sleek way to stash poles once you start to climb or scramble. We wanted to maintain Black Diamond's mountain DNA so that it wouldn't just be another running vest on the market, and also not a regular climbing back. A true hybrid.

"One of the things I appreciated most was that [the designers] at Black Diamond really understood when I would say something. It's hard to communicate things — this toggle, this pocket. They really got it and translated it to the prototypes that we were making along the way. They kind of put the ego aside. We were making something that wasn’t completely different, but it brought a different point of view, and Black Diamond trusted me with sharing that vision." p r i c e $140+

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The Adventure Travel Bag, Redefined by aj powell

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The days of international backpackers lugging hyper-technical bags might be a thing of the past.

Soft-adventure travel is on the rise, and naturally, luggage design from outdoor brands is following suit with a slew of duffel-suitcase-backpack hybrids that don't look like they came straight out of the woods.

These hybrid suitcases have a few hallmark features, including a clamshell opening, a 40L capacity and a handful of different carrying options, backpack straps included. While a number of traditional outdoor brands have brought examples to market, there's only one you need to know: Evergoods, a Montana-based backpack brand founded by GORUCK and Patagonia alumni.

Evergoods' Civic Transit Bag 40L, or CTB40, has all of the features listed above. But more notable is what it lacks — clutter, fuss, an over-smattering of pockets designed to hold everything yet fit nothing.

It even lacks any sort of obvious logo. The CTB40 is sleek, minimal and impeccably designed from the inside out.

One of the bag's signatures is a clothing-compression strap system called Flex-Fold, a four-sided flap with stretchy corners that keeps your clothing from getting snagged in the zipper closure and plays very nicely with packing cubes. There's also a separated and fully suspended laptop pocket, comfortable fixed shoulder straps and an ultra-durable, water-resistant exterior that owes its performance to 500d, silicone-coated nylon.

You could say that the CTB40 looks like some sort of space-age jet pack, something NASA might issue to the first colonists of Mars, which is fitting because we're pretty sure Evergoods just defined the future of adventure luggage.

Evergoods Civic Transit Bag 40L $289

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THE FUTURE OF BUYING AND SELLING WATCHES ONLINE S TOCK X .CO M/WA T CHE S StockX is an independent marketplace and is not affiliated with any watch brand, nor is an authorized dealer.

All brand and model names are the trademark of their respective owners.

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Behind the Blade b y ta n n e r b o w d e n

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The knife was among the first tools created by man. Early versions were rudimentary — all that's required is a handle and a cutting edge — but the knives we own and use today are complex devices machined for a range of purposes. Materials like wood, steel, titanium, bronze, bone — along with

the keen eyes and attention to detail employed by a group of highly specialized individuals — are what make up knives today. Over the past 40 years, the following designers have ushered in a new era in the evolution of the pocketknife, and they're only getting started.

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Ken Onion Kershaw Leek

Chris Reeve Chris Reeve Knives Sebenza 21

Jens Ansø ORSO

Inspired by an issue of Knives Illustrated that he found in a drugstore, Ken Onion began his career in 1989 as an unofficial apprentice to the revered custom knifemaker Stan Fujisaka and begun forging his own blades two years later. Since then, Onion's name has become a familiar signature on production blades as well as on his own custom projects. One of Onion's major contributions to knife design was the invention of SpeedSafe — a fast and smooth assisted-opening mechanism that offers an alternative to often-illegal switchblades.

It's by no means his only notable invention, however. "I’m not really married to any certain style, materials or any way someone thinks I should make knives," says Onion. "I think that open slate serves my creative process and ultimately my designs very well."

Ask a pocketknife enthusiast for a list of the best folding knives in production today and Chris Reeve's Sebenza will likely top the selection. Reeve brought the earliest version of the blade to market in 1987, two years before relocating from Durban, South Africa, to Boise, Idaho. The Sebenza is aesthetically uncomplicated and demonstrates the qualities that Reeve is best known for: precise attention to detail and a preference for the best materials available. The knife employs CPM S35VN steel, which Reeve helped develop with Crucible Industries, and the Reeve Integral Lock, a locking mechanism he invented that's used widely by pocketknife manufacturers everywhere.

Danish knife designer Jens Ansø claims inspiration from mid-century Danish furniture design and traditional Japanese carpentry. How does this translate to pocketknives? "I like to combine simplicity and functionalism with some very strong yet subtle details," he says. It's an idea that might materialize in the straight lines of a utilitarian folder or in the unpredictable grooves of a handle. "I have had periods where my designs were extremely curvy and out there," Ansø adds.

"Now I’m more focused on refining and simplifying the lines of my work while adding details, hidden or in plain sight."

Ansø's work may be difficult to define, but when you see his signature, you can trust that you have quality in hand.

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Michael Walker The James Brand Folsom

Dmitry Sinkevich Zero Tolerance 0456

Sal Glesser Spyderco Mantra Titanium

The custom knives that Michael Walker creates today are works of art that you'll find in galleries, not gear stores.

Walker estimates that collectors will wait five or more years for one of his blades, of which he makes only six each year.

This, however, doesn't mean that his designs aren't apparent everywhere in the world of pocketknives. Walker has created over 30 blade-locking mechanisms, the most famous of which, the Linerlock, which is used by the James Brand’s Folsom and countless other knives, has become so prevalent that you'd be hard-pressed to find a manufacturer that doesn't use it. The mechanism allows for one-handed opening and closing by using a spring-loaded lock bar that juts up against the tang of the blade to hold it in place when it’s open, and can be easily maneuvered out of the way for closing.

On a spectrum that places pure function at one end, Dmitry Sinkevich's knives would exist far on the opposite side. That's not to say that utility isn't at play in the knives he designs for the likes of Kershaw and Zero Tolerance — it's the foundation of all of the Belarusian designer's blades — but that he has a penchant for added flair. Exaggeratedly curved handles, unlikely inlays, progressive blade shapes and colorful finishes are all reasonable and frequent in Sinkevich’s designs, lending subtle and at times flashy truth to his belief that knives can be art as well as tools.

It's easy to spot a Spyderco knife — a circular hole at the top of the blade gives it away long before the buggy spider logo. Sal Glesser, who founded the company with his wife, claims the signature cutout as one of the many innovations he's contributed to knife design. Function was its impetus — Glesser sought a one-handed opening method that didn't rely on springs or buttons — and simplicity was the result.

Spyderco's first pocketknife, the Worker, was the first to exhibit the brand's trademark feature. The Worker was also the first knife to include a pocket clip, which is now an essential component on many everyday pocketknives.

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Jesper Voxnaes CRKT HVAS Jesper Voxnaes simplifies his name to just "Vox," and he follows similar conventions for his knives: minimalism, simple lines and small details are their defining qualities. His roots in rural Denmark contribute to this tendency — Vox cites woodworkers and glassblowers as examples of craftsmen that inspire his own work, along with the guiding principles of Scandinavian design. Vox's utilitarian blades have been produced by a host of well-known companies including CRKT, Boker, Fox Knives and more. p r i c e $90

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Form Meets Function b y a j p o w e ll

For years, the market for cycling sunglasses has been ruled by giants: Oakley and Smith. Both brands make quality shades that function well, but sometimes, cycling is about more than that — namely, stile and passione. After all, do you really want to show up for the requisite mid-ride coffee wearing the same shades as everyone else? Enter Italian brand Alba Optics.

Based in Milan, Alba Optics brings something different to the table. Its flagship silhouette, the Delta, is inspired by forgotten frames from the '80s and '90s. The zigzag at the temples offer a surprisingly seamless fit — in fact, they may be the most comfortable that we've ever tested — and the lens quality is top-notch. But the biggest compliment we can bestow upon the Delta is that they seem to disappear when riding, allowing the miles to do the same.

Alba Optics Delta Sunglasses $172+

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The New Class of Fitness Magazines b y m e g lapp e

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Gone are the days of throwaway rags. Today's best sports and fitness magazines — identified by bold and clean designs, progressive typefaces and hefty paper stocks — are gunning for a full-time spot on your coffee table.

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Racquet Racquet, a quarterly bolstered by great design and classic imagery, tells the great stories of tennis that have taken place since the modern rules of the game were established over a century ago. The magazine features photo essays, long-form reads, even fiction. Even if you simply dabble in tennis, Racquet will teach you all you need to know about the heroes and iconic moments in the sport. $15

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Good Sport The self-described "magazine out of left field," now in its third issue, explores what it means to be an athlete from a variety of vantage points. From big-wave surfing to playing cricket in Mumbai, the publication doesn't discriminate in its coverage of sports and fitness; it hits all the high notes of talented individuals simply striving to be the best at their craft. $21

Polvere Polvere features a rich artistic design, with flashes of pink pages and hand-drawn maps of historic cycling towns. It's printed in Italian, but you don't need to understand it to enjoy the ride. ~$12

Athleta Magazine Athleta tells the stories of sports through photos that both amateur and competitive athletes can appreciate. It's about triumphs and failures and knowing that giving it your all may not be enough. ~$18

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Undo Ordinary Fitness and wellness go hand in hand, and Undo Ordinary capitalizes on the intersection of the two. In the past, the magazine has presented coverage of training journals for triathletes, the stories behind fitness creators and all things fitness-adjacent: coffee, CBD, tonics and more. $20

Runaway With every issue, Runaway highlights the running culture of a different city.

Past editions have focused on locales such as London and New York and covered important personalities, popular races and the best running routes. They even shed light on the run crews that rule a particular city. $16

Bikevibe This semiannual cycling journal celebrates cities and the riders who call them home.

It has covered Milan, New York, London, Tokyo, Oslo and, most recently, Paris. Read about the roots of cycling and the diverse cultures in each of these urban meccas. ~$23

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DEF Y EL PRIMERO 21

Z E N I T H , T H E F U T U R E O F S W I S S W AT C H M A K I N G Cellini New York

Swiss FineTiming Chicago

King Aventura

Feldmar Los Angeles

Horologio Las Vegas

Oster Denver

Manfredi Greenwich

CH Premier Santa Clara

Timeless Luxury Plano

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F FITNESS

Running Rebelliously The small Parisian outfit Satisfy brings a different perspective to performance style. b y m e g lapp e

Nike and Adidas may have long set the trends for stylish running gear, but a small brand based in Paris is trying to change that.

It's called Satisfy, and in many ways, it's an anti-running running brand. Founded in 2015

by Brice Partouche, Satisfy isn't so much interested in fitting into the current running world as it is in totally pushing the boundaries with fabric, color and overall design.

Partouche came to running later in life. "I started running after decades of skateboarding," he says. "My girlfriend at the time was into running, and I've always been a vegetarian, a vegan — I'm a very healthy person." Partouche fell in love with the meditative aspect of the sport and quickly began logging 125 miles per month.

"Everyone has a personal reason for running, it could be wellness or getting fit, or in my case, it was stepping out of my comfort zone."

Stylistically, Partouche’s tastes didn't really fit what most would consider typical for a runner. In fact, he found himself struggling to find gear he felt was cool. "It's funny that even

F ITNESS

with rebellious roots, running has never really embodied a strong rebel subculture the way skateboarding has," he says. Partouche pulled that thread, prototyping designs for a year before finding factories to produce them. His choice of colors — black, white, blue and some hints of tonal tie-dye — express Partouche's desire to "alter the perception of runners to the rest of society," he says.

In keeping with the rebellious qualities of Satisfy, Partouche looks beyond the fitness world for materials, using the same suppliers as many luxury fashion houses. He also works with manufacturers like Schoeller, an innovator in materials manufacturing. It's details like these that set Satisfy apart and have helped fuel its organic, cultlike following.

One look at Satisfy's Instagram profile provides a glimpse into the brand's strategy as a whole, and you'll notice a completely different approach when you compare it to the likes of Nike and Adidas, who choose to focus on new-gear releases rather than the culture

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behind their brands. Satisfy's feed is monochromatic and free of inspirational quotes.

"My way of thinking is very much about the lifestyle and not about the product," Partouche says. "I didn't do it on purpose, it's just my way of thinking and building a brand."

Instagram has allowed Satisfy to engage with the running community in an organic way. Partouche found the star of Satisfy's latest campaign, Jamil Coury, through the app. This type of grassroots engagement has been crucial to the brand's early successes. "I saw friends wearing or talking about it, and it piqued my interest," says Sam Anderson, the former beverage director of Mission Chinese Food, a popular restaurant with locations in San Francisco and New York's Lower East Side. "From there, Brice and I connected through Instagram and it became evident that we share a similar aesthetic as it crosses over into the world of running and apparel."

But for both Coury and Anderson, Satisfy is about more than just looking good. "They are willing to put out some meaningful pieces of clothing that convey a message and identity," Coury says. "Brice comes from a unique fashion background. It is something unique in the running world that isn't just designed around performance, although that is a big factor in his pieces as well." For Anderson, the race-day feel of Satisfy running apparel "transmits energy. It has a lightness, a movement with the body. Often, you forget it's there," he says.

While its pieces have incredible technical elements — durability, virtual weightlessness and impossible softness over many miles — Satisfy, ultimately, isn't out to find its place in traditional running circles. It's looking to appeal to runners like Partouche on the fringe of mainstream running culture.

"We are a cult brand," Partouche says, "so it is important that we have a presence in the places where our community lives, works and runs. The end goal is really to change the perception of running on a global level, through inspiring more creative people to chase the high."

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top to bottom

Short Distance 2.5" Shorts $186 Cult Moth Eaten Muscle Tee $139 Ultra-Light Running Cap $70

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Born in the Ice In 1907, explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton set out on the Nimrod expedition: one attempt at becoming the first to trek across Antarctica and reach the South Pole. The journey was stocked with, among other rations, 25 cases of Mackinlay’s Rare Old Highland Malt Whisky.

But Shackleton and his crew never made it to the South Pole – he turned around just 100 miles shy of the South Pole. And in his next attempt in 1914, perhaps even more harrowing, the explorer saved the lives of his men after their ship froze in the ice. Both of Shackleton’s Arctic expeditions left his name legendary as a leader, explorer and survivor.

Some 100 years later, three cases of that very whisky were found, buried and perfectly preserved beneath the ice at Shackleton’s Antarctic base camp. Excavated and flown first to New Zealand, one bottle was then carefully transported to Scotland where Master Blender Richard Paterson and Whyte & Mackay’s chief chemist James Pryde tasted, analyzed and ultimately, recreated the style of the lightly hued spirit. The result – a blended malt whisky – has tasting

notes of caramel and dried fruit with a praline-smoky finish and sweet cinnamon-apple on the nose. Excluding time travel, it’s probably as close as you can get to the action of a 19th-Century Arctic expedition and a very worthy takeaway.

The perfect place to taste the new whisky? Finse, Norway — a roadless town served only by the Bergen line of the Norwegian Railway.

Described as "Antarctica in miniature," the village’s frozen lake beds and rolling hills played host to Shackleton as he trained for his 1914 expedition. Our own team set out to experience the wild there first hand, test the ropes and imbibe in Shackleton’s fine whisky — all in preparation for National Adventure Day, celebrated each October. Our exploits, perhaps slightly less physically taxing, involved dog sledding and a cross-country ski to our overnight camp. Though we aimed to carry as little as possible to make the journey easier, a bottle of Shackleton, some Tawny port and a hint of maple syrup rode along for a nightly toast.

THESH ACKLETO NWH ISKY.CO M @TH ESH ACKLETO NWH ISKY

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HOW TO SERVE NAME

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GLASS

ROCKS

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60ML SHACKLETON SCOTCH WHISKY 30ML TAWNY PORT 5ML MAPLE SYRUP

METHOD

STIR OVER ICE & SERVE ON THE ROCK

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Time & Type by andrew connor

Many aspects of watch design are fascinating to analyze, and a true connoisseur can wax poetic about them all.

Watchmakers, especially, will scrutinize every possible detail, but far too often, they fall short when it comes to one in particular: dial font.

Be it a generic typeface, one that doesn't properly fill out dial space or simply a font that feels misplaced, there are a great many missteps that can kill an otherwise beautiful design. There are a few manufacturers, however, that know how important it is to develop a typeface that does a watch justice — here are three doing just that.

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Hermès A few years ago, Hermès approached the French graphic designer Philippe Apeloig to create an all-new typeface for its upcoming Slim d'Hermès.

The French fashion house, in the midst of adding more in-house movements to its collection, stipulated only that the font do justice to the light, sharp architecture of the minimalist timepiece. Apeloig, whose work with typography was well-known in France, delivered one of the most distinct typefaces the watch industry has ever seen.

"The challenge was to make the watch visually light, pure and perfectly in harmony with a sense of minimalism," Apeloig says with the kind of poeticism you'd expect from a Parisian designer.

"Sobriety and minimalism were the qualities I was reaching for, so I built in constraints, limiting the number of shapes — circles, triangles, curves, dashes — that I could use to create the numbers."

The typeface on the Slim d'Hermès is sleek and

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minimalist, but its most striking aspect is the presence of several "imperfections," as Apeloig calls them, that bisect each character and that were vital in helping Apeloig achieve his vision of visual lightness and balance. "They reduce each number to its elemental parts… when the numbers were assembled in a grid, a rhythm arose between the blackness of the line and the whiteness of the voids," he says.

Interestingly, these imperfections have another, more functional effect: they're naturally eye-catching, drawing the eye in and aiding in the kind of clear, at-a-glance legibility that so many watch critics laud in a timepiece. Here, Apeloig created a font in which the concepts of function and form are not mutually exclusive, a fact he is fully cognizant of.

As he puts it, "the functionality of an object should not be an obstacle to creating typography that is aesthetically beautiful."

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A. Lange & Söhne Though the A. Lange & Söhne as we know it emerged in the 1990s, it has roots in Glashütte that stretch back to the mid-19th century when Ferdinand Adolph Lange (great-grandfather to founder Walter Lange) brought watchmaking to the sleepy German village. Thus, Lange's approach to watchmaking is both simultaneously classic and modern, paying homage to its history while always looking forward and reinventing its high-end complications.

Naturally, Lange's approach to typography is emblematic of that dichotomy. The font used by the manufacturer is, according to Director of Product Development Anthony de Haas, "bespoke, inspired

by Engravers, an all-caps font designed around 1900 by Robert Wiebking who at the beginning of his career worked as an engraver himself." There are, of course, some major deviations from Engravers; notably, the letters are stretched wider and cut leaner. The result, Haas says, is clearer, finer and "a touch more modern."

In placing typeface throughout the dial, A. Lange & Söhne has the challenge of its complex mechanics to contend with. The brand is known for its high-complication watches, things like chronographs and perpetual calendars that require sub-dials to convey more information. "At the beginning of the development process, caliber and product designers consider jointly how the indications should be arranged on the dial and what consequences this will have on the construction of the movement," Haas says. "The aim is always to avoid intersections and give each indication space to breathe.

"Typography plays an important role in the design process," Hass continues. "Sometimes, the first draft is already close to the final dial configuration.

But very often, hardly perceptible details have to be modified many times before the designers are satisfied. This process can be summed up as follows: letting ideas compete with each other filters the better from the good."

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Nomos

Since it launched in the early '90s, Nomos has become one of the leading forces in modern watch design, thanks to its relentless adherence to the principles laid out by both the Bauhaus school of design and its predecessor, the Deutscher Werkbund movement of the early 20th century.

According to Nomos designer Thomas Höhnel, "These principles include precise proportions, refined aesthetics, clear legibility and a strong emphasis on functionality. The combination of these features inevitably leads to a certain look."

Naturally, these principles extend to the typefaces used on Nomos timepieces. The brand’s most iconic watch, the Tangente, was inspired by a little-known German timepiece from the 1930s.

"The typography was completely redeveloped and features very straight, linear Arabic numerals," says Höhnel. "What makes the typography so unique, and therefore so striking, is its linearity and length."

It's this linearity that helps Nomos and its designers achieve its minimalist aesthetic. Too much negative space and the dial could look dull, but the length of the Tangente's numerals break up that

space by clearly and evenly segmenting it. "Space is extremely important for the segmentation of the dial and to help find the right proportions. The logo and typography have to be placed on the dial in a way that creates a harmonious impression overall," Höhnel says.

As their lineup grew, Nomos designers needed to find ways to stay true to both Bauhaus principles and the brand's core aesthetic. For Höhnel's German Design Award-winning Ahoi diver, for example, they modified the Tangente's numerals to be thinner and shorter, lending the watch a sportier look.

For other models that further deviate from the Bauhaus formula — like the Nomos Club — the designers rethought the watch from the ground up, beginning with the case and finding a suitable font that satisfied both the brand's identity and the purpose of the watch. "The Club, for example, is an entry-level, everyday watch for younger wearers, which is why it also has a more youthful typography. Yet even here, it is archetypal and modern," Höhnel says. "Ultimately, all the design elements of a watch have to work together."

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Ahead of Their Time by oren hartov

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Too often, time gets taken for granted, but spend enough of it around watches and it's impossible not to pay attention to every second. And though time has mostly been displayed the same way for hundreds of years, some brands are rethinking what this display can look like. These watches may seem unconventional at first, but look closely — they're more ingenious than they appear.

Van Cleef & Arpels Midnight PlanĂŠtarium Though Paris-based Van Cleef & Arpels may be more closely associated today with exquisite jewelry than with timepieces, their watchmaking is equally impressive.

In developing the Midnight PlanĂŠtarium, the maison accurately miniaturized the scale of the heavens into a mechanical device a mere 44mm in diameter.

Utilizing a specially developed movement, the Midnight PlanĂŠtarium contains a fully functional representation of six planets moving around the sun, the orbits of which mirror how they appear in the sky. Van Cleef & Arpels president and CEO, Nicolas Bos, says of the design, "In a world where everything goes so fast, this timepiece is an invitation to follow the rhythm of the cosmos." p r i c e $220,000

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Ochs und Junior Perpetual Calendar Ochs und Junior, established in 2006 in Lucerne, Switzerland, may be a relative newcomer to the old world of watchmaking, but its chief innovator, Dr. Ludwig Oeschlin, has been developing unique horological designs for more than 30 years. Along with cofounder Beat Weinmann, Ochs und Junior set out to re-create the idea of a complicated watch by heading firmly in the opposite direction. They designed a unique perpetual calendar caliber, a design that typically uses hundreds of parts, with only a base caliber using nine additional and three modified parts. It was an industry first. "As a small company, you can be radical and do things even if they have to be explained, because there is no basis of comparison," Weinmann says. price

~ $20,900

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Klokers KLOK-08 Klokers, based in Annecy-Le-Vieux, France, is a company that launched on Kickstarter in 2015 and raised several times its funding goal. The watches it makes take inspiration from the slide-rule; hours, minutes and seconds are separated onto discs that rotate counterclockwise against a hash mark on the crystal, rather than using rotating hands that point to a fixed number. Klokers has also designed a proprietary quick-release system for its watch heads that allows them to be mounted on all manner of Klokers-designed straps, freestanding clock holders, pocket watch fobs and more, encouraging their customers to view their watches as equal parts utility and fun. "Our target customer loves special products and disruptive designs," explains the brand's sales director Michel Pescio. "This is why the market has answered very positively to the brand." price

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Itay Noy Part-Time The Israeli boutique watchmaker Itay Noy, headquartered in Tel Aviv, has little desire to create timepieces that look or function like any other watch. His Part-Time collection features a dial split in half that only displays info on the 12-hour portion that is currently active, be it day or night. "The concept started as an idea to separate the day into two parts — we eat, we sleep, we go out, we rest part of the day, so the watch is doing the same," Noy explains. "It’s a different way to show time, an indirect way."

Noy's goal is to move beyond watches as functional items — he uses them to tell stories and only produces limited numbers, so when a particular model sells out, it’s gone for good. p r i c e $5,800

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Meistersinger No. 3 It wasn’t until the modern era of industrialization that the common person became concerned with the passing of minutes and seconds; before this, clocks appearing in town squares featured only a single hand to display the passing of the hours — more specific information simply wasn’t needed.

Manfred Brassler, who founded Meistersinger in Münster, Germany, in 2001, based his company on a similar ideology: that less is more. The Meistersinger No. 3 — along with all of Meistersinger's designs — embraces timekeeping's history by using only one hand. Brassler says this simplicity allows us to reflect on what is truly important. "I still find the idea of telling the time like Bach and Handel exceptionally charming to this day," says Brassler. p r i c e $2,095

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My Three Watch Collection by andrew connor photos by hunter d. kelley

" What are three watches you'd like to add to your collection?"

It's an easy question, one that allows you to use your imagination, indulge in your obsession and explore various whims you may have. Most watch enthusiasts would jump at the opportunity to answer this question, even if the answers were entirely hypothetical. But what if things went the other way: "If you could only keep three of the watches you already own, what would they be?"

This particular question forces you to reconsider what you truly "need" as a watch enthusiast — it requires you to take stock not just of the timepieces themselves, but the stories behind them and what makes them truly important.

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ISSUE SEVEN

Benjamin Clymer Founder and CEO, Hodinkee

"In thinking about it, it’s probably not the most well-rounded watch collection, but these are three pieces that really speak to me, and I think that’s what watch collecting should be about."

Philippe Dufour Simplicity

Rolex Daytona (Reference 6239)

Omega Speedmaster Mark 40

"The Dufour was something that I had heard about for years but had never really seen. As I got more familiar with highend watchmaking, I became friendly with Philippe Dufour — we shot a video at his atelier in 2013 — and I kind of fell in love with him and his mantra. I said, 'Hey, if you ever find one of these coming up for sale, let me know — I'd love to have one.' Then a mutual friend of ours, who at the time worked for Vacheron, was selling his. It was the perfect example that had the lacquer dial, the Breguet hands and it was 37mm in rose gold. What's funny is I was in Switzerland giving a presentation to the CEOs of all the Richemont brands, and I picked it up that day. They asked me what I was wearing and maybe about half the group knew what it was, but most didn't, and I think that's the charm."

"The antithesis of the Philippe Dufour is the first-year Daytona, reference 6239, which is really a very simple watch with a pre-Oyster case that's not very thick. That watch, to me, if I were going to have one watch — my grandfather's aside — it would be this one. Because the 6239 is very thin, you can put it on an alligator strap or a leather strap and it looks wonderful. You can put it on the Oyster bracelet, take it to a track and time laps with it. I'm a car guy, a chronograph guy, and the Daytona is the epitome of that. This one is the most charming, I think, because it's the first generation, so it's kind of the archetype of the Daytona. And mine is just a really nice example that I bought from a friend, and it's just a great watch all around."

"My grandfather was from a working-class Jewish family from Brooklyn — grew up with nothing. He was an entrepreneur and started his own company — living what I perceived to be the American Dream. He knew I was into some of the same things he was — cars, watches, cameras — and every time I came to visit him he'd let me wear his Omega. One day he said, 'You know what, just keep it.' There wasn't any great fanfare or moment around it. It was just that he wanted me to have it, out of the blue. And that was the watch that really got me hooked, and the watch that was really the inspiration for Hodinkee. It is without exaggeration that I say that Hodinkee and the career that I have would not exist were it not for that moment."

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James Lamdin Founder, Analog/Shift

"If I’m going to only be picking three watches, I better love a) their functionality b) their story and c) wearing them."

Rolex GMT-Master (Reference 1675/8)

Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Jumbo (Reference 5402 SA)

Doxa SUB 300T "Black Lung"

"I might be the only vintage watch dealer who doesn't eat, live and breathe Rolex. As brilliant as Rolex is as a brand, it's not the be-all, end-all of vintage watch collecting. That said, I think that the 1675 GMT-Master might be the finest wristwatch ever made. This solid gold GMT came to me when I purchased it for myself when I turned thirty. I sort of joked that I would buy a solid gold one not really believing I was going to do it… and then I did it. I bought a bracelet to go with it, a President bracelet, which is a rare factory option that's hard to find, and my God, if it isn't the most comfortable watch to wear. It's the watch I wear absolutely the most. After buying my gold one, I caved in and bought a couple steel ones and a two-tone one just because I love them so much. As for picking the gold one to keep, it's simply because it was my first heavy-duty Rolex to commemorate the first few years of running Analog/Shift and to celebrate my thirtieth year on this planet with something that's sort of ridiculous but awesome."

"I remember the first time I put on a Jumbo and just said to myself 'Shit, I'm going to get a lot deeper into this than I thought I would.' Wearing a Jumbo for the first time was a revelation; I could not believe that they could fit so much into such a tight, sharply designed, thin piece with a bracelet that's built like a suit of armor. So I wanted one for a very long time. This watch came to me through a trade, but it was a ridiculous trade. It was really meant as a gift from a friend who bought it for me knowing that I desperately wanted one, and considered it a trade. And I cherish my relationship with that individual — he's become a client and a dear friend— and it's a part of my upscale wardrobe that I will never part with. And I think it's just representative of the friendships I've been able to cultivate in this silly hobby."

"Doxa was really my point of entry into this hobby. I inherited my fascination with vintage things from my grandfather, and wristwatches sort of became a talisman to me. In my exploration of history and his generation through his possessions, I quickly developed a fascination with mechanical wristwatches, and the first watch I wanted to buy for myself was a Doxa SUB, which I’d read about in the pages of Clive Cussler novels when I was a kid. The Black Lung was not my first Doxa, but it is sort of the ultimate representation, in terms of rarity and story, of what is probably the best of the first-generation SUB 300s. It came to me through the son of the original owner, an underwater cinematographer whose credits include Thunderball, among others. The son reached out to me when he discovered it cleaning out a desk drawer. He wanted an appraisal and eventually sold me the watch. While I've owned a lot of Doxas, this one holds a very special place in my heart."

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ISSUE SEVEN

Adam Craniotes

Founder and President, RedBar Group

"To me it still boils down to that there are stories to tell, and when you look at the watch to tell the time, all those stories kind of factor into that glance."

Audemars Piguet Royal Oak "Jumbo" Extra-Thin (Reference 15202)

Jaeger-LeCoultre Tribute to Reverso 1931 (U.S. Edition)

Rolex Submariner (Reference 16800)

"The Royal Oak is classic, you can't deny it. It created an entirely new genre of watch, the luxury sports watch, which didn't really exist before this. It was ten times more than an equivalent Submariner at the time it was released. I don't think anyone knew what to do with it. It wasn't a runaway success, but when it finally took, it was an icon. The particular watch I have was purchased from a friend of mine, a fellow RedBar member. He's one of these people that if he doesn't own it, it's because he doesn't want it. He had the watch that I have now, called an E-Series, which dates to around 2005. He had just located a pristine 1972 A-Series and he realized once he had it, he wouldn't wear this one. He asked if I knew anyone who was interested and I said, 'Yes — me,' but I didn't have any money.

The price that he quoted me was so low, it was the price of a madman. The price of somebody to whom money has long since lost any meaning, because he was like 'Fuck it, I don't need it and I want someone to enjoy it and I can give it to you, but that's weird, so how about this?'"

"This was a watch that even before I knew about watches, I knew what it was. I knew what a Reverso was — I knew that it flipped over, and I had seen them. Throughout my entire life, even in grade school, I kind of had a thing for this watch, even before I could put a true name to it. So over the years as I got into the hobby more and started learning more, I really wanted to get a Reverso. But it was always this Goldilocks thing and I never really found one that I thought was mine. And then when they released the Tribute to Reverso in 2011, it was basically a modernized version of that first one. It had the solid, engravable caseback, manual wind, and I liked that it had lume. I thought, 'Here we go.' Then they threw a wrench: the brainchild of this project pushed through another project, the U.S. Edition. They were gonna make a hundred pieces using the same case, but they got the exact font from the original Reverso and added syringe hands. So you had this watch with all these vintage dog whistles, yet it glowed like a motherfucker, which I loved. That was it. I was able to contact them directly and I wound up getting the first one."

"This was my first good watch, and I got it in college in 1992.

Everybody, at whatever point in their life they start collecting, is like, 'Rolex, Rolex, Rolex! They're the best watches in the world! And if I buy one I will have made it.' As you move on in your collecting, you realize it isn't the be-all, end-all. But at one point everyone is in that phase, and I knew at that point a Rolex Submariner would be my first watch. I finally had my money together, through working in college and, frankly, the death of my godfather who left me some money and said I should do something stupid with some of it. But back in 1992, you could not buy a Rolex Submariner in New York City to save your life. So everywhere I went no one had one, and when they did have one, it was a used one. This one was about eighteen hundred dollars, which to me was an obscene amount of cash. But I didn't care — I had my Rolex Submariner. I remember walking home feeling like a million bucks. Or at least eighteen hundred bucks."

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Simplifying Complications b y o r e n ha r t o v

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i ll u s t r at i o n s b y j u l i e k r a u l i s

It's complicated. And no, we aren't talking about your love life over social media — we're referring to that thing on your wrist.

"Complicated" is the term used to describe any watch that does one or more things beyond time-telling, and complications — the features of the watch that go beyond tracking seconds, minutes and hours and that are often controlled by the pushers on the side of your watch — aren't as involved as you might think. Here's a primer on the most common complications in timekeeping and what they do.

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Chronograph

The chronograph is a time-recording complication — essentially a built-in stopwatch — usually run by the topmost pusher on the side of the watch.

The running-seconds hand, which shows the passing seconds, is generally moved to a small sub-dial, while the central-seconds hand, mounted in the center of the dial, only runs when the chronograph is engaged.

The other sub-dials on the watch record timing intervals, typically in 30-minute or 12-hour counts. To reset the chronograph, one simple press of the lower pusher returns the time-recording hands to zero.

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Date Display The most common display is the simple date window, where a single disc rotates beneath an aperture at three o'clock showing the date as a number from 1 to 31. But the date can also be displayed in other ways, including on a small sub-dial above six o'clock; around the edge of the dial with a fourth hand that points to the correct date number (a "pointer date"); or as a large, digital-type display utilizing two disks at the top of the dial that rotate and display the number through an opening.

Moon Phase Indicator A moon phase indicator tells the wearer what the current phase of the moon is, generally operating via a rotating disc with graphic representations of the waxing, waning, full or absent lunar surface. Because the lunar cycle is 29.53 days long, some seriously precise engineering is required in order to design a moon phase indicator that doesn't require semi-regular manual adjustment. More technical models utilize a precise 135-tooth wheel and only require adjustments once every 122 years, while less sophisticated versions are mounted on a 59-tooth wheel and require adjustment — generally via a small pusher — once every two and a half years.

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ISSUE SEVEN

Rodney Lucas for

TRVL LITE

“As a filmmaker, when you’re chasing a vibe, you’ve got to be ready to go wherever that vibe takes you.”

Comfortable, durable, and ultra-lightweight.

Built for those who live life on the move.

TOMS.COM

GMT A "GMT" watch refers to a timepiece that displays multiple time zones concurrently (one of which must technically be on a 24-hour cycle). "GMT," or Greenwich Mean Time, is the mean solar time observed at the Greenwich Observatory in London, England, and the standard by which all other time zones are calculated. The original example of a GMT watch is the Rolex GMT-Master, developed in the 1950s for use by Pan Am aircrews to monitor local and Greenwich Mean Time simultaneously. A modern GMT watch uses a fourth, 24-hour hand that can be used to track a second time zone, often in conjunction with a 24-hour rotating bezel (certain models can even track a third time zone).

Calendar There are several types of calendar watches that display information beyond the date: the day-date, which displays the date and day of the week; the triple calendar, which adds the month of the year; and the complete calendar, which includes the phases of the moon. At the next level, an annual calendar takes into account the varying lengths of the months and only requires adjustment once per year (in February); the most complex of the commonly available calendars, the perpetual calendar, takes leap years into account. Most of today's perpetual calendars will only need manual adjustment in the year 2100, when the leap year will be ignored.

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DEMOCRATIZING CASHMERE NAADAM.CO | 392 Bleecker St, NYC

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Dressin' on a Budget by andrew connor

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ph o t o s b y h u n t e r d . k e ll e y

In an era of casual business attire and smartphones, the dress watch could very well have diminished in importance — if anything, however, it has become more important than ever.

The rare occasions on which we dress to the nines deserve a higher level of refinement, and a handsome wristwatch is an essential part of that equation. Many die-hard enthusiasts advocate for expensive dress watches — those that are thin in stature, mechanical in nature and exquisitely finished. Many watches fitting that description retail in the five figures, but a handful of watchmakers have your bases covered at a much more stomachable cost.

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Seiko Presage SPB047J1 The radiant sheen and creamy texture of a real enamel dial is something commonly reserved for five-figure watches, but Seiko's Presage lineup, which features enamel fired by the brand's own enamel expert, is priced at only $1,000. Were that not enough, the watch boasts an expertly polished case and an in-house automatic movement, making this one of the best values in timekeeping, period. p r i c e $1,000

Longines Flagship

Defakto Vektor Silbermatt

Hamilton Jazzmaster Thinline Auto

If the Flagship looks like it was plucked straight from a mid-century catalog, that's because, in a way, it was. The watch was a ubiquitous timepiece back in the '50s and '60s, and Longines has brought it back with an accurate reissue.

The creamy dial texture, old-school logos, gold indices and smaller 38mm case are all hallmarks of the dress watches of the era, which is to say they're timelessly handsome.

Defakto is an indie German watchmaker that molds its modestly priced watches in the Bauhaus design aesthetic.

The Vektor takes on a charming, minimalist look with a stark white-and-black dial, an automatic movement, a razor-thin bezel and a profile that's under 10mm thick, including the domed crystal.

Hamilton's Jazzmaster Thinline is minimal in its construction, but it features small, tasteful flourishes that echo the styling of mid-century dress watches: a champagne sunray dial; sharp, sculpted lugs; multifaceted applied hour markers. All this, plus an automatic movement, fit inside a scant 8.5mm-thick case.

p r i c e $668

p r i c e $945

p r i c e $1,675

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Oris Artelier Date Oris is best known for its rugged and accessibly priced tool watches, but the Artelier is proof that the independent Swiss watchmaker knows its way around a dress watch. The Artelier Date features a svelte 40mm case and an automatic movement, but the standout feature is, without doubt, the silver dial with its stunning and intricate guilloche pattern. p r i c e $1,650

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1950's Chanel Pour Monsieur Chanel’s first-ever men’s scent, created in 1955, has earned a vaunted place among perfumers as the so-called "reference chypre," thanks to its skillful blend of citrus and wood notes. Then, as now, the actual guys who wear it praise it for its under-the-radar nature. Like the era that inspired it, it’s subtle and confident, suggesting that masculinity and discretion walk hand in hand. p r i c e $98

The Scent of Time by justin fenner

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Wearing fragrance is nothing new. In fact, some historians date modern perfumery as far back as the late 1300s. As time marched on, the scents we put on our skin changed dramatically. You may no longer be able to spray yourself with a medieval fragrance, but you can still find great options from the early to mid-20th century that are still in production and on the shelves of your local department store. We picked one scent from each decade, starting with the 1950s, to trace how men’s tastes have evolved.

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1970's Polo Ralph Lauren Green If prior designer fragrances relied on citrus and herbs for their crisp, refreshing scents, Polo represented a sharp turn away from that tradition. Its blend of leather, tobacco and patchouli make it a distinctly rich and unquestionably masculine alternative to most other colognes on the market — even today. p r i c e $105

1980's Armani Eau Pour Homme After revolutionizing the way well-heeled men dressed in the late 1970s and early ‘80s, Giorgio Armani forever changed the way they smelled, too. In 1984, he introduced his first men’s fragrance, Eau Pour Homme. Its blend of citrus, spice and patchouli hasn’t changed since it was introduced. Perhaps that’s because it’s so closely linked with the era’s trappings of success. p r i c e $78+

1960's Dior Eau Sauvage The original ad for this 1966 fragrance featured a sketch of a man in nothing but a towel, cocking an eyebrow at the viewer. Eau Sauvage is just as fresh as that cartoon’s attitude: it’s lemony, with hints of rosemary and vetiver, an earthy grass scent. But instead of coming across as insouciant or overtly sensual, this fragrance’s underpinnings enable it work in a variety of settings, making it the classic it is today. p r i c e $75+

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2010's Creed Aventus Inspired by the extraordinary life of Napoleon, Aventus has dominated the conversation about men’s fragrance since its release in 2010. In eight short years, this unexpectedly masculine blend of pineapple, jasmine, patchouli and vanilla has become the company’s best-selling fragrance — an achievement made even more impressive by the fact that Creed has reportedly made scents since the 1700s.

2000's Hermès Terre d’Hermès

p r i c e $325+

In 2006, Hermès released a fragance named for what it was supposed to convey. In this case, an earthy blend of orange, pepper and cedar — with just a hint of minerality — seems to suggest that men in the aughts had the desire to get back in touch with nature. p r i c e $86+

1990's Dolce & Gabbana Pour Homme Dolce & Gabbana’s first men’s fragrance, released in 1995, spoke volumes about the way guys saw themselves in the era of irrational exuberance. Its packaging was minimal and clean, but its smell (a blend of neroli, bergamot, lavender, tobacco and cedar) was forthrightly sexy. This attempt to bottle the essence of an Italian lover produced an award-winning fragrance that men still wear today. p r i c e $68+

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The Essential Fall Layer by john zientek ph o t o s b y c ha s e p e ll e r i n

The crisp mornings and cool evenings of fall call for the warmth of an overshirt. It's a staple garment that works just as well worn over a t-shirt as it does layered under a coat when the temperature really drops. Traditionally made from natural fibers like wool or cotton, the overshirt is easy to care for and will stand up to decades of use. These six styles are appropriate for whatever weather comes your way.

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Filson Jac-Shirt $250 Gitman Bros. Vintage Blackwatch Hopsack Shirt $195

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Levi’s Vintage Clothing Shirt Jacket $195 Gitman Bros. Vintage Navy Overdye Oxford Shirt $165

Outerknown Blanket Shirt Jacket $165 Outerknown Ambassador Slim Fit S.E.A. Jeans $128 Red Wing Heritage Classic Round 8190, throughout $270

Taylor Stitch Maritime Jacket $188

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Goldwin Band Collar Shirt $239 Outerknown S.E.A. Tee Crew Necks, throughout $38

Iron Heart Ultra-Heavy CPO Flannel $400 Outerknown Drifter Tapered Fit S.E.A. Jeans $148

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Worth the Weight by justin fenner ph o t o s b y c ha n d l e r b o n d u r a n t

Aluminum carry-ons seem purpose-built for protecting your belongings — and for making other travelers jealous. But for all their hard-sided beauty, they can be tremendously impractical. Most options ding easily, aren’t expandable and weigh a hefty 9 to 12 pounds. Still, if you want to look more like a Bond villain than, well, every other person at the checkin desk, there’s no better option than one of the five here. Get one before your next trip and wear all the inevitable scratches with pride.

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Rimowa Original Cabin S $1,100 Tumi 19 Degree Aluminum $1,095 Away Aluminum Edition $495 Arlo Skye Aluminum $550 Zero Halliburton Geo Aluminum $950

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ph o t o s : a r v i n g o o d s

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Back to Basics by john zientek

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" Doing the right thing doesn’t mean you have to spend twice as much," said Dustin Winegardner, the cofounder of Arvin Goods. He was referring to the assumption that sustainably made, or eco-friendly clothes must dwarf traditionally made styles in price. And he’s been steadily disproving that thinking since he launched his line of tasteful socks and underwear — all made from recycled clothing and materials — in 2017.

By that time, Winegardner had been working in product development and manufacturing on behalf of other brands for close to a decade. His company, ITC Accessories, sourced materials for the likes of Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein, and he saw firsthand the possibility for a new type of underwear brand to emerge. So, he joined forces with Harry Fricker — a freelance creative director who had worked at Bocci and Finisterre — and founded Arvin Goods. "On the social-media platforms, all these basics brands were ex-

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ploding, but no one was doing it in any sort of sustainable way," he said. "So I just saw an opportunity to create our own brand around this material we already had and supply chain we already had."

The recycled cotton-poly yarns that Winegardner had access to were an ideal place to start. Using recycled yarns saves fresh water, reduces landfill waste, lowers CO2 emissions and eliminates the need to buy virgin materials from energy-dependent farms and factories. While one kilogram of cotton fabric takes somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000 liters of water to produce, recycled cotton requires virtually nothing. In the U.S. alone, over 16 million tons of textile waste is generated each year, and only a small percentage of that is recycled. "We haven't even turned on the trickle of the faucet of recycling our waste materials," Winegardner said. Because basics are replaced more frequently than other garments, they’re a salient place

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In the final step before they can be used to make new products, fibers made from recycled textiles are spun into yarns on spools.

for people to bring sustainable clothes into their wardrobes. Arvin Goods encourages its customers to donate worn garments back to the brand after years of wear. This closed apparel loop keeps the product out of landfills.

While sustainability is at the core of Arvin Goods, it doesn’t inhibit the quality or comfort of its products. The socks — available in a wide range of colors — feature an elastic ribbed cuff, a terry-loop padded footbed and an elastic arch support. The boxer briefs, which Arvin bills as "ridiculously competent," are supportive, breathable and lightweight.

And they’re fairly priced: socks range from $8 to $15 per pair and boxer briefs cost $16.

Because the initial response to Arvin has been so strong, Winegardner is working on even more products, including a comfortable, performance-oriented pair of men's underwear made from regenerated nylon — utilizing ocean waste and fishing nets — as well as a line of unisex tops that will launch next

Sustainable doesn’t have to mean expensive. A pair of Arvin’s Casual Socks costs just $12.

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spring. "I think as people start to understand that their [conventional] t-shirt used a considerable amount of water to produce, their eyes will open up to it," Winegardner said. As with the socks and underwear, the new shirts will have tasteful design — and a competitive mid-range price.

As his company grows, Winegardner looks toward an industry leader to guide his decisions. "I think Patagonia is the best model," he said. "They’ve created something that is theirs and that people love and that does good and is interesting." He hopes that as more people realize they can get great sustainable products at an affordable price, they’ll flock to brands like Arvin Goods. An increased sales volume would eventually translate to a greater environmental impact.

And while that outcome has a wealth of potential, for Winegardner, it all comes down to a simple idea: "The mission is to make the cleanest basics brand in the world."

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Fire Walkers by john zientek

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Necessity really is the mother of all invention, especially when it comes to work boots. In New England, moc-toe hunting boots helped trappers handle harsh northern winters. In the Midwest, work boots came with non-marking, comfortable outsoles appropriate for hours on the factory floor. And in the South and West, cowboy boots were built for ranchers and cattlemen who spent their days on horseback.

While they’re perhaps not as well known as brands in other regions, the original boot companies of the Northwest catered to the forest industry, making footwear for loggers and wildland firefighters.

The boots produced there were built to withstand arduous forested terrain. Key features included a tall shaft that offered protection and stability, a thick sole with deep lugs for traction, and a taller heel for added arch support and sure footing on uneven surfaces. Brands making these tough boots haven’t changed the formula much, and they still predominantly produce custom boots for industry workers.

If you want the uncompromising quality of these boots but don’t need such a robust style, here are a few models more apt for everyday wear.

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White's Boots 8-Inch Work Boot Founded in 1853 in West Virginia, White’s Boots relocated to Spokane, Washington, in 1915. A favorite of loggers for more than a century, White’s also makes boots for smoke jumpers battling forest fires across the West. This hand-sewn boot features a water-resistant leather upper, a Mini-Vibram sole and an 8-inch shaft, and it’s completely rebuildable. While the boot is available in a range of sizes, White's recommends you send in tracings of your feet if you’re concerned about a proper fit. p r i c e $452

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Nicks Custom Boots The Robert Nick Blahcuzyn escaped Stalin's army during WWII, immigrated to the U.S. and learned to build boots in the Northwest. He founded Nicks Custom Boots in 1964, and the company's handmade boots became the go-to for hotshot crews, loggers and upland hunters. The Robert boot is a pared-down version of the brand’s Ranger work boot.

Completely customizable, the style has a 6-inch shaft and Dogger heel, and it's completely rebuildable. For first-time customers, Nicks recommends its Fit-sheet to guarantee a perfect fit. p r i c e $437

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Wesco Jobmaster ST208100 Oregon-based Wesco was founded in 1918 by John Shoemaker, a transplant from Michigan. His well-crafted logging boots were the choice footwear in timber camps across the state. In 1937, Wesco moved its factory to Scappoose, Oregon, where it still produces boots today. The Jobmaster ST208100 is made from 7-ounce full-grain leather and features a Vibram sole, steel toe and an 8-inch shaft. Though you can order stock sizes, Wesco also offers custom sizes and builds to better suit your needs. p r i c e $452

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Shelf Life How the MoMA Design Store Curates Its Catalog by tucker bowe

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The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), austere yet inconspicuous, sits between Fifth and Sixth Avenue on 53rd Street in Manhattan.

Since its 1929 opening, it has been the global zenith of contemporary art, architecture and design. Millions of visitors walk through its doors every year to lay eyes on the iconic works on permanent display — Dalí's The Persistence of Memory, van Gogh's The Starry Night. Picasso, Warhol and Monet, too, have art hanging on its walls.

Perhaps lesser known is the museum’s retail operation, which has been active for those nearly ninety years. It started off with small trinkets and souvenirs, such as postcards and exhibition catalogs, in the museum’s lobby, but its present incarnation, the MoMA Design Store, really took shape in the early 1980s. That's when it started selling a vast array of high-concept furniture, tableware, jewelry and travel accessories, all of which share one thing in common: excellent design.

Grasping the scope of these products can be overwhelming. Today, the store sells everything from abstract lighting fixtures and Jeff Koons dinnerware to inflatable sailboats, Andy Warhol prints and statement-making furniture — and that's just scratching the surface.

The important thing to note is that every single product the store sells has been vetted by the museum's curators.

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George Nelson Star Clock George Nelson's iconic clock, according to the MoMA Design Store, showcases "the eternal appeal of 1950s decor." Its slim bristles, or rays of light, are made of mixed metals that alternate between chrome and brass. p r i c e $530

Native Union x La Boite PR/01 Concept Speaker The PR/01 Bluetooth speaker is a joint effort between Native Union and the high-end French acoustics company La Boite Concept. Aside from functioning as a hi-fi speaker, it has a secret drawer that stores a number of built-in USB and audio ports. It also features a wireless charger — just place your iPhone X on top of the speaker to charge. p r i c e $799

Each season, the Design Store's team of buyers scouts the world. They visit global trade shows, exhibitions and workshops.

They speak to designers and scour crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo.

Then they return, like pollen-saturated bees, to have their pitches rigorously reviewed and maybe approved. The products that get the green light are the ones that support the mission of the MoMA Design Store: to make good design available to as many people as possible and to expose the public to objects and ideas they didn't know existed.

"We really want to create a sense of discovery. Some people may think it’s just a museum store but it’s much more than that," says Emmanuel Plat, the Director of Merchandising at MoMA. The store is an extension of the museum, not necessarily in what you can buy there, but in the fact that every object in the shop features truly museum-quality design. "We offer some of these objects for museum visitors. But our role also is to really bring to our clients what’s new and what’s happening in the world of design and consumer products."

Over the years, the Design Store has helped

launch a number of products (and companies), such as the Lumio Book Lamp, Devialet's futuristic-looking Phantom Speaker and the Impossible Project I-1 instant camera. To have a product featured in the MoMA Design Store is a large feather in any designer's cap, an honor akin to having Guy Fieri give your khao soi two thumbs up.

"The visibility and buzz vendors get premiering products at the MoMA Design Store is quite remarkable," Plat explains. "As part of our mission to make good design available to as many people as possible and remain at the forefront of the latest consumer products, we're proud to have become one of the most sought-after venues in North America to launch new products."

Once the curators approve a product, there's no guarantee that the Design Store will feature it for long. Many products are one-season wonders, lasting little more than a couple months before they're sent back into the ether. Plat estimates that new products make up roughly 60 percent of available products. The cornerstone of the catalog consists of perennial best-sellers, such as the Sky Umbrella and the Satellite Bowl, which the MoMA Design Store has been

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selling since 1992 and 1999, respectively.

Today, the MoMA Design Store has three brick-and-mortar locations in New York — two adjacent to the museum in Midtown (one is in the museum) and one in Soho — along with a couple locations in Japan. They’ve opened popup shops in select cities, too, most recently in Paris at the Fondation Louis Vuitton and in Melbourne at the National Gallery of Victoria.

For the rest of the world, the store has a thriving e-commerce site — you can order anything in the current collection with a click of your mouse. Just like on Amazon.

E-commerce is one of MoMA Design Store's fastest growing channels. "It enables us to reach customers all over the world that may have never come to MoMA," Plat says. Still, plenty of foot traffic passes through their New York locations. The museum has three million visitors each year, half of whom visit their brickand-mortar shops. Also, anybody in New York can walk into any one of their shops. No need to pay the museum's $25 entrance fee. In that way, the MoMA Design Store has succeeded in its mission to democratize good design and bring it to the masses.

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Roland Kiyola Piano This digital piano is a collaboration with Karimoku, Japan’s revered wood-furniture maker, and features Roland's piano modeling technology so it feels and sounds like an acoustic piano. It's minimalist and environmentally friendly, too. p r i c e $4,299

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HAY Sonos One Speaker

Sevenhugs Smart Remote

Lexon Mino Speakers

Until recently, your options for the Sonos One were white or black. At the MoMA Design Store you'll find a vibrant color palette — a collaboration between Sonos and the Danish design brand HAY. The sound quality and Alexa capability of the speaker is the same.

What if you could control your TV, Sonos speakers and Philips Hue lights (plus thousands of other devices) with one universal remote? That's the promise of the Sevenhugs Smart Remote.

Made by Lexon, a French accessories company, these tiny Bluetooth speakers are smaller than a pepper shaker and come in a swath of energetic colors. Each has an integrated microphone that lets users answer calls. You can also use it as a selfie remote button. Strange but neat.

p r i c e $229

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Schiit Audio The California Company Making Desktop Hi-Fi Affordable by tucker bowe

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Let's get any confusion around its name out of the way. Schiit Audio is pronounced just like it reads — "shit." That was intentional. "One of the reasons that we ended up with the company name was my wife," says Jason Stoddard, cofounder of the California-based audio brand. "When I was going into the garage every night saying 'I've got way too much shit to do,' or 'I can't deal with this shit,' she finally got exasperated and said, 'Why don't you just call the fucking company 'shit' because that's all you ever do.'" He just went with it.

Magni 3 (Headphone Amp) Designed to be used with the Modi 2 DAC, the Magni 3 headphone amp delivers impressive sound that competes with amps that are triple its price. $99

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Loki (Equalizer) No audio system is perfect — even with a quality DAC, amp and headphone setup. The Loki equalizer lets users tweak their audio system to their ear. You can make it sound flatter, more equalized or boost the punch of the bass. $149

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Modi Multibit (DAC) Schiit's multibit DAC brings serious performance at an approachable price point. It can connect via USB to virtually any computer or cell phone, and when used with the Magni 3, it can greatly your desktop audio experience. $249

Fulla 2 Headphone DAC/Amp If you're just looking to spend $99 and no more, the Fulla 2 is what you want. It's both a headphone amp and a DAC, and it's super easy to set up: just plug it directly into your laptop or desktop. It's a great starting point for anybody looking to improve their desktop's audio situation. $99

Stoddard started Schiit Audio with Mike Moffat in 2010. Both men came from hi-fi backgrounds. Stoddard had been a lead engineer at Sumo, a now-defunct company known for its high-end amplifiers, and Moffat helped design really expensive digital-to-analog converters for Theta Digital.

The two men became friends in the early '90s — their respective companies at the time shared a parking lot — and the idea of making high-end desktop audio components brought them back together. But they didn't just want to make good components, they also wanted to make them cheap. Real cheap.

It was Moffat who came up with the idea to sell digital-to-analog converters (DACs) two years later for $99. Stoddard followed suit with a similarly priced headphone amp.

Those two components, along with a quality pair of headphones, are really all most people need to improve the sound of their desktop setups — the problem back then was that they weren't at all affordable.

Since Schiit's inception, the two owners have been trying to "out-cheap" each other, explained Moffat. Today, the company has a line of audio components that all start with entry-level prices, usually around $99.

Schiit Audio's first break came in 2010 in the form of good press. The guys at HeadFi, a well-respected desktop audio forum, reached out to Stoddard and Moffat about reviewing one of their affordable headphone amps. At the time, the pair was still working out of Stoddard's garage. "There was nothing," he says. "Heck, we did a million dollars

in sales in the garage."

Now nearing its eighth year as a company, Schiit Audio is doing just fine. The company has over 20 employees and, by Stoddard's estimations, saw 30 percent growth in each of the last three years. Schitt also moved its operations into a 15,000-square-foot factory in Valencia, California.

The company's bread and butter remains good-but-cheap hi-fi components, although Schiit Audio occasionally flexes its muscles with more sophisticated DACs and amplifiers that push the limits of the definition of "cheap" audio. And despite its burgeoning audiophile-grade reputation, Schiit Audio continues to have a playful, tongue-incheek attitude to pretty much everything.

Take the names of its products — Asgard, Valhalla, Bifrost, Loki, Magni and Modi — all references to Norse mythology. But neither Stoddard or Moffat has any real ties to Norway; nor do they particularly like Norse mythology. They just like that there are a lot of gods, and thus, a lot of good names.

"People do make fun of us for some of our very strange names," Stoddard says. "They always ask me, 'How the hell do you pronounce this?' And I'm like, 'We don't know, we're dumb Americans.'"

If going after the low end of the audio market was Schiit Audio's first "odd business decision," as Stoddard put it, the second was to make everything in the States. Schiit Audio likes to keep manufacturing as close to home as possible. "Our board manufacturers are about twenty miles away; our metal guys — we have two of them — are seven to

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twenty miles away; our transformers are from up in NorCal, and our knobs are done in Detroit," Stoddard says. "The thing is that the stuff is actually made here. We're not trying to do a dance."

The problem with making everything in the States, predictably, is that it's expensive.

Schiit Audio countered that issue, in part, by selling everything directly from its site, cutting costs nearly in half. Stoddard and Moffat also decided to house their audio products in aluminum sheet metal, which is cheap and practical. The aluminum chassis in all their products acts as a natural heat sink. And the simple designs allowed them to make the amps and DACs efficiently. "We use the same perf pattern and the same basic design tropes on every product," Stoddard explains. "We try to keep it very clean, very simple and very minimal. And it's held up. We're eight years in and it doesn't look particularly dated."

Most people won't spend a couple hundred dollars on a DAC and amp. Stoddard and Moffat know that. The $99 price point of their entry-level products is designed to break down any psychological barrier that may exist. They want people to know that there's an easy and affordable way to upgrade their desktop audio setup. And if it looks cool, all the better.

"I was conditioned with [the belief] that it's got to be expensive to be good," Stoddard says about audio gear. "And I thought, 'Could I even do a headphone amp for $99?'

Sure enough, we found out that not only can you do it, but you can do it well."

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Bigger Ambitions Medium Format Cameras Worth Building a Photograph Around b y e r i c ya n g

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Jon Gilbert, a team leader at Phase One — maker of cameras like the 100-megapixel XF IQ3 ($50,000) — recently stopped by Gear Patrol HQ to talk to me about digital cameras. During our chat, he mentioned a fascinating point: "Back in the day, we were seeing just a few repairs on dropped cameras a year, now we’re seeing two to three a month on average."

I don’t have any hard data on whether or not studio photoshoots, where cameras like these are normally found, have suddenly become more precarious in the age of Instagram. But after a bit of probing, I've concluded that more photographers are taking these cameras, at $50,000 a pop (without lenses), out of the safety and comfort of the studio and into the field where nasty things like weather, concrete and clumsy bystanders are public enemies one, two and three.

Breaking a DSLR or iPhone is painful and annoying, but it's also recoverable. Doing it to a rig that costs the same as well-specced BMW can be a catastrophe.

Crushing repair costs aside, however, a trend like this is a good thing for photography. iPhones and digital cameras have democratized photography to the point of commoditization, just as a blog and laptop decimated the idea of pecking orders in publishing. Everyone’s a photographer. It’s pushing those looking to differentiate their work or hobbies to reach higher for higher caliber products and in turn, camera makers to respond by making that higher caliber gear more accessible.

But what sets aside a medium or large format camera from your run-of-the-mill Best Buy purchase? Well, it comes down to geometry. Let’s take exactly one paragraph to explain. I promise this won’t get complicated.

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Let’s say you’re in the Tetons trying to pull off your best Ansel Adams. You’ve got your hands on a medium format camera with a 50mm lens (like the Hasselblad X1D you see to the right) and a 35mm camera with a 50mm lens (say, a Canon 5D Mark IV). On any given day, the exact same photograph out of both cameras is going to look different.

The medium format image will have a certain je ne sais quoi about it compared to that shot with the 35mm camera. And the reason boils down to a lack of exaggerated perspectives that a 35mm camera requires to make an image captured through a lens fit on a sensor or film, which causes distortion. Put more simply, a 50mm medium format camera sees images closer to how your own eyes see things, giving photographs a more realistic perspective. This is why you see medium format cameras used so often in landscape and portrait photography where this "flattening" of massive landscapes or intimate portraits can be felt.

The three setups outlined here are ones our team has had the opportunity to use firsthand. None of them are cheap, but even just a few years ago, the premise of this story wouldn’t have been considered — cost and accessibility were simply beyond reality. And going forward, the medium format trend will only get more pronounced as brands like Fujifilm push their high-end offerings into DSLR territory.

At the end of the day, your iPhone is perfect for that snapshot of a double rainbow spotted on your commute home. But if you’re ready to spend a Saturday afternoon capturing falling light shadows on a Beaux-Arts building downtown, then maybe it’s time to reconsider your rig and get a little ambitious.

Hasselblad X1D Hasselblad has long been synonymous with medium format photography. In 2016, it released the X1D, which features a 50-megapixel sensor in a mirrorless camera body. There are also physical controls for all the essentials, an ISO range of 100–25600, wi-fi and video capture. And for the camera nerds out there, it also touts 16-bit color depth and 14 stops of dynamic range.

Camera $6,495 Lens: Hasselblad XCD 45mm f/3.5 $2,695.00

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Phase One XF IQ3 At the top echelon of photography, you’ll find Phase One — it will just cost you to get there. The XF IQ3 is unabashedly pro-grade. Paired with the optional top-down viewfinder, it's a (semi) portable powerhouse that brings back all the ground-glass joy of an old Hasselblad 500 C/M. Except there's autofocus, a built-in meter, and, oh yeah, that full-frame medium format sensor, which is 1.5x larger than the sensors found on the Hasselblad and Fujifilm models.

The IQ3 100mp sensor throws down the gauntlet with a mind-blowing 101 megapixels and 15 stops of dynamic range. If that’s not enough, Phase One also offers the recently announced IQ4 with up to 150 megapixels. Yup, 150.

Camera $48,990 Lens: Schneider Kreuznach 80mm LS f/2.8 $3,290

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Fujifilm GFX 50S The GFX 50S, which came out a year ago, may be the most accessible of the lot. Fujifilm opted to skip the full-frame morass by giving its APS-C mirrorless camera users an option to step up in a big way. The GFX 50S is built around a 51.4 megapixel sensor and a wide dynamic range of ISO 50–102400 for working in difficult lighting conditions.

Roughly the size of a DSLR, it combines the handheld familiarity of a DSLR, the image-capturing performance of a medium format camera and the irresistible film-like design found in all of Fujifilm's other cameras.

Camera $6,499 Lens: Fujifilm GF 45mm f/2.8 R WR $1,699

Throne Wars b y w i ll p r i c e

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ph o t o s b y c ha n d l e r b o n d u r a n t

No company has ever made an office chair like Herman Miller's latest, including Herman Miller itself.

When the fabled American furniture designer released the Aeron office chair in 1994, it spread like wildfire. Aeron is cited as America's best-selling office chair, a present-day classic that even occupies a spot in the Museum of Modern Art's permanent collection.

Cosm, made in collaboration with the German design firm Studio 7.5, is Herman Miller's newest and perhaps most important furniture release since Aeron. Within its spindly, exoskeletal frame exists a great many talking points, but the upshot is this: Cosm is the ideological opposite of Aeron.

Aeron set itself apart by way of its many manual adjustments — up or down, forward or backward, taut or loose reclining, lumbar height adjustment, lumbar depth adjustment and more. Cosm, on the other hand,

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adjusts to the sitter automatically. Apart from height-adjustment tabs for the seat and armrests, it is passively ergonomic, harboring technology that, based on loads of complicated academic research, results in improved comfort and increased efficiency.

"We just weren't happy with what we saw as serious design flaws in the chairs using passive ergonomics," said Scott Openshaw, Herman Miller's Human Factors & Ergonomics Manager. Cosm's key triumph is that it follows the natural motion and pivot points of the sitter's body, rather than forcing the body to follow the motion of a mechanism. As a result, it does not lift the user's legs when they recline. In the world of passive ergonomics, the trait is revolutionary. According to Openshaw, it's a nut that Allsteel, Steelcase, Humanscale and Knoll have yet to crack with their respective office chairs. It's also the reason why Cosm took a decade to design.

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"Basically, other passive ergonomic chairs aren't able to account for different levels of applied vertical force," Openshaw said. "[Cosm] dynamically positions the fulcrum on its springs, from user to user, which means it tailors itself to everyone's best sitting experience and doesn't lift people off the ground to account for the recline." Put more simply, Cosm is able to match the comfort granted to active ergonomic chairs (the ones with knobs and levers) with almost zero user knob-turning.

The rest of the chair's bonafides stem from more patents and fresh ideas. A continuous form of the suspension — versus a separate seat and back — conforms uniquely to each user and stays in constant contact with their back, providing total spinal support. Sloping slightly downward, Cosm's so-called "leaf arms" behave differently depending on how relaxed you are — sit straight up and they act as pillows for your elbows, recline and they shift parallel to the ground for total arm support.

Herman Miller is betting on Cosm becoming the office chair of the 2010s (like Aeron in the 1990s and 2000s). It is intended for the modern coworking space, the home office or any place where collaboration is present and seating charts are not. If Aeron was a chair for one, Cosm is a chair for many. p r i c e $835+

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Old-Fashioned Handmade Kitchens, Made Like They Used To by jack seemer

ph o t o s : pla i n e n gl i s h

Spend enough time perusing Pinterest and you're likely to stumble upon the kitchens of Plain English, a design firm based in Suffolk, England, that custom manufactures cabinets and joinery made the old-fashioned way.

"Our approach is based on Georgian 'below-stairs' joinery, which was made for practical purposes and not intended to demonstrate wealth or style like the fancy furniture 'upstairs,'" said Merlin Wright, the design director at Plain English. Hallmarks of the aesthetic, which dates back to the early 1700s, include neutral colors, simple materials (like wood and stone) and an emphasis on function over flourish. "For these reasons, it is quite timeless and, depending on how it is detailed, works well in both traditional and contemporary interiors," Wright said.

Plain English has long been known to the global design cognoscenti but the company's latest move reflects its desire to broaden its appeal. To celebrate its 25th anniversary this year, Plain English opened a showroom in New York City, its first outside of England.

"We have been looking in America for the last three and a half years and felt that if we wanted to expand our market, this should be the first port of call," said the brand's cofounder and managing director Tony Niblock. "There is a shared cultural sensibility between us

and we were aware that Americans appreciated the quality of what we produced. They just needed to be able to see, touch and feel a Plain English kitchen."

While Wright and Niblock hope the new showroom will grow the company's footprint abroad, Plain English will continue to manufacture its joinery as it has for the last twoand-a-half decades: from its workshops in Suffolk County, where experienced craftsmen work out of a converted Georgian farmhouse.

"The cart lodge is now our paint shop, the old barn our spray shop, the pigsty our sheet material area and the two big grain-storage buildings have become our mill shop and assembly area," Niblock said. "We are surrounded by green fields and it is a wonderful place to work."

Plain English kitchens start at $65,000 and typically take six weeks to finish, with each cabinetmaker responsible for their own individual output. "Our cabinets are still made in a traditional way by hand," Niblock said. "Although we are using modern methods to cut and join the cupboards, it’s an experienced joiner who assembles the parts, shoots in the doors and drawers and ensures that it is to the standard and quality we would expect.

"There are no cheap thrills," he added, "just honest functionality."

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How to Craft an Heirloom b y w i ll p r i c e

When Schoolhouse (formerly Schoolhouse Electric Co.) opened shop 15 years ago in Portland, Oregon, it sold thoughtfully designed light fixtures out of mail-order catalogs. Now, Brian Faherty's company, which makes everything from dining tables to candlesticks, is set to open its third major showroom in a rehabilitated 1970's police station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Schoolhouse also has permanent locations in Portland and New York City).

Faherty started making things in the early 1990s, during what he calls the "pre-HGTV" movement. He was frustrated by the lack of classic-looking lighting available to people at the time. "It was loads of 'period-style' [fixtures] being passed off as timeless," he says.

Fortune brought Faherty to an old glassblowing factory in Upstate New York, where he was able to pry World War II-era cast-iron glass molds from a family business that had long since stopped using them.

That find led him to a restoration company outside of Morgantown, West Virginia, which brought him to a Los Angeles metal spinner, who applied the finishing touches.

All these stops, Faherty says, formed the foundation of Schoolhouse, an outlet devoted to making things that are current, classic and never trendy. Call them modern heirlooms — the kind of everyday goods memories wrap themselves around. This fall, on the eve of the company's Pittsburgh opening, we spoke to Faherty about what it takes to make products that last.

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ph o t o s : s c h o o lh o u s e

What is the Schoolhouse look?

There's something altruistic, I think. It's not just things that look pretty and sit in a corner.

It's stuff you're supposed to use. There's an element of usefulness and, in most cases, there are reminders of the past. You know, something your mom or dad might've had, but we like to put a twist on it — a different pattern, colorway or material that makes it feel more current. So when you see a room with our products in it, it's not like you need to buy the whole room for things to go together.

It's a mixtape, your own compilation of stuff.

What do you mean by "reminders of the past"? That Schoolhouse products are traditional?

No, not really. I used to have a collection of pencil sharpeners and all the time they made me think, 'What went into making this?' Yes, it looks cool and there are all sorts of interesting materials and components there, but there's also what it feels like, what it sounds like, how you know when the pencil is sharpened. That detail and thoughtfulness regarding how something is actually used is what we're trying to imbue our products with. That sort of design isn't around much anymore, at least not in the limelight.

Can you give me an example?

Even something as simple as a garbage can.

We really sweat the details for ours. You know when you go into an office building and you have the black and blue plastic garbage cans you get at Office Depot? They're fine, they work. But for us, it's about having garbage cans that are able to brighten up somebody's day. There's something in the inherent simplicity of a well-designed product made with quality materials and small, almost unapparent touches that just delights people. With the trash can, it could be the quality of the paint or our label or the weight of it — it's just reminiscent of a different time while still being here and now, I guess.

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Basically, make a good product and don't show off.

That's part of what it is. It's not a glass chandelier with crystal and gold — it's almost the opposite of that. Like, take an old electrical box in the back of your garage. There's an underwriter's laboratory label on there made of a really nice steel; the fonts and kerning and information provided is just so thoughtout. I think it's those things, too.

Anything else?

In all that, there's a playfulness, too. I really don't want to take things too seriously, right?

That's not cool. It's just stuff. Beyond that, it's striking a balance between looking back and looking forward — staying current is still important.

In previous interviews, you've spoken about your desire to avoid trends.

I gave up Instagram for Lent a couple years back. I don't watch home shows. There's always got to be a firecarrier for the original vision. You know The Road, that book

by Cormac McCarthy? It talks about people that carry the fire a lot, which is, like, a hokey way of saying people that keep you on track and going in the right direction. We just don't want to conform to what other people are doing because a spreadsheet or PowerPoint says we should.

So it's making something with quality materials, thoughtful design touches and hints of the past — does that wrap it up?

That's probably it. Sometimes you're disappointed by the things you order. Maybe it looked great online, but once you're holding it, just feels kind of weird. We hope that when you order something from us and you open that box up and whatever it is you bought makes it to your hands, you marvel, like, 'Wow, this is real.' We try to make it feel — and I hate this word — but we try to make it feel authentic because that's what it is.

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photo by dw burnett

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A 1,000-MILE MEDITATION ON THE STATE OF THE GRAND TOURER. When I was a boy, I learned from my late uncle — the owner of a string of high-performance and very desirable cars — a trick for falling asleep. Think of something abstract, he told me, a manufactured, waking dream. You'll quickly drift to dreamland.

If you think of something real, like your next day's schedule or a dinner party conversation earlier that evening, your mind can't release into slumber. His method works well, as I've discovered through half a lifetime or more of restless and anxious attempts at sleep. But I recently ruined my go-to abstract dream-lullaby in the parking lot of a Northern Michigan Applebee's.

It was after midnight. I was buzzed on Bell's beer and waxing philosophical about the same cars I'd been pre-sleep dream-

are a higher breed. They belong to the grand tourer genus, a nearly intangible echelon of vehicle that, especially in the age of the quickly evolving automobile, demands examination.

Grand tourers (in which one goes "grand touring"; also called "GTs") are, in the automotive world, the epitome of style and design — the ultimate form of rolling luxury. To me, a car-geek kid turned car-geek thirty-something, that belief has always been canon. Ultra-luxury chauffeur-driven sedans and $1.5 million hypercars are, indeed, over-the-top indulgences, the most hyperbolic of automobiles. But a grand tourer is more than a machine with massive performance cred and a price to match.

It's more than a bejeweled luxo-barge. It's

ing about for decades — because I'd just driven them all 1,000 miles through my home state. "Eatin' good in the neighborhood" hadn't been my Last-Supper plan to commemorate circumnavigating most of Michigan. If our crew had wrapped the day earlier, perhaps we'd have found a venue more appropriate for the vehicles we'd just piloted and photographed for the previous four days. A venue where three magnificent, top-end, top-dollar, archetypal "baller" cars might not have been so out of place. Indeed, even if I had a dollar for every boneless buffalo wing I'd inhaled in my life, I couldn't come close to a down payment on these cars. But price alone isn't enough for a motor vehicle to achieve waking-dream status, anyway; no, these particular cars

more than a daily drivable golf-bag caddy, more than a technological powerhouse, more than a stunning work of design.

A grand tourer is, by necessity, all of those things in one. A grand tourer must have a larger-than-necessary high-performance engine and be comfortable enough for long-distance trips; it must have only two doors, with rear seats optional; it must maintain perfect proportions, with graceful lines and wide hips and a powerful stance. And let me be perfectly clear: grand tourers aren't sports cars. They're sporting cars.

Because it checks all these boxes, a grand tourer is partially a compromise by a thousand cuts. Throw all those extreme qualities into the same car then dial them up all

CRUISE by nick caruso photos by dw burnett

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the way, and you've got the beautiful antithesis of practicality. All grand tourers share specific characteristics, yet fall along a wide spectrum, ranging from very luxurious and complex on one end to simple and lithe on the other. To tell this story, we brought along three models — the Lexus LC 500, Aston Martin DB11 V12 and Mercedes-AMG S65 Coupe — that represent waypoints along that spectrum.

I enlisted some of the best minds in the biz to help me test these cars and pontificate on the spectrum itself: crack auto journalists Eric Adams and Alex Kalogianni and the ferociously talented automotive photographer Dave "DW" Burnett. Eric and I have worked together for years now; his automotive, aerospace and tech reporting

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appears all over the Gear Patrol universe and beyond. Alex and I met recently on a similarly epic road trip through Europe; he is a formidable automotive expert, having edited, written and opined on video about the industry for years. Dave's work graces the pages of such publications as Road & Track, Vanity Fair and many others. And, I discovered, they're all hyperactive opinion factories.

So then how do each of these cars of ours avoid being, as Dave put it, "a finely tuned experience for people who maybe understand what going fast is like," and instead allow a driver's skill and enthusiast spirit to shine? We would exercise a combined 1,692 horsepower and around $600,000 worth of GT machinery over four days and

1,000 miles to find out. Not to choose a winner, but to understand the essence of the contemporary grand tourer.

More immediately, though, why put the Grand Tour Philosophy to the test in Michigan? Why drive three cars that have nothing to do with the state's — let alone the country's — deeply historic auto industry through the Motor City and beyond? Several reasons, mostly selfish: I'm proudly from Michigan; Michigan is unbelievably gorgeous on every level; Detroit was a great meeting point for us all; and... I kind of wanted to park an Aston Martin in my parents' garage for a night. After all, I'd drifted to sleep on that notion for decades, and now I had a chance to make my hazy fantasy an acute fever dream.

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DETROIT TO MUSKEGON - 200 MILES After pre-dawn alarms, taxis, a TSA drug dog incident, a few flights out of the greater New York area and a Detroit airport shuttle, we convened at an off-site parking lot where our touring trio awaited.

Cold and still, the cars waited patiently but expectantly, like medieval war steeds just before a long campaign; we approached like sweaty and already travel-weary knights of the Grand Touring Table.

I'd promised Dave plenty of room for photo gear in the Mercedes — after all, as a sedan-made-coupe, I thought it would have a cavernous S-Class-sized trunk.

So imagine our surprise when we found a sizeable back seat-accessible refrigerator taking up valuable storage real estate ("the most disappointing part of the trip for me," Dave would claim later as we debriefed).

We hadn't started a single engine, and already the Benz was vying for the designation of most opulent, perhaps to a fault.

The Aston, at 10 cubic feet, and the Lexus, at only five, have just enough trunk space between them for a moderate golf bag and a few duffels. But, coupled with the Mercedes's adult-sized back seat — in contrast to the less-than-reasonable back seat space in the Lexus and the Aston's complete lack of a rear seat — all the excess legroom gave us plenty of room to pack Dave’s gear and set off for the heart of the city.

After a quick briefing, we saddled up and took off immediately for Belle Isle, a 1,000acre island park situated right between Michigan and Canada in the middle of the Detroit River. It was high noon and stickyhot in the vast, still park where, among its meandering roads, we found an inactive marble fountain for our glamor-shot debut.

Alex, a Mustang owner, was immediately at home in the Lexus. "My short one-sentence review of the LC 500 is that it's the most expensive Mustang I've ever driven," he told the group.

Dave echoed his high praise: "The LC punches above its weight. We can take it on a trip like this with cars more than double its cost and it's hanging."

Indeed, in that way, Lexus has made the entry-level car of the GT pantheon, if you can consider $100,000 "entry level." Were I personally unable to swing an Aston Martin, I'd pick up an LC 500 and feel fine about my purchase — at least partially because, at full tilt, its big V8 sounds like an insane gasoline-gulping banshee.

But if I could drop a quarter-million dollars on a DB11 V12, nothing on earth would stop me. Every time I drive one, it feels menacingly familiar, maybe like Bruce Wayne feels when he slips into the bat cowl. It's an objectively spectacular feat of automobile design, engineering and manufacturing. Eric described it as the "skittish thoroughbred" of the group; "You feel like you have to perform for it," he said.

True, the DB11 is always "on," and when driving one, so must you be, too. I find that sensation intoxicating and seductive, but it's not for everyone.

Initial thoughts on the S65 were myriad, but all seemed to cement it early on as occupying the far, opulent and majestic end of the spectrum. "It's like the minivan of the trip," said Dave, as an honest compliment — relatively, there is so much room and such a vast array of conveniences that it was the long-haul choice straight away.

Initially, I found it overwhelmingly confusing to operate, for the most part; but that impression faded even in the short time I spent with the car. It is, plainly put, a pleasure to cruise in.

After wrapping our first shoot, opinions developing with rapidity and stomachs alive with audible growls, our $600,000 caravan wound its way through the Motor City in search of food. We found it at Mudgie's Deli in Corktown, where, over spicy

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I WOULD FALL ASLEEP IN THIS VERY HOUSE WITH VISIONS OF SUPERCARS DANCING IN MY HEAD, FANTASIZING ABOUT THE DAY I WOULD PARK SOMETHING EXOTIC IN THE DRIVEWAY. STARTING TONIGHT, I'D HAVE TO START DREAMING OF SOMETHING DIFFERENT. DAY ONE CONTINUED

noodle salad and huge sandwiches, conversation flowed as we planned our next move.

Detroit is quickly overcoming its fraught history. After a decades-long downturn, ignited in part by the automotive industry moving its manufacturing beyond the city and out of the U.S. entirely, entrepreneurs and the younger generation have found new roots, creating housing opportunities, jobs and commerce among the relics and ruins of the old city. There is, as you might imagine, much to photograph there, though we were going straight for the belle of the ball. Michigan Central Station, an abandoned, looming train hub that stands like a time machine in the middle of an evolving metropolis, was recently purchased by the Ford Motor Company for revitalization and preservation. The building is epic to behold and rife with photogenic vantage points, and as we flagrantly staged photos and blocked streets for prime angles, we drew plenty of attention, including that of a cop.

As his patrol car approached, we disbanded; he pulled up next to the Aston, glared, and I steeled myself for the worst. I rolled down my window, and without breaking the scowl on his face, he boomed, "Which one's the fastest?" Then flashed a massive smile and offered to help us however possible, going so far to say he'd alert the precinct that we weren't causing trouble and thanked us for choosing his city to feature in our story.

Detroit gets a bad rap for its history; not only is its future bright, its present is, too.

Our day only half over, we bid adieu to the state's re-budding metropolis and shot westward toward my hometown, Muskegon, on the Lake Michigan shore. The

familiar three-hour drive gave me time to reacquaint myself with the sublime DB11, a car that's at once taut and sinewy to its core, but also supple and plush.

I entered this GT showdown with the working theory that the Aston is the quintessential example of this kind of car. Not all my companions were totally sold.

"My problem is the usability of the car compared to the other ones," Eric said. "There's no real cupholder. No convenient place to put my phone. You don't feel like you're really inside something special. I don't mean it has to be eye candy everywhere, but it just has to have a little energy to it, and I don't get that on the inside."

That's by design, Dave countered. "You're having the experience that Aston wants you to have, and I kind of get that. If you put other stuff on a car like that it's like putting a fanny pack on a tuxedo."

Trying to keep my bias in check, I showed off Muskegon's sights: a World War II submarine; the lighthouse-studded, sandy lakeshore (where a boy walked by and asked if any of our cars had "doors that go up"); a classic West Michigan sunset. Afterward, I checked the guys into the Shoreline Inn, which overlooks downtown and the inland Muskegon Lake, and headed home with my Aston.

Decades ago, I would fall asleep in this very house with visions of supercars dancing in my head, fantasizing about the day I would park something exotic in the driveway.

After I burbled into the garage with the DB11, and my dad emerged from the house already snapping photos, it hit me. Starting tonight, I'd have to start dreaming of something different.

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DAY TWO

MUSKEGON TO GLEN ARBOR - 148 MILES During a leisurely morning with my parents (plus a curious neighbor who popped in to offer us "twenty grand" to take the Lexus off our hands), we discussed and debated the state of the grand tourers.

First, the Mercedes-Benz, with its 6.0liter twin-turbo V12. Twelve-cylinders are signature elements of the classic GT car, Dave pointed out. "It's not a sports car engine. It's an oil tanker. That's why it's in the G65 [SUV] and that car. It just torques the earth around." My feelings exactly: with 621 horsepower and a truly mental 738 lb-ft of torque, the earth moves for Mercedes. But do wealthy bankers actually need to be carving corners, or do they just want to go fast sometimes? "The guys who buy these probably get as much sportiness as they're looking for," my dad noted.

"They're not taking it on a gymkhana."

After a long goodbye, we shoved off for a quick drive north to Stony Lake. My brother and his family were spending a few days at our lake house before the school year began, and, aside from wanting to get in a couple hours of quality time, I needed to recruit a camera car (my sister-inlaw's Explorer), a copilot (my 11-year-old nephew) and a driver, my brother Matt. His skills honed by years behind the wheel of an ambulance, my brother was more than up to the task of bombing down the oncoming lane so Dave could perform insane acrobatics to procure photos. It helped, of course, that as a teenager Matt would drive in the empty opposite lane screaming

"we're in England!" to scare me senseless — a skill allegedly passed down to him from our oldest brother, Chris.

The roads around Shelby, Michigan, are mostly arrow-straight paths through acres of farmland where grassy asparagus and rough cherry trees grow in massive patches across the entire landscape. You can see for miles down those roads, and the colors of the hay and trees and sky beat like America's heartland — it's a magnificent place.

And good exercise for big engines to reach passing speed around tractors and slower, loping locals.

My nephew, who has soaked up a love for fast mechanical things, was wide-eyed at the sight of our high-dollar, high-performance herd. He first rode with me in the LC 500, which he claimed was his favorite; after a fast run in the DB11, he naturally changed his mind. Then he rode with Alex in the S65 and didn't look back. Won over by the endless gadgets and gizmos, like the glass roof and the refrigerator and the night vision and the colored LED lighting system, he'd found the modern preteen automotive dream: a playground of tech on four wheels. As I understand it, he went on to lecture about the merits of Mercedes-Benz for days afterward.

My whole family was taken by it, actually.

Dad was amazed by the Mercedes's dimmable electrochromic glass roof, which changes from a light to dark blue shade should you wish to shun the sun; Mom and I closely inspected the car's scent diffuser

STONY LAKE SHELBY, MI BROWN BEAR SHELBY, MI M-22 HIGHWAY MANISTEE, MI MUSKEGON GLEN ARBOR, MI THE HOMESTEAD GLEN ARBOR, MI ART'S TAVERN GLEN ARBOR, MI

together. The S65 is an astonishing car, magnificently plush and so laden with technology that it would be at home in a sci-fi blockbuster.

Truth be told, it's probably the most complicated car I've ever driven, and getting behind the wheel was a mini dream come true. The V12-powered Mercedes-Benz coupe was the first "fuck you" car I ever knew existed. As a budding auto enthusiast about my nephew's age, I first figured out the excess — the non-necessity — of the early '90s CL 600 and understood that other cars were made in its image.

But the S65 stirred contention among our ranks. "With the LC, you get a sense that there's real deep-tissue design going on there in the architecture," Eric said. "It's the only one [of our three] that wasn't a clean sheet design for the intent of a coupe.

I have great respect for this car, but it does not feel like a $239,000 car. I'm sure it is, but if they were to set out with that budget and these performance parameters and design a coupe, would it be this car?"

"No. It would be something else," Alex said.

Or, as Dave put it: "By cutting doors off, It's

like they sort of targeted a demographic... like the millionaire on Bumble or something."

With sparse cell reception, no one was using Bumble out here in the country anyway. And, with their duties done, we parted ways with my family and recharged at the Brown Bear, the bar and restaurant with the best burgers in the state.

After a time-consuming morning, the rest of the day would be occupied by a winding drive along the West Michigan coastline and a search for stunning views and photo opps among the dunes and cliffs of scenic route M-22. Our destination for the night was Glen Arbor, a tiny town on the Leelanau Peninsula, adjacent to the utterly magnificent Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Under cover of night, we arrived at our stopover: the Homestead Resort, where a four-person lakefront condo awaited us. Though it's a full-service resort with restaurants and spa, our time was limited; we had an entire state to cover. After scaring up some grub at Art's Tavern — a college pennant-covered, Michigan beer-saturated restaurant popular with locals and vacationers alike — we hit the hay.

THE MERCILESS SKY BURST OPEN AND DUMPED AN ENTIRE GREAT LAKE'S WORTH OF RAIN.

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DAY THREE

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GLEN ARBOR TO SAULT STE. MARIE - 259 MILES After breakfast and a quick car wash to brighten our chariots ("No towels? Oh shucks, we'll have to air dry‌"), we headed straight to Traverse City, one of the better-known spots along the northern tip of Michigan's lower peninsula. It's a summer vacation destination with sweeping views of Grand Traverse Bay, which feeds off of Lake Michigan and points straight north toward the Upper Peninsula (pro tip: locals call it the "U.P."). It's a quick stop, inundated by curious onlookers held rapt by our unfamiliar machines. As I drove through a parking lot, a man walked right up to the Lexus and began screaming with his arms outstretched, apparently concerned neither with his safety nor the fact that he looked deranged. I rolled down the window and he exclaimed again, as his wife shrunk away, "What IS this? It's BEAUTIFUL!" Small crowds gathered around the Aston Martin, too, and the Mercedes drew some beguiled glances.

Rabid fans aside, we had miles to go before we rested, and heavy rain clouds quickly approached from the west. We were chasing sunlight and dry roads. Our destination, the far edge of the Upper Peninsula, was hours away.

The Mackinac Bridge is a nearly fivemile stretch of proud, tall civil engineering conjoining the two very disparate parts of Michigan. Whereas the Lower Peninsula is full of metropolitan cities and seaside resort towns, the U.P. is largely a quiet place set upon by extreme winter weather and full of vast swaths of forest. Scattered throughout are smaller towns and some cities, like Marquette, Escanaba and our home for the night, Sault (pronounced "soo") Ste. Marie.

Massive bolts of lightning began striking the bridge when we were only a few minutes away. White cracks of light split swirling, midnight blue swirling skies as larger and larger raindrops activated our automatic windshield wipers. Were the rain to start in earnest and keep up, our plans for bridge

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photography would be ruined. And so, as we rolled past the initial toll booth on the south side of the span, the merciless sky burst open and dumped an entire Great Lake's worth of rain.

And then, as we crossed the second toll booth, a meteorological miracle: the rain stopped completely.

Navigating into Bridge View Park to the northwest of the Mackinac, we watched as skies brightened, yellowed and cleared.

We were alone in the park, with nothing but a majestic suspension bridge backdrop, a world of photographic possibility and enough humidity to require SCUBA training. Elated and emboldened by our luck, we followed Dave's hunch and went exploring in the U.P. There's a small town named (very appropriately) De Tour Village tucked in the far southeastern corner of the U.P. We found our way to a sparsely occupied point overlooking St. Mary's River, which serves in part to connect Lakes Huron and Superior in the space between Michigan and Canada.

I have no scientific basis for this claim, but I am certain in my heart that never before has there been, and never again will there be, a grouping of these three vehicles on that point. I can, however, definitively state that the Aston Martin DB11 can handle light off-roading.

Our photo cup overflowing, we doubled back and headed north to Sault Ste. Marie just as the sun was beginning to glow a gorgeous amber over the farmland horizon, providing us, almost too perfectly, with a final photoshoot for the trip.

After checking in to the the Plaza Motor Motel, a throwback motor lodge so far north that Yelp suggested Canadian restaurants while we were there, we explained our cars to curious motel neighbors and set out for the open-late godsend that is Applebee's, where all but one of us guzzled Michigan beer as the whole crew discussed our grand tourers until well after closing time.

MACKINAC BRIDGE MACKINAW CITY, MI PLAZA MOTOR MOTEL MARIE, MI

2018 Mercedes-AMG S65 Coupe Engine: 6.0-liter twin-turbo V12 Transmission: seven-speed automatic; rear-wheel drive Horsepower: 621 Torque: 738 lb-ft 0-60: 4 seconds Top Speed: 186 mph Weight: 4,839 pounds Color: designo Mocha Black / designo Bengal Red/Black Price: $238,900 (base); $257,745 (as tested)

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2018 Aston Martin DB11 V8 V12 Coupe Engine: 5.2-liter twin-turbo V12 Transmission: eight-speed automatic; rear-wheel drive Horsepower: 600 Torque: 516 lb-ft 0-60: 3.8 seconds Top Speed: 200 mph Weight: 4,134 pounds Color: Onyx Black / Obsidian Black/Spicy Red Price: $216,495 (base); $238,851 (as tested)

2018 Lexus LC 500 Engine: 5.0-liter V8 Transmission: 10-speed automatic; rear-wheel drive Horsepower: 471 Torque: 398 lb-ft 0-60: 4.4 seconds Top Speed: 168 mph Weight: 4,280 pounds Color: Liquid Platinum / Rioja Red Price: $92,000 (base); $103,470 (as tested)

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04 DAY FOUR

GLEN ARBOR TO DETROIT - 353 MILES We didn't have much time the next day and, frankly, we didn't need it. Photos complete, and our destination checklist totally crossed off, we only needed to head back to Detroit and fly away.

The previous night, as we stood in the Applebee's parking lot, volleying opinions and arguments, several definitive conclusions emerged. When I asked the guys to pick their favorite among the three, we unanimously voted for the Aston. "But," Dave said, "it's not a fair fight."

Yeah, it's rigged. The Aston is, as Eric later put it, a "rare bird." It's exotic in a way the others aren't — it's handbuilt, it's 007's choice, it's among the most beautiful cars on the road. "If it's my own money… I'd probably go for the Mercedes," Eric said.

"I'm a closet bling hound. It's got those wheels, it's got that chrome trim. I dig the LED color-changing thing inside. It's got shiny things inside and out, and I like that.

If I wanted a car I could go out in on the weekends and do the occasional trip with

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my wife, then yeah, the Aston." "[The S65] is the only car of all three that can do the pure-luxury thing," Dave said.

"The Lexus could be a daily driver, but it's not gonna be. You can't throw something in the back seat. That's why I'm riding in the Mercedes all day: my gear. But German engineers are gonna win every time.

They're going to turn everything up to eleven. I need a car that kinda sucks sometimes so I can love the parts that are great."

Personally, I'm still torn. The DB11 V12 is a monumental car that means a great deal to me. I would love to own one. Then again, I can't conceive of having a quarter-million dollars, let alone paying that much for… anything. But the Lexus is just such a gem. It's light and lithe and comfortably simple, yet it delivers all the kinds of tech conveniences and modern enjoyment one might want. We all agreed that it's the satisfying, perfect culmination of Lexus's sometimes quizzical design exercises over the past five to ten years; all the brand's

visual cues work incredibly well here. Plus, it's got reliable Toyota DNA and a relatable, sonorous V8 engine. In Detroit, a guy in an old Suburban stopped traffic to pull next to me and say, "I've been doing exhaust work for thirty-five, forty years, and you sound pretty good, brother." It's superb, and I'd be tempted if it were at all possible.

Alex wasn't backing down. "The DB11 suits me. It needles you a little bit. It's a super tight, super rigid experience. It's not as nice ride-wise as the Mercedes or the LC. And even some of the conveniences aren't as good. When I got bored, I turned on Sport mode. In the other cars, when I got bored, I was looking for another radio station."

"You were driving," Dave replied.

There it is. Driving. Grand tourers aren't made for drag strips or gymkhanas. They're not made for cruising Rodeo Drive or parking at your lake house. They're made to extract the very best out of the driving experience.

People notice these cars, partially because they look athletic and aggressive (as Dave

pointed out, there's chain mail on the front of the S65), and because they look opulent.

But they make people happy because they look like emotion; they look like what it is to love the art and act of driving.

"All three absolutely satisfy the nebulous qualities of a GT, but at different ends of the spectrum," Alex said. The relatively simple, light and beautiful Lexus balances out the heavy, plush, computerized Mercedes-Benz.

The aggressive, sultry Aston Martin is in the middle somewhere. And so, the unsatisfying but entirely philosophical conclusion is that there isn't a definitive choice here — not that we set out to find the "best" among these three anyhow.

The best grand tourer is what speaks loudest and most directly to the driver's enthusiasm for driving. Do you require German opulence and locomotive torque?

English aesthetics and brutish muscle?

Japanese serenity and fine design? It really all comes down to whatever helps you sleep at night.

MACKINAW PASTIE & COOKIE CO. TRAVERSE CITY, MI GROSSE POINTE GROSSE POINTE SHORES, MI PUBLIC HOUSE FERNDALE, MI

SPECIAL THANKS TO The Michigan Economic Development Corporation The #PureMichigan Campaign Sault Ste. Marie CVB The Detroit Police Department

LISA YAMAI AN INTERVIEW WITH

by ali carr troxell

|

photos by chase pellerin

This year marks Snow Peak's 60th anniversary. We flew to Japan to chat with the brand's creative director, Lisa Yamai, whose grandfather started Snow Peak in the '50s, about what she's doing to shape its future.

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Astiem omnitia nequonihilin poerem parbit vocum etori, quis. Abessi faciente noc re que quod dertimusque non potiaed reo in Itastiemoera imoverori publica perati, nihilieri tabusquam pubi.

L

isa Yamai was blushing. Earlier in the night, the heiress to Snow Peak, the largest camping brand in Japan and started by Lisa's grandfather, swept in and manhandled our campsite. First, she finagled a finicky camp stove into working shape and then went around lighting fires with a jet-enginelike blazing torch. After dinner, we settled around a stainless steel fireplace under a sky full of stars in Niigata prefecture in Japan, a region anchored by 8,000-foot mountains, rice paddy-filled valleys and, well, Snow Peak's headquarters.

I wanted to travel to Japan to find out more about the brand — whose footprint in the U.S. is small, but highly regarded for its impeccable aesthetic and smart, functional design — as it celebrates its 60th anniversary. Snow Peak’s success is predicated on products like beautiful and modern camp-kitchen cookware, stainless steel camp stoves, minimalist dining setups, tarps and tents. While the U.S. only makes up around 20 percent of

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Snow Peak's main headquarters is only five years old. It's surrounded by 100 public campsites and its very own gear-testing field.

the brand's total sales, you'll find that at Japan's campgrounds, Snow Peak is one of the major players, with Coleman and Montbell thrown into the mix. The brand, however, is not lost on America's camping-obsessed, even with all of the lower-priced competition; over the years, I've seen many a diehard camper unveil their few bamboo-and-steel Snow Peak products with special care and presentation, like artifacts to be revered. Suffice it to say they have a following.

Snow Peak was originally founded under the name Yamai Shoten in 1958 by 26-year-old Yukio Yamai, an avid rock climber. It's no coincidence that this was only a year after a young Yvon Chouinard started forging his own pitons in Southern California and founded Chouinard Equipment, Ltd., the predecessor to Patagonia.

At the time, the world had a heightening obsession with rock climbing. There was a growing fever over who could tackle the faces of Half Dome and El Capitan in Yo-

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semite Valley first, while, back home in Japan, outdoor enthusiasts were celebrating the first ascent of the Himalayas' Mt. Manaslu, the world's eighth tallest peak, by a Japanese team.

Yukio's location in Niigata's Tsubame-Sanjo, an area rife with factories focused on metalwork, placed him in a prime location for professional success. He began by designing and selling his own pitons and crampons made from titanium, stainless steel and aluminum. He also designed climbing apparel that he had custom made by a tailor in town, and which he later sold to his friends separately from the Yamako brand. Much of Snow Peak's success, though, can be attributed to Yukio's son, Tohru Yamai, who came into the business in the mid-'80s, just as SUVs were on the rise. Tohru could sense that his community in Tokyo was craving nature, so he envisioned a camping experience that capitalized on the growing market of outdoor-oriented SUVs — one that required

less labor than the school-camping trips of his youth, which involved digging a crude trench for water flow around two-piece

CAMPING DOESN'T HAVE TO MEAN ROUGHING IT. tent setups. It was only a few years later, in the early '90s, that Yukio and Tohru became almost single-handedly responsible for inventing Japanese outdoor camping culture as a whole.

Today, Snow Peak's main headquarters, which is only five years old, is home

to 100 public campsites and its very own gear-testing field on 41 acres of rolling grassland spliced from a neighboring golf course. Two concrete-and-glass buildings crown the property. The larger one holds offices and conference rooms, while the smaller one houses a store and a camping hub with gear rentals and vending machines filled with green tea and canned coffee. An outbuilding houses clean bathrooms — complete with Japan's famously high-tech heated toilets — and large stainless steel sink basins for washing camp dishes. The site's facilities are right in line with the brand's ethos — set by Tohru thirty years ago — that camping doesn't have to mean roughing it.

The campfire's light bounced off Lisa Yamai's forearms, which are covered in tattoos (a Japanese beetle and illustrations by famous Japanese artist Kiyoshi Awazu, among others) and her smile was wide as she told me about the rebellious idea she had of going to the Fashion Insti-

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tute of Technology (FIT) in New York for college. "My father said no," Lisa said. "I was not a good girl in high school. My dad worried; I wanted to go a different direction from society."

This should've been no surprise to Tohru, given Lisa's headstrong lineage. But, either way, her penchant for marching to her own drum has served her well. Lisa, now in her late thirties, is Snow Peak's creative director. In parallel to what her father did 30 years ago, Lisa is moving Snow Peak forward with a line of apparel, which she launched in 2014. She also oversees the design of all hardgoods.

Her unisex designs include space-age hoodies that look like they've been knit with one long piece of thick cord; camouflage, insect-shielding mesh tracksuits; insulated midlayer shackets with as much stretch as yoga pants, sailcloth overalls and more. And, according to Kei Hirosawa, one of the main buyers at Tokyo's Beams stores (which have been majorly influential in

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"RELYING ON OTHERS AROUND ME AND

INVOLVING THEM WILL LEAD TO GROWTH OF BOTH THE COMPANY AND THE STAFF."

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Japan's streetwear scene), her direction is right on point. "The outdoor fashion crossover trend is growing in Japan right now," he says, pointing me to the magazines Go Out and Outstanding, which often weave Yeti, Patagonia, The North Face and other outdoor brands into urban lifestyle.

Lisa may or may not be next in line to take over the business — it's undecided, she says — but what is clear is that she has a lifetime of product development experience. Her field-testing days started as a three-yearold, when her dad asked her to gear-test a kid-size version of an adult camp chair.

Lisa quickly discovered, through banging and shaking it, that it was far too wobbly.

Since then, Snow Peak's kids' chairs have adopted a wider base than those designed for adults.

These days, Lisa is working hard to preserve made-in-Japan manufacturing practices across fashion via two new Snow Peak collections: Outdoor Kimono, which is exactly as it sounds (the traditional Japanese garment, built out of technical fabric), and Local Wear — indigo-dyed, patchwork and embroidered styles, inspired by the clothing of Japanese field workers in the 1950s and '60s, strictly produced in Japan. These two lines can be found online and in the two brick-and-mortar stores Lisa opened in Tokyo and New York's SoHo neighborhood.

The day after we camped, Lisa and I sat under a tarp display in an airy, two-story design area, where she spoke about Snow Peak's history, how she balances her design approach with changing trends, and where she sees the brand heading in the future.

When did you join Snow Peak and why?

I used to work at a women’s fashion brand, the kind that would put on runway shows.

I felt a sense of discomfort with fashion design for self-expression, and it made me realize I was more interested in the cultures

that were the source of inspiration for fashion — music, art. I wanted to create a new fashion culture within the culture closest to me, the outdoor lifestyle, so I joined Snow Peak in 2012.

What has it been like to work with your dad, Snow Peak's CEO? My father has never given me directions about the apparel line. I started the apparel business in 2014, and it was a very big challenge creating a new business for Snow Peak. I've never tried creating a business before. I did everything, from making clothes to sales to production, and it's run one hundred percent through my decisions. It's really tough work, but it's the best thing. It's satisfying, and I am truly grateful to my father for allowing me the room to do as I please. We are also different in management style: My father adopts a totally charisma-driven "top-down" style. I believe a style of management where I rely on others around me and involve them will lead to growth of both the company and the staff.

How has Snow Peak's equipment changed over time? How important has family been to the product design?

I grew up camping in the '90s. The first time my father started a camping business, we had three in the family: my parents and myself. At the time, we had simple gear that would be enough for three people. Afterward, our family grew to five, then six. As we grew in number and age, Snow Peak's camping offerings grew in size and scope as well.

about the texture of fabrics, materials for outdoor wear that could blend in with urban living, simple designs, colors reminiscent of nature, and so on. When I started the apparel business at Snow Peak, there were few other brands making urban-outdoor-style clothing, only Nau and Aether.

My goal is to make stylish, urban apparel that is also very comfortable. Snow Peak apparel should be seven-days-a-week, daytime-and-weekend apparel — wholelife apparel.

What was the first piece you designed?

The first piece I designed was a flexible insulated mid-layer. It's water-resistant and has windstop and stretchy synthetic fill.

There were no comfortable middle insulated layers with flexibility [on the market].

It's very comfortable and functional.

What can we look forward to from Snow Peak?

Snow Peak consumers and employees who camp a lot always want a fire-resistant garment. Embers spark off the fire and make a hole in nylon or polyester, so we are working with Teijin, a big fabric-maker in Japan, to create one hundred percent Aramid fire-shielding fabric. We'll make a jacket and a vest. Vests are very popular from Snow Peak in Japan.

Which brands inspire you?

Filson. It's basic, classic and original and will still be all of those things in twenty to thirty years. In fashion, I like Dries Van Noten. I like its botanical prints.

What is your design philosophy when it comes to the apparel?

And you travel a lot. Are you inspired by that?

The inspiration for everything comes from my own life — five days a week in the city, and the weekends in nature. I think

Yes. I went to Mongolia to get to the source of camping. I stayed with nomadic Mongolians because I wanted to see their life,

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their camping style, their systems and process. They have no electronics. No running water and no wi-fi. Eating goat, their main livestock, three meals a day left a big impression on me. I didn't learn anything for designing garments, but seeing how they paired their Tibetan Buddhist religion with the outdoors gave me perspective and balance in my philosophy for my life.

Not many women run businesses in Japan. What's it like to know you might run Snow Peak one day?

My father is still the head of the company, so I haven’t yet decided to be next in line.

In running a business as a woman, it is important to stand strong to our convictions and our sense of responsibility. I believe the world will continue to evolve thanks to the sensibility of women in business. I’d like there to be more women who can seriously pursue the jobs they want to do with more freedom. It's also important to have a strong feeling of duty towards society.

Is that why you're launching Local Wear?

Yes. I felt a sense of crisis. Maybe fifty to one hundred years ago, all over Japan, workers were making clothes by themselves with the local materials. But, the local craftsmen are getting old — fifty, or sixty, or seventy. They don't have a next generation in manufacturing. The local young people in the country are moving to big cities like Tokyo or Osaka, or overseas. The factories are dying, and I am worried the next generation of designers will no longer be able to produce in Japan. Every season, with each new collection being produced, a few fac-

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"I BELIEVE THE WORLD WILL CONTINUE TO EVOLVE THANKS TO THE SENSIBILITY OF WOMEN IN BUSINESS." tories are going out of business. So, Snow Peak is working to teach younger generations how to make garments. Local Wear is bringing awareness by letting people experience production firsthand.

You are also working tradition into your line with the Outdoor Kimono.

It's a similar philosophy. It's a collab with a Japanese kimono company, Kimono Yamato. They have been sewing kimonos

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for one hundred years. They're feeling the same things: kimono factories and kimono craftsman don't have a next generation and will be gone. Younger people aren't interested in wearing kimonos because it doesn't fit the current times, influenced by Western-style clothing. So, we modernized the kimono styles with functional outdoor fabrics. The kimono is a Japanese garment and Snow Peak is Japanese outdoor camping. Both have heritage and tradition — one older, one newer — but they are linked.

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by john zientek

WHAT'S IN STORE? The online shopping revolution hasn't quite killed brick-and-mortar. But it has irrevocably changed the way brands and retailers use their physical spaces.

It's hard to remember now, almost a decade after it was founded, but Aether's first physical store wasn't a shop. At least not in the traditional sense. It was a trailer. When the brand started offering minimalist technical apparel in 2009, it sold its wares through a few wholesale accounts and on its website. But then, after a couple of years of growth, the time came to find a way to reach new audiences. So its founders, Jonah Smith and Palmer West, customized an Airstream, dubbed it the "Aetherstream" and started towing it around America. "Our initial approach was this mobile pop-up store that could go around the country and not look like a typical popup," Smith said.

The success of the Aetherstream led to stand-alone stores: one in a traditional building in New York and another in San Francisco, where instead of using standard construction techniques, the brand stacked three shipping containers on top of each other to house its clothing.

"We transitioned into our own store at the same time we transitioned out of traditional wholesale accounts," West said.

"We found that if we could present our story, we could dramatically outperform what our hundred-and-some-odd whole-

sale accounts were doing for us." These physical locations gave the brand a chance to share its design ethos, contextualizing the clothing in the process. "If you like our stores, you're probably going to like our clothes," West said.

Aether is one of a handful of brands changing guys' perceptions of going shopping — and it's part of a small class of stores doing that without adding too many superfluous details to the shopping experience.

"There's a certain integrity that a brand should maintain," said Garen Barsegian, the 32-year-old founder of New York's Whooden Collective, a multidisciplinary creative firm that creates content for media companies, agencies and brands. "The idea of adding extra things to stores is a marketer's idea or an accountant's idea — those are the wrong people to be making choices like that for a brand." While some features add to the product experience and can help shopping decisions — like treadmills in the Nike store — others don't. "Would I go to the Nike store to play basketball? No," Barsegian said.

And he would know. In his line of work, Barsegian has to look his best — and think deeply about how to help brands attract new customers while keeping current ones in-

W H AT ' S IN STORE ?

terested. But because he frequently works twelve-hour days, he has to limit how much time he spends in physical stores.

"I want to make life as easy as possible," he said. "For things that are high-dollaramount items that require you to feel and to touch, I prefer to go into the store. Once you have your favorites, it's easy to just reorder [online]."

It's part of why he does a portion of his shopping at Mr Porter. "It's nice when

" THERE'S A CERTAIN INTEGRITY THAT A BRAND SHOULD MAINTAIN." you can have something same-day messengered to your office. You can try it on, you don't have to think about it and then they take it away," he said. That ease makes it all the more challenging to get guys into stores.

"The most important thing is that it's quick, it's instinctive," said Toby Bateman, the Managing Director for Mr Porter.

"When we look at the journey the custom-

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er takes on-site, it's got to be really simple."

When Mr Porter launched in 2011, it was one of the first e-commerce sites dedicated to men's clothing. It was able to tap into the resources of The Net-a-Porter Group, its female-centric parent company, to offer an unparalleled user experience with great service, an intuitive interface, personalized packaging and inspiring on-site content. The brand offers a staggering array of clothing from high-end luxury brands to accessible casual brands and, most importantly, launches new products three times a week.

"Physical stores don't tend to launch new products every week," Bateman said. "They get a delivery at the beginning of the season, they put all the stock out on the shop floor and they merchandise it." The rolling release process is integral to Mr Porter's success and has created a new way for men to think about clothing. "That has caused a seismic shift in the way that men approach shopping," he said. "It's gone from being traditionally a need-based activity for a lot of men, to men now getting really engaged in clothing."

It's a change that's led shoppers to expect even more from the physical stores they visit. Before starting at Mr Porter in 2010, Bateman worked in department stores for 15 years, watching the industry evolve with the rise of e-commerce. "I think there's more interesting product, it's more dynamic," he said. "There are more opportunities to be individual and to make a statement for your own particular style and to have the freedom and the resources to help you develop that style."

With online stores offering an incredible assortment of products and unparalleled service, what's the purpose and the function of physical stores today? It's a question that's more pressing than ever before. In April of 2018, CoStar Group, a leading tracker of commercial real estate, reported that retailers in the United States had closed 77 million square feet of store space, priming the industry to set a new record for store closures. (In total, 2017 saw 105 million square feet close.)

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Warby Parker's Ann Arbor, Michigan store, called The Pencil Room, sells the namesake writing instruments. Proceeds benefit local nonprofit 826michigan.

FEATURE: STATE O

OF BRICK & MORTAR

ph o t o : w a r b y pa r k e r

ph o t o : u n i o n ma d e

But there's a bright spot in the style space. Brands that sell clothing realize that stores can no longer just be places where you make a transaction. They're important stages where brands and retailers can tell their stories and help their products stand apart — and make the argument that they're more in tune with you than their competitors. And as a result, more thought is going into store design and experience than ever before: brands are commissioning local artists for interiors and are integrating cafés, bars and barbershops to further cater to customer needs. While this shake-up in the market creates an interesting challenge for businesses, it's overwhelmingly positive for male consumers.

Under the leadership of its chief creative director Alex Carleton, Seattle-based Filson has overhauled its in-store experiences. "It would be a very different experience to go to Yellowstone and stay in a modern white box brought to you by Marriott, as opposed to staying in the Old Faithful Inn." he said.

"That's how we looked at creating retail for Filson. We wanted to create spaces that reflected the quality and the heritage and the history of the brand."

In 2015, Filson opened its flagship store in Seattle, a soaring space with a vaulted ceiling supported by massive wooden beams. The unique space, opened to coincide with the brand's 120th anniversary, feels more like a modern hunting lodge than a place where you'd go to buy a briefcase.

Following that success, Filson is planning to open a New York City flagship this fall. "I can safely say it will not look like any other place in New York City," Carleton vowed. And he might be right. After all, how many other stores use reclaimed Douglas fir, sourced from an 1850s barn once housed on a fourth-generation family-run cattle ranch in Ashland, Oregon, in their entryways? Featuring traditional wood joinery, the seven and a half tons of reclaimed barn wood is complemented by art from Pacific Northwest artists Aleph Geddis, Alexis Hilliard, David Fjeld and Jeffrey Samudosky. The 6,000 square-foot, two-story store includes a ground-floor

men's department complete with a bar.

There's another bar, as well as a sitting room, in the women's department on the mezzanine level.

"We don't reference other retail stores," Carleton said. "We reference museums, we reference galleries, we reference parks, we reference recreational sites. We reference everything but retail."

The focus on a unique experience that is not derivative of other shops is key to the brand's success as it continues to plan other flagship stores in major cities. As Filson forges ahead in the digital generation, Carleton continues to champion the brand's deep history, creating distinctive experiences for customers. "I think too many retailers are focused on trying to be all things to all people, and we absolutely are not that brand," he said. "And I think in today's market, when everything is available, really the only thing you have is your own personality."

Though Filson is drawing on a rich history, the goal is something far less tangible.

"We're focusing on the feeling of the space as opposed to just the metrics of the space," said Carlton. "If somebody comes into your space and they feel good, and the people are personable, and the energy is right, and the character of the place is great, you're going to want to come back and you're going to want to spend time in there," he said.

"You're going to want to connect with the brand," Carleton added, "and the way you connect is by walking out with something in your hand."

Or, alternatively, by going into a store and letting a sales associate place an online order for you, to be delivered to your home or office later. That's the way it works at Warby Parker. The eight-year-old direct-to-consumer eyewear brand was founded as an e-commerce operation. And while you can still buy its glasses online, it now has 75 physical stores across the United States and Canada.

"I think we surprised a lot of people when we started opening stores," said Warby Parker cofounder and co-CEO David Gilboa. "At the time, there was this perception that e-commerce was really the wave of the

W H AT ' S IN STORE ?

" IF SOMEONE COMES INTO YOUR SPACE, AND THEY FEEL GOOD, THEY’RE GOING TO WANT TO COME BACK AND SPEND TIME IN THERE."

to the left

Unionmade's San Francisco store organizes its products around ideas: one side features contemporary designers, while the other spotlights staples like denim.

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Aether's modular store concept, seen here in a now-closed space in New York, allows the brand to open pop-up shops in about 48 hours.

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future and that all physical retail was going away." But the idea to open brick-and-mortar came from customer demand. People wanted a chance to try different frames and have face-to-face conversations about prescriptions and optics. "We've seen really great synergy between having a great online presence and a great off-line presence," Gilboa said. "When we open a store in a new market, we see an immediate spike in [online] sales in that geography and a sustained elevated lift in sales in those cities."

Warby Parker made a conscious choice to showcase the brand's wide range of affordable eyewear in a nontraditional setting. "When you walk into one of our stores, you'll immediately notice it looks nothing like a typical optical shop," Gilboa said.

"Instead of having our frames behind lockand-key in cases, we have all our frames

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out on open library shelves." The brand merges elements of online efficiency within a physical space, and in-store advisors utilize customers' past shopping history to offer optimal service.

With plans to open another 15 retail stores by the end of 2018, Gilboa is confident about the future of brick-and-mortar retail. "There's always going to be a desire for humans to interact with other humans," he said. "Our goal is to make sure that we have a product and experience that is convenient and engaging, and it also has to be integrated with our online experience."

But it's not only online start-ups that are finding success in this new landscape. San Francisco's Unionmade, founded in 2009, is one of a group of smaller multi-brand retailers that have managed to keep their doors open, and that's largely due to a focus

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on its customers' needs.

"We have a really strong brick-and-mortar business because we have a differentiated experience that's being offered," said cofounder Todd Barket, who attributed that strength to loyal customers from before Unionmade offered e-commerce. After spending 20 years at Gap as the head of visual merchandising, Barket created a store that merchandised its products around ideas, presenting different points of view and a mix of well-made brands. The store's inventory has evolved over the past decade from an assortment of denim-centric heritage brands to include a number of complementary contemporary designers.

And following a recent renovation, these newer styles are displayed in their own part of the store.

"I think there are people who have moved

By design, Filson's Seattle store looks more like a hunting lodge than a place you can buy a briefcase.

beyond denim and button-down oxford shirts and t-shirts who want something even more unique or more interesting," Barket said. "I wear a sweatshirt so I shop both sides [of the store], but I may want a weird drop-crotch wrap chino pant from Prospective Flow. We're all about mixing everything."

Unionmade built its own e-commerce store in 2011 after numerous requests from customers. The site promotes the brand's point of view with a much wider customer base, and in hand with social media, strengthens the overall business. "I'm convinced that if we didn't have online, our brick-and-mortar business wouldn't be what it is," Barket said.

But for him, there's a major point of difference between e-commerce and brickand-mortar. "Going to a store, trying a gar-

ment on, feeling it, seeing how it fits you — I think that's an emotional experience," he said. "I think shopping online is something out of convenience; it's like checking boxes and kind of getting things done."

But for many growing brands trying to gain new customers, traditional storefronts with long-term leases don't seem like a strong investment. In 2017, Aether began experimenting with a temporary modular store on Manhattan's Upper East Side.

The set-up consists of dressing rooms, fulllength mirrors, tables, checkouts, shelves, racks and displays, all of which fits into a Sprinter van. "It gives us the flexibility and the ability to be in front of a new group of people in a quicker period of time without the financial commitment of a traditional store," Smith said. Along with a five- or tenyear leases, retail stores normally require

W H AT ' S IN STORE ?

costly interior construction before opening for business. Aether finds short-term leases and circumvents initial build-out costs with its modular system. "We can paint a space and be selling clothes within forty-eight hours," Smith said.

The modular store was so popular that Aether has plans to use another similar system on the West Coast. "This is a way that we can try neighborhoods, cities, areas where there's a group of people coming that might not be familiar with the brand," Smith said. "And one of the big jobs of retail these days is to get in front of people so they know what the brand is." The success of Aether's modular store has proven that beautiful design and flexible spaces aren't mutually exclusive, which creates exciting possibilities for the future of retail in underserved markets across the country.

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LEATHERBOUND by stinson carter

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p h o t o s b y n i c k h o r w e e n f o r g e a r p at r o l

Inside Chicago's Horween Leather Company — the fifth-generation family-run tannery turning one of the world's oldest materials into a global brand.

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ISSUE SEVEN

"Gregorio completes the final shaving on shell cordovan." —

nick horween

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F

or all of the influence the building has had on major league sports, the military and the makers of some of the most stylish shoes and accessories on the market, Horween Leather Company's headquarters is easy to miss.

Wedged between train tracks and the North Branch of the Chicago River, a formerly industrial area now encroached upon by the likes of Best Buy, sits the five-story, 200,000-square-foot tannery.

Its aging brick façade is camouflaged by the surroundings, and its sheer size dwarfs the white block-letter signage hiding like a bumper sticker on a battleship. You would never know, looking at the place, that it houses one of America's oldest continuously running tanneries. Or that every NFL football begins here, as do all NBA game balls. (Consider the hands touched by those two accounts alone.)

Over the past decade, this space — where the 113-year-old company has been since its founder Isadore Horween relocated it there in 1920 — has seen what was once a mere supplier of materials turn into a globally recognized brand without allocating a dime to marketing. That's thanks, in part, to an intersection of uncompromising quality, a good story and Made-in-America cachet — a trinity of timely characteristics for an age when consumers increasingly use the tech at their fingertips to verify and celebrate the pedigree and provenance of their purchases.

Leather goods startups have been suc-

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cessfully launched on the recognition of the Horween name alone, and its leather remains a staple ingredient for longtime sporting goods clients like Wilson, Spalding and Rawlings; there is also the handful of shoemakers, such as Wolverine, Quoddy, Crockett & Jones, Timberland and Nike.

The luck of a trend colliding with the tried and true has extended Horween's popularity from manufacturer to consumer, but the source of its greatness is far deeper... it's something in the water, and something in the blood.

My tour there started at a wooden slab door, which leads to a small staircase with linoleum steps and dark, oak-veneer walls.

The waiting room at the top of the stairs is no wider than outstretched arms, and it's furnished with two wooden benches and a pair of knee-high ashtrays –– brave stowaways from a past era.

I knocked on a tiny frosted-glass window.

Moments later, it slid open and a face appeared: "Sign in here," she said, pointing to a clipboard with a Bic under a rubber band. "Skip will be right with you."

Arnold "Skip" Horween III, 62, is the current paterfamilias, and the fourth man of his line to preside over the company. On the day of my visit, he was dressed in a blue work shirt with several pens stowed in the chest pocket; he also wore work boots, a belt and a watch strap, all made of his namesake leather.

Skip led me to the corner office — once

ISSUE SEVEN

his father's and his grandfather's before him. There are black-and-white cutouts of both Horween forebears on the wood-veneer walls of the office –– his grandfather in boots and spurs, his father bare-chested in boxing gloves. His great-grandfather, Isadore, looks on from a family portrait across the room. On another wall is a framed 1920 Rose Bowl poster, a game Skip's grandfather and great-uncle both played in. Behind a massive wood desk sits Skip's one-of-a-kind swivel chair, covered in football leather.

"If you do something long enough, you're bound to be an overnight success eventually," Skip said, wryly. He still takes the train to work every day from the suburbs; it stops at the station across the street. His 34-yearold son, Nick, meanwhile, lives downtown,

"IF YOU DO SOMETHING LONG ENOUGH, YOU'RE BOUND TO BE AN OVERNIGHT SUCCESS EVENTUALLY." and in contrast to his father's blue-on-blue work duds, wore tapered jeans on the day of my visit. Nick's official title is Vice President, "But our titles don't really mean anything.

We all run it together," he said. We includes his 28-year-old sister, Natalie.

" Felix applies Venetian Shoe Cream to shell cordovan prior to the glazing process." —

nick horween

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Perhaps what's so appealing about Horween is how little it's changed as the business has grown. Isadore Horween immigrated to America from Ukraine in 1893, changing the '-witz' at the end of his name to '-ween.' His sons, Ralph and Arnold, served in the Navy during World War I and then went to Harvard, where they were both starters on the 1920 football team that beat the University of Oregon in front of 30,000 people in Pasadena. Arnold was the Crimson's first Jewish football captain.

Both brothers played NFL football for the Arizona Cardinals (formerly the Chicago Cardinals) while they worked for the family business –– Arnold as the president and Ralph (who also enjoyed successful law career) as the chief manufacturing executive. Arnold's son, Skip's father, also played football at Harvard and then served in the Army before taking his turn at the helm of the company. Skip became president in 2003 and his blue work shirt, with its chest pocket full of pens, is the same as the one his father wore at work.

During my interview with Skip, a man named Ike Davis entered the office. He started working at Horween in 1953, eventually overseeing the cordovan department before retiring in 1998, after 45 years. "I've known Ike my entire working life," Skip said. "I foolishly let him retire twenty years ago. But I was able to convince him to come back once a week to advise on shell cordovan."

Davis came in to report that he could tell from the sound of one of the shaving machines that it needed more grease. "He can listen to one of the jacks going and understand that the pressure's right," Skip said.

"There isn't an electronic setting that you can use. It's by feel, by touch, by sight and by sound."

It was the last day of July and the ground floor of the factory, where the steerhide and horsehide come in, was a staggering olfactory experience for the uninitiated. By the time they’ve completed their transformation, these skins will have worked their way to the upper floors, through tanning, trimming, re-tanning, oiling, dying, dry-

ing... a 30-day process for their Chromexcel leather, and a six-month process for their signature shell cordovan, a select cut from a horse's hindquarters that costs 10 times more than anything else they sell.

"We're not going to change the things that got us here," Skip said. "Our cordovan, that formula is what it is, and we still run it the way that Isadore ran it. And Chromexcel [is] the same way."

Horween Shell Cordovan has a maximum yield of one pair of shoes per horse. The "shell" refers to a very specific oval area where the horse's hip bones wear against the hide and change its physical properties over time, creating a unique leather that Alden Shoes' Vice President of Sales, Bob Clark, described as "beautiful, supple, durable… it learns your foot shape as you wear

" THERE ISN'T AN ELECTRONIC SETTING THAT YOU CAN USE. IT'S BY FEEL, BY TOUCH, BY SIGHT AND BY SOUND." the shoes and becomes something of a custom fit. It's a very special leather."

Leather with the telltale pebbling of footballs has a large presence in the factory.

Nick pointed to stacks of hides destined for gridiron greatness, in several colors, saying, "That's the Nike color, that's NCAA and that's NFL." Their partnership with the NFL is almost as old as the league itself.

"When the NFL was created, [Chicago Bears founder] George Halas bridged the partnership between Wilson Sporting Goods to manufacture the football and Horween to supply the leather for official NFL game balls," said Kristina Peterson-Lohman of Wilson.

Wilson makes youth league, NCAA and NFL footballs in Ada, Ohio. Each is cut and laced by hand, requiring 25 steps over 10 to 14 days. Anywhere from 20 to 30 pairs

L E AT H ERBOUND

of hands touch each football in the course of its construction, and the factory makes about 700,000 footballs per year.

"We're just a component," said Nick. "It's an important component, but we need the Aldens, the Allen Edmonds… all our clients. We're just part of the story."

But it hasn't been all fun, games and shoes. One of the strangest orders the Horweens ever filled was during the first Gulf War. "When that started, we got an emergency request from the Army [contractor] for leather gaskets for all the tank periscopes," Skip said. Given the importance of tanks in that conflict, the contribution was not insignificant.

These days, new clients attracted to Horween's soaring popularity means an increase in the discussions about how doing business with them is a little different than with other tanneries.

"When they get a hide with an aniline finish — which just means no pigment or paint, which is what we do — they lay it down, they can see some scratches and some bug bites… we're acknowledging that it's a natural product. This was an animal.

And each animal had its own experiences," Nick said. "Our reputation is probably that we're difficult that way."

"You learn to hate barbed wire in this business," Skip explained.

Quoddy, the Maine-based maker of handmade shoes, has been using Horween leather for over 20 years, warts and all. "It's like having Brembo brakes on your car, it means you only use the best," said Quoddy's president, John Andreliunas. "There's definitely some waste in what they send you because the cow got bit, or the cow grew a weird way and there's weird stretch marks, and there's definitely a smaller yield from what they do because they don't pretty it up with lots of chemicals and treatments like the huge tanneries that work with the giant shoe companies do," he said.

As for what accounts for Horween's ever-increasing profile, Andreliunas said, "I think they've done a good job of creating something special. And more and more, if you're going to pay good money for some-

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thing, you want it to be special. But at the end of the day, you've got to put your money where your mouth is, and Skip does that.

All you got to do is go up to that drying room for the horsehides… I liken it to going to the tasting room in a winery. You got these hides on old wooden horses, aging gracefully, or whatever they're doing up there."

Alden's Bob Clark has noticed a change in the public's perception of Horween, whose leather they've been using in their shoes for generations: "There is a real awareness among a generation of consumers of Horween leathers that really didn't exist fifteen to twenty years ago," he said. "I'm surprised to find the degree of familiarity with a particular tannery. It isn't on the name of a consumer product, it's the material that's in the product."

Alden famously makes the work boot once worn by a young carpenter-turned-actor named Harrison Ford. On the actor's insistence, they became the choice boots of Indiana Jones (instead of Red Wings, as written in the script). The character existed for years before the hive mind of Indy-gear fan sites identified the boot from a shot of the sole in the scene where Indy crossed the chasm in The Last Crusade.

Clark attributes Horween's newfound fame to the same collective power of the Internet. "I think that story of how people found the Indy Boot is similar to the way that people have discovered Horween as an entity," he said.

The Horween name is even more of a plus for newer companies — the tannery has more name recognition than the company using its leather. Zach Weiss, cofounder of the online watch magazine and store Worn & Wound, uses Horween for the watch straps he sells. "There's an old school charm to it," said Weiss. "Even when dealing with them as a customer, you're getting Xeroxes of handwritten invoices and things like that." As for the power of the brand, Weiss said, "It's hard to tell if it's selling your product or not. We like to tell a story, and the tannery's part of the story."

Matt Kalas, head of operations for Chicago-based Ashland Leather Company, gives far more credit to the Horween name for Ashland's success: "It's huge, it's almost

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" WE LIKE TO TELL A STORY, AND THE TANNERY'S PART OF THE STORY."

" Shell cordovan is washed after 30 days of tanning. These hides will be shaved and returned to the tanning pits for another 30 days."

—

nick horween

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"YOU DON'T KEEP GOING THIS LONG WITHOUT KNOWING HOW TO ADAPT." everything. At least initially. Who the hell's Ashland, right? But [people] know Horween."

Kalas's partners, his brother Phil Kalas and Dan Cordovan (coincidentally), are both full-time employees at Horween. Both have worked there for a decade. They saw an opportunity to create a leather goods company based on the rising popularity of Horween and their access to it, so they started Ashland seven years ago. They make wallets and men's accessories, and business is good.

They sell more and more overseas these days.

"Horween is huge in Singapore, China, Japan –– they go crazy over Horween Shell Cordovan," said Kalas.

Horween's value as a brand now extends beyond the realm of leather goods, footballs and footwear. Alan Siegel is a branding and corporate-identity legend, cofounder of iconic branding firm Siegel+Gale, where his clients included Mastercard, Xerox and 3M. More recently, he is the founder, president and CEO of Siegelvision, whose clients include National Geographic, New York University, National Public Radio, Prudential and Univision.

"I think in terms of premium products — a

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pair of shoes — this company is absolutely invaluable," Siegel said. "They're the key, or one of the key ingredients, in the durability of the product and the value of the product.

I do think people are more discriminating now, and care about that, and it's really enhancing the product for the customer."

As I made my way back downstairs with Nick as my tour guide, he looked over the seemingly ancient wooden cauldrons and oil barrels and said, "The maintenance guys don't get enough credit. This building is so old, and so much of our machinery is made of wood, it's like a constant triage here, all the time, to keep this up and running."

But they are bound to this building by more than just tradition. "We can't just pick up and move, our formulas are all based on the water we get right here," said Nick. "And our skilled and experienced craftspeople are all here in Chicago."

"You don't keep going this long without knowing how to adapt," Skip had told me earlier. I recalled his words when I ended my tour in the office Nick and Natalie share.

On their wall is an idea board with tackedup magazine clippings and leather swatches

ISSUE SEVEN

— adaptation in progress. Natalie was out of the office, but she later wrote to me about her experience working in the family business: "In addition to feeling the connection to the generations that came before me, I feel I can add a woman's perspective to a business that until now has been entirely run by men.

Our family is really close, so it hasn't been too bad getting to learn and work with both my brother and dad as well. I am really excited to see where we go next, and feel lucky to be a part of it all."

There's something about a family that has thrived for 113 years in an honest profession. They've never needed to trick anyone to succeed in their line of work. There's a clarity of purpose for the Horweens, which is not to say simplicity, so much as purity.

Something you can hear in their voices and see in their eyes. Skip put it better than I ever could: "For me, the incredible privilege of having worked with my grandfather, father and now my son and daughter is a pure dream," he said. "I believe our 'secret' has been to guide our decisions by doing things that would make our fathers proud."

" Retanning waterproof leather. This is the washing process. Extra dye gives the water its yellow color." —

STATE O F BRIC K & M ORTA R

nick horween

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DESIGN BY ACCIDENT b y w i ll p r i c e

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ph o t o s b y h e n r y ph i ll i p s

In the early '90s, Richard Grace designed what he thought would be the next big thing in woodworking.

Then his razor-sharp rasp, Microplane, found its way into the kitchens of celebrity chefs around the world.

DESI G N BY A CCIDENT

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ichard Grace, inventor of one of the greatest tools the kitchen has ever seen, neither knows how to cook nor cares to learn. In the mid'90s, he set out to make a wood-carving rasper and ended up with a culinary masterpiece called the Microplane: a cheese-grating, citrus-zesting, nutmeg-dusting revelation that today costs as little as $11 on Amazon. He's an inventor in the truest spirit of the word, someone who treats ideation as a profession, not a calling. He doesn't speak in buzzwords and has never hosted a TED Talk. He simply makes things and finds uses for them later.

"My father gets bored very quickly and he's always thinking of different ways to solve a problem," said Chris Grace, Richard's son and the CEO of Grace Manufacturing, the family business that oversees Microplane. "Ask most people how many uses they could think of for a paper clip, they'd give you maybe half a page. My father might give you 10 pages. He's still coming up with uses for that etched tooth." He was referring to the dozens of razor-sharp, jagged teeth found on every Microplane.

When I asked Richard, at Microplane's Arkansas factory, about potential uses for the tool, he leaned back in his chair, cracked

ISSUE SEVEN

a small grin and let loose: wall-hanging art, fasteners, interlocking washers, horseshoes, stints, medical instruments for optical surgery, table-saw blades and stainless steel sandpaper — which, according to him, would've worked if not for a tester using it improperly and hurting themselves. But never once did he expect the photo-etched tooth to make its way into the kitchen.

Microplane was conceived in a conference room in 1991. Back then, Grace Manufacturing was in the business of making small photo-etched parts for mechanical computer printers. Then the dot-matrix printer arrived, spelling an all-but-certain demise for the family business. The end in plain sight, Richard, his brother and a team of Grace's brightest sat down in a whiteboard-filled room to brainstorm what they might do to stave off oblivion. "That was the cool term at the time, 'brainstorming,'" Richard said.

The family was well-trained in the process of chemical photo-etching metals, and, as they had observed many, many times, the finished products were often exceptionally sharp. Richard swore he was buying Band-Aids "by the bushel." So, as he

"ALL THOSE HOURS SPENT DRAWING UP WHITEBOARDS, AND WE DECIDED WE WERE GOING TO MAKE SOMETHING SHARP." tells it, "All those hours spent drawing up whiteboards, and we decided we were going to make something sharp."

The practice of chemically photo-etching was paramount to making parts for that bygone era of computer printers. Essentially, a film (not unlike camera film) is placed on top of sheets of metal, and an image (of a blade, for instance) is exposed on the film. The sheets are then sprayed with a chemical compound that dissolves all exposed areas of the image. The only serious thing left to do after that is punch your newly formed blades out.

This, according to Richard, is not all that difficult. "Give any real engineer half an hour of explaining and they could teach a seminar on it," he said. Chris and Microplane's VP of sales and marketing, Joel Arivett, don't necessarily share this opinion.

Richard and his team set out to make a tall, thin blade with dozens of rounded, razor-sharp, photo-etched edges for the express use of carving and shaping wood.

And they did; they just couldn't sell any. "I mean, we probably didn't make any money

for a few years," Richard lamented. "Not until that article published."

In 1994, just three years after the original Microplanes were thought up, Lorraine and Leonard Lee, proprietors of Lee Valley Tools in Ottawa — a mail-order catalog that sold tools and gifts for Canada's woodworking community — wrote the fate of the Grace family business.

Lorraine, a baker with an affinity for Armenian orange cake, wasn't happy with her old kitchen grater. So she slid her husband's Microplane over an orange. She was so astounded by the results, she had the description of the product changed in the store catalog to include its effectiveness at this seemingly niche kitchen task. This is how the story, "Test Kitchen; A Gift for the Cook, or Carpenter," published by The New York Times four years later, began.

Penned by Amanda Hesser, who later cofounded the award-winning food publication Food52, this 516-word story was to become Microplane's crossing of the Rubicon, from carpentry to culinary.

"After the Times article, basically ev-

DESI G N BY A CCIDENT

erybody who sells anything contacted us," Arivett told me. "Williams Sonoma; Bed, Bath & Beyond; Sur La Table — everybody.

It was almost too much to keep up with."

Before the Microplane brass could blink, they had become a kitchenware company — whether they liked it or not. Within the first month following the article's publication, the brand saw its kitchen customers eclipse its woodworking customers ten times over. Microplane, the wood rasp, sold between $300,000 and $400,000 a year; by 2002, Microplane, the kitchen gadget, did that in a month. According to Chris, they weren't able to project or map the company's growth. "We'd list the monthly sales goal on the sales floor, and we'd crush it so hard it became worthless," he said.

Then came an even bigger boom, one fueled by the power of the original kitchen influencers: celebrity chefs. Martha Stewart, Ina Garten, Rachel Ray and virtually anyone that mattered used a Microplane on their shows, calling it out by name for their audience. Julia Child liked the product so much, it earned a permanent spot hanging

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on the wall of her kitchen, which was later replicated at the Smithsonian. And Oprah's personal chef, Art Smith, once called it "the most coveted tool in chefdom."

But for all the brilliance of the original invention and the Grace family business savvy, they still weren't sure what they were selling. "None of us were cooks," Chris said when I asked him if the Grace family was culinarily inclined. Richard laughed when I asked him the same question, but he agreed: "I'd say, no, we're not foodies."

The product's original packaging was a cardboard sleeve with no branding at all.

Not that it mattered, because the sleeve would fall right off when hung on racks in stores. "We'd go into Sur La Table on business trips and find our packaging all over the floor, but all the Microplanes sold out," Arivett said.

Around this time, Chris — who had left home for a job at TRW Automotive manufacturing seatbelts for the likes of Ford — made his return to the family business, bringing with him years of mass-volume manufacturing experience gained from working at factories in Mexico. Chris sped everything up, bought a factory in Mexico to assemble the products (the blades are still made in Arkansas) and also pushed Microplane into the European market, where, he only half-jokingly said, "they actually know how to cook."

"Sometimes, on a plane, I tell people what I do and they'll just explode with joy, thanking me and everything," Chris went on. "But I can't help but think, 'Gosh, it's only a cheese grater.'"

And though Microplane would turn out to be an enormously effective, profitable venture, Richard isn't quite ready to turn his back on the thing that sparked the fire in the first place: woodworking. "Anybody who manufactures things dreams of making their own product, like a writer wants to

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"I SET OUT TO MAKE A PROFESSIONAL-QUALITY WOODWORKING TOOL, AND IT JUST NEVER REALLY TOOK OFF." write their own book," he told me. "I set out to make a professional-quality woodworking tool, and it just never really took off."

Chris has seen his dad's frustration many times. Just after he rejoined the company, he and his family piled in around the TV to watch Microplane's first scheduled time slot on QVC. "We had our own little eight-minute spot, and you can see how many are being purchased on the screen during the program. It's a rush to see your work purchased in real time," he remembered. "We looked over to my father when it ended, and he asked us, 'When are you going to get the woodworking [product] on?'" By the end of the segment, more than 50,000 Microplanes had sold.

Today, Microplane employs more than 150 people and continues to dominate its little corner of the kitchen market with tools that cost little more than $10. Everyone, it seems, either has one or knows what it does. And people are still finding uses for Richard's hyper-sharp photo-etched blades. Doctors once suggested they could work in surgery, and now bone saws almost identical to their grater counterparts are among Grace's largest revenue streams.

"We received a very impassioned email from one lady who told us we had to make a foot file because her Microplane was so great at getting calluses off her hands and feet," Arivett said. "So we did. We sell a ton of them now."

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THE WISH LIST If money — and other limiting factors — were of no consequence, these are the dream products we would own and cherish above all others.

photos by henry phillips, chase pellerin and chandler bondurant

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MCLAREN 720S BY MSO by nick caruso

McLaren Special Operations (MSO) makes dreams come true: take an already mega-rare, futuristic supercar and configure it exactly as you desire — just add a full-price donor car and make it yours.

The MSO division officially began operations in 2011, but its roots reach back to the epitome of all supercars, the 1992 McLaren F1, for whose customers the nascent McLaren provided extraordinary levels of customization and bespoke service. Contemporary MSO-modification programs, on the more accessible end, continue to take the ownership experience beyond factory spec: from carbon-fiber components and multicolored seatbelts to technological add-ons like shift lights and rear diffusers. MSO Bespoke goes even more extreme, offering customers the opportunity to create truly one-off vehicles with bodywork and interior designs tailored to their every whim. MSO customer Alan Teo, whose Mantis Green 720S is seen here, has "always had an affinity" for the bright color. "When McLaren chose not to offer it on the [stock] 720… I decided that's what I'm going with," Teo said. "I had [MSO] leave the carpets out of the car, which is a really slick touch." In addition, he included carbon-fiber seats, which feature contrasting yellow stitching in a completely blacked-out cabin. With these specific modifications, Teo crafted the 720S into his ideal machine.

Flexing custom design touches on one of the wildest cars on the road is the ultimate expression of many things, personal taste chief among them.

Indeed, if you have a vision — and the means — McLaren MSO will gladly provide the way.

p r i c e $284,745+

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SPECIALIZED S-WORKS VENGE by aj powell

The S-Works Venge is Specialized's latest superbike. It replaces the outgoing Venge ViAS, which was widely criticized for its misshapen aesthetics and elephantine weight. The frame of the S-Works Venge was developed using computer software called Free Shape Optimisation that told Specialized how to shape the tubes just so. Technically, the bike is less aerodynamic than the ViAS, but it offers a stiff yet compliant ride with less weight and more comfort.

But there was an unexpected benefit to its performance gains: good looks. The awkward cutout in the downtube is gone. The stem is significantly more refined. And the bat-wing rim brakes of the old ViAS have bit the dust; sleek disc brakes are the only stopping option on the S-Works Venge.

In fact, Venge is perhaps a more fitting name for this bike than any of the previous iterations. Call it a comeback of sorts; a stroke of vengeance by Specialized against those that wrote off the Venge line altogether.

p r i c e $12,500

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EDWARD GREEN CUSTOM GALWAY BOOTS by justin fenner

To call Edward Green's shoes "great" feels pretty inadequate. The British company's wares were excellent at the time of its founding in 1890, and they only got better in the years leading up to the 1930s, when Edward Green became one of the British military's biggest suppliers of officers' boots. That's when it started making the Galway, which remains a stunning piece of footwear almost 90 years later — even though the techniques used to create it haven't changed that much.

To this day, the Galway is still a Goodyear-welted shoe, cut by hand from some of the finest leather in the world and built on a hardy rubber sole suitable for both dodging bullets and romping around a grouse moor (or pounding the pavement in a more urban setting). The only thing that could possibly make it more luxurious would be the option to customize the leather and last. Now, thanks to the company's custom program, any stylish guy with sufficient discretionary income and enough time for a few measurements can do just that.

p r i c e $1,980+

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SYMBOL AUDIO MODERN RECORD PLAYER by tucker bowe

Symbol Audio burst onto the audiophile scene in 2012 with its Modern Record Console, a 300-pound, all-in-one statement piece that cost $20,000. Then came a number of hi-fi speakers designed in the modern, minimalist vision of Dieter Rams. All were vintage-style stereo players with built-in digital streaming. And all were made out of solid hardwood.

The company's latest entry, the Modern Record Player, goes in a slightly different direction: it's made out of aluminum rather than wood. "I wanted to get away from the 'handcrafted modern' feeling of our earlier products and give the record player a pure 'modernist' aesthetic," explained Blake Tovin, Symbol Audio's cofounder. "I'm a huge fan of vintage Braun products — there’s an elegant functionality to those designs that I wanted to pay homage to."

The all-in-one player has a Rega turntable that's built with a unique three-phase isolation system to eliminate distortion. Its speakers and crossovers were developed and fine-tuned by Israeli speaker juggernaut Morel. It also has a custom-built class AB amplifier to ensure an audiophile listening experience and a wireless streaming component (Bluetooth, Chromecast, Airport Express or Sonos Connect) that can be integrated inside the cabinet.

Though it's different than Symbol Audio's other offerings, the Modern Record Player still sticks to the company's ethos, combining high-fidelity vinyl playback with the ability to stream from your iPhone. It's a statement piece just like the Modern Record Console — just a little more practical for those of us who know that money doesn't grow on trees.

p r i c e $3,295

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FARROW & BALL PAINT by jack seemer

You can find Farrow & Ball paint gracing the walls of the world's most distinguished museums and galleries — the Met, the MoMA, the Rodin Museum in Paris. But the company's roots are decidedly small town. Farrow & Ball was founded in 1946 and still makes every drop of paint near its original home in Dorset, a historic county in southwest England known for its rolling countryside and idyllic coast.

The designer paints start as chalk, china clay and titanium dioxide, which are mixed with water in place of oil to keep the overall VOC (volatile organic compound) content low. Pigments come next, and every batch goes through rigorous testing for color consistency and overall durability.

In all, 132 colors make up the Farrow & Ball catalog. Some, like the sophisticated, green-gray neutral Old White, have been around since the early days of the company, while newer ones, such as Card Room Green (pictured here), are developed and introduced every few years.

p r i c e $110 (PER GALLON)

NIKON D8 5 0 24MM f 2.8 1/20 ISO 1250

Postcard Photo Dispatches from the Road

9 :26PM , MUSKEGON , MI — "I didn’t know I was looking for a rail yard, exactly, when we

came across one in Muskegon. An hour ago, the sky was the color of a Creamsicle and it sent our three-car convoy racing to find a place — anyplace — where we could take photographs. Black sports cars were made for sunsets, and we suddenly had one of each on our hands.

"What we didn't have was any idea where to go. Nick grew up in Muskegon, but not in this rusty-old part of town. We sped through alleys and backroads, desperately hoping for a clearing. As the sky detonated overhead, we pulled into an unfenced rail yard and decided to take a stab at it. Luck and instinct until the light ran out.

"An hour later, I found myself watching the last pink glimmer of light wash away. I couldn't tell you how we found the place. And I imagine the other guys would feel the same: like we just pulled a jewel right out of the unmarked dirt."

— DW BURNETT

FROM "DREAM CRUISE" (page 158) DW Burnett is an automotive and motorsports photographer from Brooklyn, New York, who loves cars. But he doesn't love writing about himself in the third person.

Follow him on Instagram at @puppyknuckles