Author: Ben Brooks

At the start of 2021, Marathon released an ‘Arctic’ variant of their iconic GSAR. A welcomed release from a brand with a lot of history both with the Canadian military and the US Military among many others. The watch community loves to talk about tool watches, which just so happen to be luxury watches — to me they are talking about a Mercedes G-Wagen (the Orange County variants that is). Sure, that can go off road and do cool shit, but that’s certainly not why you buy it.

The GSAR, and Marathon watches generally, are the Jeep Wranglers of the lot — all utility, all tools. I picked this Arctic GSAR up second hand, and have been wearing it a ton.

Bottom line: this is a better watch than I expected, and better than I wanted it to be, but the current pricing makes it a tough sell near MSRP pricing.

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Note: this item was provided for review.

Dressing for summer weather always presents the same problem: there’s not a lot of cool-wearing, but casual pants for men. There’s effectively linen pants and a plethora of “lightweight” variants of standard pants, most of which are hardly lightweight enough. (Which I assume is also why so many men turn to synthetic pants better suited for hiking.) The problem with linen is that it is hard for most men to wear it in an easy going fashion as it can read formal, or quickly be engulfed in creasing — which bothers most people.

Enter these Linen Drawstring Pants from Patrick James, a linen blend ‘easy’ style pant with the perfect toss on to stay cool style, all while keeping the ease of wear like denim is.

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This was a rather unexpected purchase for me — I just so happened to be chatting with the owner of STS, and he was wearing his HD Work Shirt. It looked great on him, and is a rather niche shirt — I needed it, so I ordered one. Once the shirt arrived, I had to hold back ordering another, until I wore the one I bought at least one time — I am slightly practical at times.

After that first wear, I hit order on a second. I’d own more, but they are out of stock in my size in the other colors. And since picking these up, they’ve become a staple shirt for me on the weekends. They are more akin to a really light (but durable) sweatshirt, than they are to a very heavy t-shirt.

That is to say: durable and supremely comfortable. Lounge and work ready.

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I don’t have any clever anecdote, opening, narrative, metaphor, or analogy for you. Apple is a big company, and big companies are hyper-fixated on their stock price, their profits, their growth, and above all else: protecting those three items by any means necessary. This is a universal truth of any company of any substantial size.

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The M4 iPad Pros have been out for a minute now, but I upgraded at the start of the year, and want run through some basics on where the iPad is at right now, and my move from a 13” iPad Pro to an 11” iPad Pro.

The gist of all of this is that this is a damned expensive machine, which is likely to offer very limited utility to anyone with an M2 or newer iPad Pro — and which is still vastly limited by the available software. There is, for diehard iPad lovers like myself, some good things to note here and there.

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There are a lot of really amazing laptop options out there, and Framework’s offerings have been getting a little more press lately. I picked up a Framework 13 at the start of the year to use as my computer during times when my iPad Pro could not handle the task — whatever those tasks might be.

Framework, for those who are not aware, produces laptops geared for Linux users, with Windows support, and they focus on easily repairable/modified/tinkered with machines. That’s to say, while you can buy a fully assembled machine from Framework, one of the more popular routes is to buy the DIY model where you pick every single part, and assemble it yourself.

That’s the route I took, so now that I have several months of using this machine, I wanted to tell you all about why this should be a strong consideration for anyone not particularly feeling beholden to Apple.

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Note: this item was provided for review.

If I were asked to put my thumb on the pulse of small men’s bags, I would say we are on the tail end of slings being overtly popular/acceptable. That’s to say, it’s not something you’ll see everyone carrying, but certainly not something which will draw attention if you carry one. I’ve long been a fan of a good sling, though with my own ups and downs on how often I use them. Pioneer Carry was kind enough to send over their new A4U Sling, which was produced as an item they wanted (aka limited run) to see how it fairs in the wide market of slings.

True to the brand, it’s well made, and smartly designed, and dare I say — one of the better pure slings I’ve tested.

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Note: this item was provided for review.

If these slippers look impossible simple, it’s likely because that’s exactly what they are: a simple bit of leather rolled over and stitched. There’s nothing more to these CP Minimalist Slippers. They are a part of the barefoot mindset, and minimalist even on that spectrum. I take my slippers very seriously — I hate cold feet, and I don’t like to walk through my house in socks (or worse, shoes), as that’s a good way to have really dirty socks, or really dirty floors.

Slippers are a must, and something I always wear.

The CP minimalist slippers are an interesting offering, and I think will prove polarizing for most people. If you are already on the barefoot train, then these are the slippers for you. If not, read on — I certainly was not (and am not) a part of the barefoot mindset and yet these are compelling for a lot of reasons.

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This week: thoughts on Watches & Wonders 2025; among other things.

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