Welcome to InsideHook’s Staff Picks, a compendium of all the stuff our editors have been digging on recently.
Snaak 3D Puzzle
Big museum gift shops guy over here. And design museums, especially, which offer all manner of fun-hued, life-hacking whosie-whatsits. I’m fresh off a trip to Copenhagen, and made sure to purchase the Snaak 3D Puzzle at the Danish Museum of Art & Design. For anyone who owns a desk or has ever experienced boredom, I’d recommend snagging one, stat. Snaak is a series of flexible, interlocking cuboids that can twist into over a billion configurations, though so far I’ve only managed about 35. Happy fidgeting.
-Tanner Garrity, Associate Editor
One of These Days Collection by Matt McCormick
One of my favorite artists working today, Matt McCormick tackles the fantasy of the West without treacly sentimentality or hyper-masculine playacting (New Yorkers can catch his current show, I never believed in much, but I believed in you., at CY Fiore gallery until November 25th). Instead of keeping his art inaccessible or limited to canvas, McCormick will sometimes sell objects from hand-engraved flasks to ceramic ashtrays. This collection of T-shirts, long-sleeves and hoodies is one of the biggest releases to date and, thanks to the platform of Dover Street Market, will likely sell out soon.
–Alex Lauer, Senior Editor
Gerber E-Tool Folding Spade/Shovel
Gerber bills this little foldable entrenching tool as an essential for gardening and hunting, but as I look out my New York window at the first snow of the year, I have another use case on my mind: digging your car out of a bind. It’s sturdy as hell, wide enough for shoveling duty and weighs just a shade over two lbs. And collapsed, you can fit one in the glove compartment. I was initially introduced to this tool by someone who carried it in their backpack while snowboarding to build little kickers in the backcountry, so if you’re feeling limber, there’s that, too.
–Walker Loetscher, Editor in Chief
Faherty Sherpa Blanket
If you told me I could cover my body with only one blanket for the rest of my life, I would immediately call the folks at Faherty and tell them to make me an extra special double-sized Sherpa Blanket, so my girlfriend could also use it when we sleep. On the highly likely chance they tell me to stop calling them so much, I’d break up with my lady for this fleece-lined piece of heaven. There truly is no finer Saturday-morning TV-watching blanket, so I suggest you buy one for yourself, or in my case for my girlfriend as a gift so she doesn’t break up with me after reading that I would hypothetically leave her for a blanket.
–Eli London, Director of Partnerships
Miller Lite Holiday Sweater
Might be more of a Miller High Life guy when it comes to drinking, but for ugly sweaters, it’s Miller (Lite) time. Apparently this is an annual thing for the brand. The design is new this year — yes, that is a Miller Lite can inside a snow globe — and yes, the sweater is 100% acrylic. Look, this isn’t high fashion; you’re gonna wear it once, twice tops, everyone’s gonna be jealous (especially if you share my apt surname), and then you can go about your night and enjoy the drink you really came for … the “Champagne of Beers” in an actual Champagne bottle.
–Kirk Miller, Managing Editor
And the Best Thing We Drank This Week …
Montelobos Espadin is a pretty balanced mezcal — not too smoky, works great in cocktails, etc. — but the brand’s new Tobalá expression, sourced from a much rarer agave, offers a bit more punch and achieves the truly remarkable: It’s complex and versatile, and something that fits somewhere in between a whiskey and (no joke) a gin. This one is a sipper, not a mixer. You should start seeing this around in early December, and if you’ve moved beyond the idea that mezcal is just smoky tequila, this is worth picking up.
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