New Balance

Sneakers, gym shoes, athletic footwear-whatever you prefer to call them, have not been around for too long. In the annals of time, their mere existence is a blip at best. So it is both surprising and refreshing to learn that New Balance has been manufacturing their kicks since 1906.

The New Balance culture is a bit different from that of their competition. Fabricated stateside, the company tends to eschew the mass media advertising campaigns that run amok in this day and age, relying on a loyal base of followers and their word of mouth. Granted, it is hardly a difficult task, as New Balance, in the fitness realm, has earned a reputation over the years as one of the premier shoes for the active lifestyle. One of the innovators to offer width options, a much needed demand amongst athletes everywhere, the company is also known for labeling their shoes in a traditional “1”, “2”, and so forth. The affront to the tradition of hype and fancy marketing for a particular pair is not accidental; it gels with the company philosophy.

At the end of the day, New Balance just wants to focus on providing an essential tool for their clientele’s health and wellness, and maybe offer a lifestyle. A simple enough concept, and one that makes us want to take a lap right now.

Pinewood Derby

This annual Cub Scout contest is a harbinger of spring, embodying perhaps the essence of the season. Founded in 1953 as a response by a Cubmaster in Manhattan Beach, California, to his son being too young to participate in the Soap Box Derby, the Pinewood Derby has grown to an institution. Generations of boys have fashioned – by way of carving, cutting, grinding, sanding, whittling, drilling, and sawing – with or without the aide or supervision of a parent, these wheeled, gravity propelled cars. Hand tools, and coping saws are carefully familiarized. A newly acquired pocketknife may now take on context, as it peels a shaving from the solid pine block. Sanding and careful painting and shellacking will commence. A sticker from a favorite toy or item may be painstakingly grafted on.

The kit: one seven inch block of pinewood, uncarved, with brads and wheels. To be planned and built. Possibilities extrapolate into an imaginative universe of artistry, personal preference, and nearly unbridled creativity, only to attenuate within the unforgiving realm of physics. The wheels may be lubricated with a graphite based lubricant. Wheels may be scuffed and shorn to afford some abrasion, or illusion of abrasion, to grab or not grab the track. Lead weights, or screw slugs may be added to holes bored in the body of the vehicle, or bundles of washers haphazardly duck taped to the top of the car on race day to a maximum of five ounces. Inertia – that axiom of movement and rest – becomes the chimera to be chased, as cars hiss down the track. This lesson is often learned, as ornate paint jobs are plastered over with an onsite addition of washers and other ballast. The blunt reality of function superseding form is rarely a pleasant revelation. Last minute adjustments become teachable moments: intrinsically in line with the spirit of the event.

The track itself, a sloped flume of isolated lanes guides these gravity bourne cars in heats. Pack champions are crowned. Trophies are given for speed, and sometimes for design. Winners advance to district, and then council championships.

Vise Grips

William Petersen, Danish blacksmith, tinkerer, and inventor, living and working in the small town of DeWitt, Nebraska, revolutionized pliers use with the invention of the little honey known as Vise Grips. The locking mechanism enables the user to crunch down. Hold tight. Let go. Hands free, he can comport about an engine compartment. Squeeze that hose shut. Crimp a flange. Or flambé a pipe joint held in place in the turgid jaws. A sort of hemostat for the serious do it yourselfer home and auto repairer.

The US Patent Office issued Petersen a patent for the locking jaw mechanism in 1924. The idea came upon a conflation of the locking features of a vise, and the maneuverability of pliers. With the advent of the War Effort during America’s involvement in WWII, Vise Grips saw new uses and applications. Welders found that a series of Vise Grip pliers down the spines and ribs of a ship served as excellent tacking devices during the fabrication of the metal hulls. WWII era ships had thousands of Vise Grips welded permanently into their substrates and structures. No doubt, giving archaeologists of the future pause and wonder.

The Vise Grip was a featured device in the first ever National Hardware Show in 1945, and held favor with a cohort of new and soon to be homeowners.

W.R. Case & Sons

A legend lives in Bradford, Pennsylvania. In 1889 four brothers, William Russell (W.R.), Jean, John, and Andrew Case (“The Case Brothers”) were handcrafting and selling knives on a wagon trail in New York State. Seeing an opportunity in an industry that had yet to produce a king of the mountain, William carved a niche (bad pun) upon the foundations of pioneering innovation and handmade quality. W.R. Case & Sons was born.

To create a single knife means that 125 cutlery artists will have a hand in its production. Such exotic materials as stag antler, buffalo horn and mother-of-pearl form the handles. A unique tang stamp, a dating system employed since the beginning, has given the Case brand exalted status as the premium collectible of its genre. The Case Collectors Club has 19,000 active enthusiasts and is the largest known knife collecting association in the world.

So synonymously American is the brand, Case has licensing arrangements with such patriotic stalwarts as John Deere, Elvis, and the Boy Scouts. Pretty good company.

Of course by that, we mean that these iconic brands are in pretty good company with W.R. Case & Sons Cutlery Co.

AO Eyewear

A good pair of shades is inherently cool.

Much like the automobile and the mobile phone, sunglasses began their lives as a functional, utilitarian device, only to unleash an inner edge that inspired cultural trends and status. At the forefront of the protective eyewear revolution, albeit inadvertently, was AO Eyewear.

The company has been around since 1826, the first sunglasses unveiled fifty years later. It was in the 1930’s that the American-made gear was paired with the United States Air Force, the exclusive provider of the front line UV ray combatant for our nation’s exalted heroes, the service men and women that provide a protection service of their own to a grateful union. That relationship remained strong, and in 1958 the gold standard, Flight Goggle 58, aka the Original Pilot Sunglass, was manufactured to provide pilots with peak optical performance, comfort and paramount defense against the elements. The sunglass that prided itself on functionality before flair quickly became a fashion staple; the Original Pilot is still produced in the AO complex in Southbridge, Massachusetts.

Vintage Men's 50's Horn Rim

As far as the aforementioned “cool factor”, AO Eyewear never stood a chance. The glasses literally skyrocketed to the moon on the face of Neil Armstrong on Apollo 11. They found a rebellious counter culture atop a Harley in the iconic film Easy Rider. And they felt the need for speed in Top Gun.

Other less glamorous protective necessities (apologies to the ear plugs and surgical masks of the world), eat your heart out.

Maglite

Maglite is one of those difficult-to-peg, “it” companies. Manufactured in the USA, the Ontario, California, based flashlight specialist that Anthony Maglica founded in 1979 has a certain aura that surrounds it; perhaps it is the durable, next gen engineering, anodized 6061 aluminum sleek body with LED bulbs-the spaceship of the once bland flashlight genre. Maybe it is the expert backing that inspires trust, as Maglite is the premier go-to for law enforcement, its beam and strong, blunt DNA a reliable option in a dangerous situation. Or yet, Maglite might have an edge because of its star turn as a featured player in media, from television to film and literature.

Likely, it is a combination of all of these things. Maglica, a self professed obsession poster child for finer engineering, has seen his organization grow from a one man operation into an eight hundred person machine, all driven upon his tenacious hunger for something better. As it stands, the Maglite is the elite of its genre, a perfect fit for an old adage. The company finds its product often imitated, but never duplicated.

Given our world’s penchant for disasters, we know what brand we want waiting in our closets and glove compartments.

Roy Toy

"There's no greater feeling for a parent than helping their child explore their own imagination".

Roy K. Dennison uttered these words long ago, and since 1930 they have served as a credo for the wooden log buildings that the company he founded, Roy Toy, creates. Hand crafted, molded to perfection, Roy Toy products became a gift for two; parent and child. By creating such a malleable pastime, Roy Dennison has subsequently secured bonds between families. Three generations of the Maine-based Dennison family have overseen the production of the classic American made sets, piggybacking on Roy’s commitment to quality.

Though the company ceased production for three decades following the wooden toy pioneer’s passing in the 1960’s, the family genetics proved too strong to simply lay dormant. In 1992, Bruce Dennison, Roy’s grandson, breathed life into the family heirloom. Rummaging through a labyrinth of sleeping treasures, he tenaciously restructured the keys to the kingdom; Roy Toy was back.

Today, new generations of bonds are being created. True to the patriotic, do-it-yourself nature of Roy Dennison, Roy Toy flourishes as a premier provider of wooden recreation. As the world trends towards impersonal digital devices and cyber-play, Roy Toy serves as a bastion of imagination and hands-on creation.

Simplicity has a staying power.

Expo Dry Erase Markers

Produced by Sanford Brands, and based in Oak Brook, Illinois, this iconic marker has been smoothly squeaking and diagramming since the 1970’s. Lines carve out from the chiseled point of the Expo onto the inert sheen of the whiteboard, and an audience – round a boardroom table, or perched in swivel top airplane desks, or standing arm folded in a semi circle amid hulking machinery being diagramed and described – is taken by the poetic way that from once where nothingness stood, there was now a bold line of some color commanded by the demonstrator.

After much demonstration, a room might bear a hint of an Expo; a smell of something evocative of an ethylene compound, or acetone, and somehow extraordinarily familiar. Flowcharts have been discussed here. Several arrows tell of points to be had. A rudimentary and scrawled outline, perhaps. Maybe some hieroglyphics depicting a metaphoric insight. Zips and squiggles become demonstrative of thought itself, as ideas are taken from the abstract and put into very tangible representations on the whiteboard. The Expo Dry Erase Marker makes this happen.

New Orleans Athletic Club

Mens Sana in Corpore Sano.

In English, this means “ a healthy mind will exist in a healthy body”. In the French Quarter, this motto has been employed since 1872 at the iconic New Orleans Athletic Club.

Such concepts were fleeting when young gymnast J.G. Aleix was struck with the vision of bringing physical fitness to the masses in the 19th century. What first began as a club in his backyard blossomed into a serious industry in the heart of New Orleans, and the club has not slowed down since. In a world of mass produced gyms, where the spandex is neon, the music is loud and monotonous, and the treadmills are stacked in organized rows like cattle, the New Orleans Athletic Club is a charming aesthetic coated in a rich heritage. Equal parts Victorian mansion, old time social club and fitness bastion, the club is a throwback; carpeted floors, chandeliers, massive steel grated fans. Inside the walls, one can box in the same ring that trained John L. Sullivan, swim in the old saltwater pool once shared by Johnny Weismuller, practice skills on the hardwood John Havlicek roamed, and shadow the paces walked by Clark Gable and Tennessee Williams.

Amenities such as a barbershop and a library are offered, a welcomed reprieve from the tanning beds and smoothie shops typically found in modern fitness centers. And true to NOLA style, a fully functioning and thriving saloon lies adjacent to the weight room.Perhaps such an idea would never float in any other city in the country, but since it is New Orleans, it cannot help but feel right.

In the middle of the Earthly home of debauchery and sinfully delicious imbibement, an oasis stands, waiting to help us sweat it out and live another day. And that refuge from insanity can only be the New Orleans Athletic Club.

The Story of L.L. Bean

Leon Leonwood Bean left,brothers Otto center, & Guy Bean right

Leon Leonwood Bean was an avid outdoorsman with a cool name who happened to develop a waterproof boot, out of necessity, for fellow nature enthusiasts in Greenwood, Maine, in 1912. So fast did the word travel, Bean constructed a four-page mail order catalogue to service non-resident clients. One hundred years later, LL Bean endures as a “folksy, down Maine” company-and an industry icon.

Durable and functional sportswear was never meant to be stylish in the days before LL Bean stepped its moccasin clad feet onto the scene. Hiking, fishing, snowshoeing…these undertakings were fueled by clothing, accessories and accoutrements that were commonly stored in garages and sheds. Upon LL Bean’s arrival, the outdoor couture trend has become a cultural sidebar, a do-it-yourself community that spans from the woods of Maine to the asphalt of Manhattan, the treacherous pools of the Everglades to the dry terrain of Hollywood. From children lugging around half of their bodyweight in school books, the graphic designer wearing a classic wool travel blazer, or the fly fisher plying his trade while strapped into Leon Bean’s original boots, the company has secured a global reach with its homey themed products.

On the cusp of its centennial, LL Bean continues to set the standard for fashionable outdoors wear. As Americans go greener, the possibilities of Earth’s sustainability grow. As long as we allow Mother Nature to thrive and maintain a hankering for flair, LL Bean can start planning for the next hundred years.

And to think it all started because Leon Leonwood Bean was catching his lunch.