2023 Holiday gift guide
A compendium of stuff I love that you too can own
I really, really like knowing that I purchased the right thing. Right things:
last
have high value-to-price ratios
bring joy with every use
To this end, I research the heck out of the stuff I buy. All of the stuff below are things that bring me near-daily joy. With the exception of #10, they’re either built to last lifetimes, or cost so little with such high utility that they feel like no-brainers to me.
Happy buying season!
Bags
I’ve owned a Flash-22 for years now. When adventure calls, whether it’s a bike commute or a summit trek, I reach for this bag. It’s perfect. Three monkeys tried to tear it apart in Bali, yet the bag has persevered.
Light
Spacious (I’ve crammed two days’ worth of outfits, a laptop, two books, and headphones into the main compartment alone)
Has the features you need (two zippered pockets, bottle pockets that can hold 1.5 liter Nalgenes, bladder pocket, attachment loops) without going overboard.
Can easily roll up into a larger bag for packing.
NB: I prefer the earlier generation of the bag, which had a single buckle on the brain instead of double. I recently took mine to REI to have them replace the buckles. You can still find the old version here and there.
I bought one of these puppies right in the heart of Tokyo, and it went on to fundamentally change how I travel/commute.
These bags are:
cheap
many-colored
spacious (I can fit a 16 oz. Nalgene, kindle, hat, notebook, phone, and little snacks).
Seriously, shoulder bags make so much sense. Never leaving home without it.
Leather
Buy once, cry once. Saddleback leather makes the nicest leather products I’ve ever seen. Born out of an absurd backstory that, bless, features a black lab, Saddleback is one of those companies that hasn’t changed much in the last 15 years because they simply don’t need to. Sure, the price tag might intimidate at first (“why not get a wallet that looks the same from Kohl’s for half the price?”), but if you plan on walking the earth for a couple more decades and using a belt/wallet along the way, just do yourself a favor and buy from Saddleback.
I own a wallet, a smaller wallet, a belt, and (kind of my thing during my UVA days) a briefcase.
At the very least, learn about the difference between leather products and how big-name manufacturers bend the truth.
p.s. they also sell stuff like this if you want to channel your inner Orient Express.
The only problem with Saddleback is that they don’t make shoes. Enter Redwing, whose Iron Rangers, originally built for miners in the ‘30s, carry the same life-spanning quality. I will get these re-soled when the time is right, then will do it again, and again, and again.
They look good! They feel good! They’re waterproof! They get you compliments on the subway! If the apocalypse is nigh, I’m reaching for these, confident that not only will my feet be comfy and dry, but that my corpse will catch some second glances.
I was skeptical when I saw bike forums waxing poetic about the Brooks B17. Sure, it looks timeless, straight out of a Downtown Abbey episode, but hard leather on my ass for miles at a time? And not only is it comfortable, it’s the most comfortable option on the market?
Two touring trips and many miles later, I’m a B17 convert. It looks amazing, yes, but like the other leather products above, forms to your body over time. My seat is now a custom imprint of my buttocks that will far outlast me.
Coffee
Started in a Gazebo outside Lancaster, PA, Twin Valley delivers the best coffee beans I’ve had outside of luwak coffee (and who wants to pay for that?).
Now, every drip coffee that’s not Twin Valley disappoints me. A few weeks ago I took a timid sip of a $4 drip from a Brooklyn coffee shop and started shaking with rage. I have premium Scottish Grogg at home, a couple cents per cup… what am I doing?
Home
A bidet, any bidet
Sometimes, when I consider the fact that $25 can radically change one’s approach to personal hygiene, I just shake my head and give a low whistle.
Americans are afraid of bidets. It’s not a preference thing - it’s not like we’ve sampled many approaches to bum cleaning and said “no, I think clawing at my own ass with dry paper is morally and hygienically superior.” Rather, there’s something in our psychology, perhaps born out of our time on the frontier, viscerally terrified of something coming up to bite us as we do our business. Throwing out the baby with the toilet water, we’ve informally banned all gadgets that would similarly come up to greet us as we sit and ponder.
Look, I won’t go into detail about the benefits here. But $25 and a 5-minute plumbing job are standing between you and the exit of Plato’s cave.
This is a recent buy for me. For two months, I was drowning beneath the waves of mattress reviews online. Even reddit, my beloved source of warm unbiased guidance, was polluted with mattress company shills vying for attention.
Enter NYT Wirecutter, who came down from the mountaintop and decreed: the Novaform 14” from Costco is the best foam mattress under $1000. Realizing that I could technically return the mattress up to two years later if necessary (thanks, weird Business Insider article), I pulled the trigger and have slept like a rock since.
Shirt
Found it: a well-fitting, well-made, cheap t-shirt. These feel higher-quality than your average cotton tee, and the oversized look gives you options (tuck in, roll up sleeves, do you!)
Strangers have asked me where the shirt is from, which is enough to land it on this list.
Beast
A dog
Want to alter somebody’s entire existence? Want to help your friend get outside and talk to strangers more? Want your buddy to ponder and dread, at least once a day, the time when he’ll have to give his friend back to the earth?
Then I’ve got the gift for you.
15,000 years ago, before we figured out farming, we started giving puppies the same burial rites as our fellow man. Since then, we’ve given them jobs like sniffing out bombs, guiding the blind, and chasing away geese on the National Mall. In return, dogs have figured out, better than any living creature, how to get what they want from humans.
Why not join this ancient rite of codependency?
