Month: November 2025

I’ve written a fair amount now about Yoshida & Co’s Porter line of bags, and once you start diving down that rabbit hole, you’ll quickly find that Uniqlo makes some bags which look awfully similar to Tanker bags, but at a price well under $50. Which is crazy. I picked up the Uniqlo 2Way Utility Bag in Japan to see if the bag is any good and how it compares.

I am very torn. This is decidedly not up to quality standards of Porter, and it’s lacking some of the better Porter features. The design is very similar to Porter, and I loathe copies when I buy stuff. That said, for the price, this is a very good bag to buy. I suspect most people will see this well before they see the Tanker Helmet and Tote bags it is copying.

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Note: this item was provided for review.

I’ve been wearing my last pair of Kyrgies daily, so when they offered to send over the Bishkek Kicks, I was very excited to get them. I’ve been wearing them a couple of weeks now, and I am very happy with them. A little different than the slippers I had before, but in most ways a lot better too.

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Note: this item was provided for review.

After receiving and reviewing the Namba Slate from Shinzo Tamura I was clamoring for more. Those quickly became the only sunglasses I wear, so when they offered to send a pair of the Abeno Granite my way, I couldn’t wait. These are a different frame and a very different lens — as moving from dark lenses to very light — I wasn’t sure what to expect.

Now I am questioning all of my decisions and why I focused so heavily on dark lens sunglasses only. These hit a really sweet spot, and I love the way they look.

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Note: this item was provided for review.

I keep trying to sort out in my head how you explain one t-shirt being better than any other. It’s a simple item, with seemingly very little room for differentiation, and yet we all intuitively know there are good t-shirts and then there’s all the others. This Allevol t-shirt is very good and well worth your time and money, so I’ll do my best to explain why.

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Note: this item was provided for review.

Finding good chinos, something well made with excellent materials, proves a lot harder than you might think. Especially if you want to keep the cost of the item under control. So I was quite excited when Warren reached out to send me a pair of their Pomfret Country Chinos in the Sanded Olive Canvas. Olive chinos are among the most versatile color options you can select, in case you weren’t aware, and I was unhappy with my current stock of olive chinos.

The moment I opened the package, I knew these were going to be hard not to love. And the more I wear these, the more I realize that I have only been wearing these chinos. They are fantastic.

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I was needing to add some shirts to my kit, to use as base layers when hiking, and occasionally to use when I ruck in the mornings. After a lot of whittling of options I picked up Himali’s Pursuit Tech Tee in the long sleeve version. This is a really nice product, which is near perfect for what I need.

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Note: this item was provided for review.

This is now the third backpack I’ve been able to test from Pioneer Carry, and I have to say that the Ray Pack is the best one yet. It’s not the type of backpack I would normally seek out to buy for myself, as the vertical tote style isn’t something I normally go for.

However, with the Ray Pack, I was sold on this bag after the first hour of using it. So, allow me to explain.

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I’ve looked at the Kuoe watches many times over, and I found the array of options to be overwhelming. There’s also that sense that at 35mm you really want to feel that model on your wrist before committing — if the case is designed wrong you risk it looking like a toy watch. It was our last day in Kyoto, and this was the only major thing on my list I still had yet to do in the city — I really wanted to stop into the store and get a Kuoe if there was one I liked enough.

My wife insisted we make time, and so we stopped in. The store is really neat, below street level with angled skylights back up to the street. The staff is overly friendly and every watch is sitting out, to be handled, no cases in sight. I put an Old Smith on my wrist, and knew I was buying one.

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Gift guides are, admittedly, not my forte — I have come to determine that there are people who build entire careers around listing items in guides of all sorts which seem really compelling. They take time to find an image, write half a sentence, and submit an affiliate link for your consideration. That’s not me.

So this gift guide, as most are which I write, is for you to give to someone who might struggle to get you something awesome. If you choose to read this site, then some of this guide should have you covered.

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Note: this item was sent for review.

This is my first go with a watch from Vero, thus I was really unsure what to expect. I’ve been paying attention to their Smokey Bear edition watches, as these are officially licensed and all of them are fantastic looking. They sent me the Campfire Edition, which is a very straightforward field watch, and seems like the watch you might want for a weekend camping trip and then some.

I’ve been wearing it for a bit now, and I’ve found it to be a really enjoyable watch to wear, with just the right amount of flair to it.

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