This year we’re prescribing a double helping of retail therapy. We scoured the web and cased the design stores to find the most luxurious—and eco-friendly!—vehicles, the rugged-est gear, and the edgiest new technology out there.
Sneaker of the Year
When Nike found itself in something of a sneaker arms race with Adidas, it brought out the React Element 87: a futuristic translucent shoe on a marshmallow-soft sole. Buy a pair if you can (they’re released regularly but almost always sell out)—and then make sure you’re wearing cool socks.
(Don’t) Stay Thirsty
You can’t keep buying plastic water bottles. And your college Nalgene somehow still smells like that one time you mixed a margarita in it. The Hay Sowden Bottle, with its fuck-minimalism colors, is the proper vessel for the coffee-shop gig-economy worker of the future.
Mood: Lighting
The w127 Winkel by Wästberg is made of a “biologically sourced” plastic that feels like metal. The light it casts is bright but not too clinical. And the crane neck holds any position you put it in. Now close the laptop and pull out that Moleskine you ambitiously bought last year.
Clout Goggles
These Vuarnets have all the glare-blocking features of the Bond-ian glacier goggles the classic French brand is known for. But they’re a little better suited for more urbane movie-star adventures like, say, getting ambushed by paparazzi as you exit the Uber. They also work even if the only thing flashing in your face is the harmful blue light from your phone—99 percent of which these shades block out.