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When an already amazing bag, get’s even better.
I love the Mystery Ranch ASAP. And I was fairly certain nothing would unseat my high benchmark on the GORUCK GR1, but then I tried the ASAP and it met and passed the bar. The ASAP does have a flaw, small as it might be, it comes with no laptop compartment. Which means you need to add suboptimal options to the bag to rectify that.
And then, the ASAP SB came out, same bag — except it comes with a laptop sleeve integrated. Oh yes please.
Perhaps the best Spyderco, but it doesn’t quite meet the standard for what I carry.
I have a love-hate relationship with Spyderco knives. I love how easy they are to open with the giant thumb hole, and how slicey the blades are with the thin and tall leaf shape to them. In hand almost any Spyderco feels pretty damned great. But I hate how bulky they are to carry, and how lefty-hostile they make their knives. There are, for sure, a few true lefty knives from Spyderco, but compared to other knife makers they have basically none.
Most useable Spyderco knives for a left are lockbacks — Spyderco, I will note, does not agree as they label their compression locks as lefty friendly. They are wrong, but whatever.
What they mean when they say leaders need empathy, and some more on the GR2 26L.
A cost effective way to add really high quality light for mirrors.
Something a little different than what I normally post about: I want to bring your attention to an awesome light strip I found. These light strips come in an array of color temps, all are high CRI (90+) and they are pre-installed in an aluminum channel and made to be surface mounted and clicked together to form a long seamless string. Thus they come in 2’ and 1’ lengths. I have two setups right now in 3500k and 2700k.
These ClickBright LED Light Bars are great.
$125 with shoulder strap, for what is probably one of the better weekender/travel duffle bags out there. I currently use mine as my emergency bag for my house, and I think it fills that role supremely well (members can head here to see what I use in place of it). My thoughts on the bag…
$125 with shoulder strap, for what is probably one of the better weekender/travel duffle bags out there. I currently use mine as my emergency bag for my house, and I think it fills that role supremely well (members can head here to see what I use in place of it).
My thoughts on the bag are here.
These bags are highly underrated by those who don’t yet own one.
Why do you want to repair stuff; why don’t we all get to use cool tech features; and holy crap that’s a lot of gear.
Adding velcro loop to the inside of your GR1, makes it feel less like a GR1.
When I picked up the excellent LBT Daypack 14L v2, I was excited to try my first bag with a fully loop back. I had good success with it on the laptop sleeve I had picked up for the ASAP, and generally felt like the hook backed pouches work far better than I would have imagined.
Turns out, I love hook back pouch systems. And there’s a popular one to modify GORUCK bags: the GR1 Shooter Conversion Sheet from Ruck Customs. I grabbed one to try out, and see how well this would work for one of the all time great bags.
Insight into how I evaluate pocket knives right now; and early impressions of the Chaparral.
Really good deals on headlamps here if you need to grab some. The Spot Lite 200 for a small compact light that has a red light is a favorite of mine. The Wiz is ideal for kids. The Storm models are great for those who need to make it through some rough weather conditions. And…
Really good deals on headlamps here if you need to grab some. The Spot Lite 200 for a small compact light that has a red light is a favorite of mine. The Wiz is ideal for kids. The Storm models are great for those who need to make it through some rough weather conditions. And for me, the Flare is the ultimate for an emergency bag. I can’t even count how many headlamps I have from Black Diamond, and they are all great.
Some good deals on Black Diamond headlamps (big fan of those, though Black Diamond’s sale has slightly better pricing depending on shipping and taxes for you) and hiking shoes (I snagged some Salomon XA’s) — also a bunch of merino gear is on sale and that’s a good enough reason for me to grab another…
Some good deals on Black Diamond headlamps (big fan of those, though Black Diamond’s sale has slightly better pricing depending on shipping and taxes for you) and hiking shoes (I snagged some Salomon XA’s) — also a bunch of merino gear is on sale and that’s a good enough reason for me to grab another t-shirt.
When a folder performs like a fixed blade.
I have to confess, I’ve always been interested in the Adamas lineup of knives. They have a very simple premise: “tank-like construction you can trust your life with.” These fall under Benchmade’s tactical section of knives, but are well loved by a lot of people. They come in a few variants: autos, fixed blade, and two sizes of folders. Of all of these I got the ‘smallest’, which is the ‘Mini Adamas’.
That might paint a bad picture though. Becuase mini here is still a beast of a knife which dwarfs all my other folding knives in size. That said, ‘tank-like’ is perhaps the most apt description of this knife.
It’s wildly overbuilt and I love it for that.
I love the Road Buddy series. My review is here. Know that I still use these bags to this day, and refuse to let people borrow them. They are excellent bags. Pre-order for 36 is here. Pre-order for 60 is here. Get some!
I love the Road Buddy series. My review is here.
Know that I still use these bags to this day, and refuse to let people borrow them. They are excellent bags.
Pre-order for 36 is here.
Pre-order for 60 is here.
Get some!
A slow burn for me on this one, but I ended up loving it and appreciate this quirky bag/pouch.
Mystery Ranch sells two small bags call the Bop and Big Bop. These are a hybrid bag which come with a shoulder strap to use the bag as a small shoulder bag, but also MOLLE attachment on the back of the pouch so that you can use them as a dedicated pouch.
I snagged the standard Bop in Coyote to give it a go as a pouch which can be pulled out and carried if needed. It’s pretty great.
The only time to track your fitness is when you are doing said fitness — all other times is just not a good idea.
Could this be the best watch on the market? Possibly.
This watch is affectionately called the Casioak, or derisively called the Royal Broke — pick your pleasure — the real name is GA2100. There’s some watch enthusiast snark there, in that it feels like it was styled after the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak line of watches. But, the truth here is that this might be the best watch value out there, who gives a shit about why it looks like it does — it looks stellar.
For roughly $100, you get a watch which might be impossible to break under normal wear and use, and which still looks really sharp. There’s a wide selection of colors/models out there, I went with the non-USA market option which is all black with white indices (the USA variant has near black hands and the contrast is too low).
This is my second favorite watch right now, and neck and neck for my most worn — you can go get one and see for yourself or read on if you need more praise of it.
GORUCK just dropped some GR1 Field Pocket in Multicam Tropic — a favorite of mine — and they are not USA made which means the price is nicely set at $50. (They also released Multicam Black and Black at the same price.) I think this is the best size of these GORUCK makes, and I have…
GORUCK just dropped some GR1 Field Pocket in Multicam Tropic — a favorite of mine — and they are not USA made which means the price is nicely set at $50. (They also released Multicam Black and Black at the same price.)
I think this is the best size of these GORUCK makes, and I have a ton. Also, pockets in camo are super fun, so indulge.
Metrics for determining if a pocket knife is good, and a couple random things I bought recently.
It likely this is the best bag you can EDC to your office.
This pack shouldn’t be this good. It should be yet another expensive backpack, which is a little too overcomplicated for its own good. That’s what it should be, that’s what a lot of people assume and think it is. When I look at the specs, the images, and other reviews of this bag — that’s what I see in this bag. It’s the entire reason I’ve never bothered to try it.
The reality is far from all that.
The reality is that this is possibly the best pure EDC backpack money can buy. The reality is that this perfectly meets the needs of backpack nerds, office goers, and urban explorers. It strikes the balance of understated looks, with very high performance materials, and a mix of organization and empty space.
The Axiom 24 is a damned good backpack.
I take two iconic and fantastic bags, which I have been telling you to buy for years, and then tell you about two bags better than those.
Some of the best performance clothing out there, if you can find a style you like.
I’ve been a fan of Beyond Clothing’s stuff for a while now, and some time back they expanded their offerings to a lineup of less tactically focused clothing. I picked up a couple items recently, and on top of those — Beyond sent over a few more for me to check out and review (I’ll indicate which is which below).
Long story short: I’ve yet to get something from Beyond that I didn’t think was really good, bordering on amazing at times and these items are no exception to that. If you need some new outdoor clothing, or work from home gear, or whatever — be sure to check out what they have. I am a big fan of the brand.