The Grey NATO - Ep 46 - Sartorial Adventures

Published on Tue, 31 Oct 2017 09:29:51 -0400

Synopsis

This episode covers a wide range of topics related to travel, adventure, diving, and clothing/gear. The hosts discuss upcoming trips, new watch reviews, music recommendations, and an Indiegogo project by a watchmaker looking to produce a handmade watch. A main segment focuses on recommendations for versatile casual and outdoor clothing brands like Patagonia, Eddie Bauer, and others, as well as specific pant, shirt, jacket, and shoe recommendations.

Transcript

Speaker
Co-host Hello and welcome to another episode of the GrayNado, a loose discussion of travel, adventure, diving, gear, and most certainly watches. Thanks for listening. First up, a quick note that our supporter bundles are restocked and available at thegraynado.com support. For those of you who are new to the show, since we launched the original run of the bundles, they're a way for us to fund the show and send you some swag in return. For $50 you get a Toxic Grey NATO with a TGN signed buckle in either 20 or 22mm plus a TGN logo sticker and a TGN logo iron-on patch. Now Jason and I would like to emphasize that this is not a good deal for what you get. A Toxic NATO costs about $18 directly from their site. That said, should you want to support the show and our endeavors to bring you more and more content, this is the best way to go about it. They sold out really quickly in the first run. So head to thegraynado.com slash support to order a supporter bundle of your own. And thanks to everyone who already has. Now on with the show. All right. Hey, Jason, how's it going?
Jason Heaton Great. Yeah. Good to be, uh, good to be home from New York. It was a fun trip, but, uh, nice to be out of the Hodinkee closet and back in the little home recording studio here.
Co-host Yeah, for sure. It sounds good. Nice and crisp.
Unknown Yeah.
Co-host And, uh, well, let's, uh, let's kind of kick it off with, uh, what's new. What's, uh, what's on your plate these days?
Jason Heaton Well, um, I guess, you know, once this episode goes live, uh, it would be Tuesday the 31st. I will be actually probably on an airplane headed home from, from the trip that I spoke about last time to Mexico, to Cabo Pulmo for that, uh, that Rolex press trip with, with Sylvia Earl, which I'm pretty excited about. I leave, you know, we're recording this on a Monday night. I'm leaving it, I'm leaving for that trip on Saturday. So, um, quick trip, quick turnaround. Um, but, uh, it's a beautiful place and, Hopefully the weather will cooperate and we'll get some, you know, a good dive or two in and, and so that'll be fun. And, uh, you know, other than that, I'm kind of the opposite end of watch brand ambassador spectrum. I, I had a, a nice chat last week with our friend, the Bremont ambassador, Ben Saunders, who, whom we met at the, the Bremont townhouse last, uh, actually this past spring. And, uh, Ben is off on his latest expedition to Antarctica. which is really, really ambitious. He's going to be dragging a sled essentially a thousand miles for 60 plus days from west to east across the continent there. It's a glutton for punishment. Glutton for punishment. I spoke to him in my interviews up on Outside Magazine's website, so we'll put a link in the show notes for that. But yeah, so it's diving in warm weather and And skiing across a frozen continent and, you know, kind of everything in between here. So how about you? What have you got going on these days? You're back from a really cool trip. We saw on Instagram, your, your formula one photos. How was that?
Co-host Yeah, it was great. I ended up, uh, so we were there for, um, the Friday and if you know, formula one, you have a Friday, Saturday, and a Sunday. So you have the practice day qualifying and then race day. So you're just there for practice day, which was still very exciting and certainly a lot of fun. I've actually yet to be at race day for Formula One. I think it's probably ludicrously expensive to entertain guests, press or otherwise. Yeah. At race day. So we were there for the Friday. We got to see a couple of the practice sessions and get up close with some of the cars. And obviously IWC had a ton of engineers there. They're, you know, the new line, they've kind of reannounced them throughout the year. And I kind of went hands on with This Ingenieur Sport Chrono, it's a tribute to the 50 years of AMG.
Jason Heaton Oh, nice.
Co-host I'm a sucker for the white dial with the black markers. You know, it's a big chronograph. You know, it runs on their in-house movement. So the watch is nearly 45 millimeters wide. It's in titanium. And my piece will probably be on Hodinkee before this goes up. So just swing back by the site and take a look at that. And then In a couple of days, I'll actually be back from it by the time this episode goes live. But in a couple of days, I head down to San Diego for something like 36 hours to drive the Aston Martin DB11 V8, which we chatted about on the last episode, but still very excited for that. It should be great. I've got high hopes, obviously. Wow. And it looks like they've got a great kind of route for us to drive.
Jason Heaton uh... more around that part of uh... part of california so should be pretty cool okay to hear about that i'm i'm i'm curious you know formula one and driving an aston martin and some of the cars you've had recently the mclaren and that lamborghini car enthusiast the it always feels like there's kind of a divide between someone who's into motorsports or car racing enthusiasm and and then just sort of general car enthusiasm like you know i'm i'm Kind of a casual car guy. I like, I like cars, but I just don't have much interest in Formula One. It feels, I guess it feels less accessible to me. Um, do you get that sense or do you kind of like both equally?
Co-host Um, I'm definitely not a huge fan of motorsport. I love to read the recaps. Yeah. Uh, there's a few different sites that post recaps of the races. So you can kind of follow who's in what position and I'll occasionally go to the Wikipedia page. So you can kind of see how the points are playing out and certainly in years worth Records are being broken like this year. You've got a lot of really good drivers Yeah, I think it's a fantastic thing, but it is a little bit inaccessible just from how to watch it Yeah, I don't like watching things when they're on TV, you know, I fall into that Millennial divide we're like, I don't really watch anything on TV ever Yeah, and it looks like just recently there will be formula one in a live stream as of next year, huh? Um, so I could see that being cool. I've also seen some people will go back and do like highlight reels of every race, which really brings your time down, but I suppose that kind of defeats the purpose of being a fan. And I think every time that I go and experience one of these things in the flesh, and that's anything from like a pebble beach to a formula one race, it really just kind of makes me think more about, Oh, maybe I should be more following this or following that. The, the main trouble is with the motorsport aspect is I don't really care for sports. Oh, yeah. I like sporting activities. I obviously like to hike and do all that kind of stuff, but like I just don't really care for competitive sports at all. I have no taste for hockey and football and all that kind of stuff. So certainly things like rally racing and I'll go back and watch rally race, like old rally races on YouTube, you know, I'll go down little rabbit holes and do that kind of thing. But actually actively following it and being like invested in the progress of one team versus another is something that doesn't really come that naturally to me. Yeah. Uh, I really liked the technological aspect and I like to read about vintage racing as well.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I think the cars, the old cars are sort of a little closer to what we know about cars or have experienced in cars. I think the new ones, you look at a steering wheel and it's buttons and lights and everything's just so foreign.
Co-host For sure. Yeah. It's fantastic. It's really fantastic. And I love the pursuit of engineering and I like the involvement from watch brands. I think that makes a lot of sense. Um, if I was really going to get deep into a motor sport, it would probably be something like Isle of Man, like the TT, uh, just because that, that feels properly nutty and kind of old school. And then of course, you know, we've spoken in the past about, you know, the, the timed runs up the hill at Goodwood. I really like that kind of stuff. Uh, it's a little bit more accessible cause it happens once a year and you can kind of catch up on all of it in, uh, in short order. So I think it takes a lot to be like deep into any sport. Yeah. And I think that maybe you and I more naturally memorize aspects of watches or gear or cars or things like that than the sports side of it. Yeah. It's just a personality thing. I totally understand why somebody would love it. Yeah.
Jason Heaton So maybe we should talk a little bit about any new watches.
Co-host You finally sent that Panerai back that you were... I will return the Panerai before this episode goes live, but I still have it. It's actually sitting right in front of me on the desk. It's a lovely thing and I will be very sad to give it back. It's funny reviewing a watch like this because when I was reviewing it and I didn't notice until I shot all the photographs and then I went back to edit the photographs, I noticed that the bezel does not align correctly with the markers. It's off by, it's a 60 click bezel, which I mentioned in the last episode, but it's off by like maybe one third of a click. Huh. which for the 12 o'clock bezel isn't that noticeable because it's a thick bezel and it's a double marker. Yeah. But at the six o'clock bezel, it's this little metal kind of nail head and then the single marker. And you can see that it's askew. And so I was like, oh, did I get a defective one? What's the issue here? Because the fitment for the bezel seemed fine. Yeah. And then I went back and looked at my photos from SIHH and sure enough, serial numbers were the same so I actually was just given a pre-production prototype to review which is a bit of a bummer and like I don't really know why brands do that. Yeah. Because the watch is on the market now but it could be that this is just what they have to provide and every brand kind of comes at that differently but you know it was it was a bit of a bummer and certainly like Once you see it, it's like seeing the arrow in the FedEx logo. You kind of can't unsee it in any of the photos. And it doesn't diminish what I feel about the watch. And obviously ones that are in the store had better have a perfect bezel given the $8,600 price point for the watch. But yeah, so aside from that small prototype issue, really liked having the watch and yeah, I'm going to miss it when I have to give it back. I guess the only other new thing I have is Terry at Toxic Nato sent me a couple of new Nato straps. The Shiznit Herringbone strap is his name for it. Oh yeah. And I got one in kind of a two-tone blue and one in Admiral Gray with a lighter gray edge. Yeah. And if you have come across Nato straps or Toxic Nato's or whatever, and don't really like the rougher feel of the material for some of these, I personally prefer the rougher, thinner, normal N80 Toxic Nato's.
Unknown Yeah.
Co-host But with these, the herringbone ones are quite smooth and they definitely feel like a higher quality, kind of more polished. Almost like seatbelts kind of? Yeah, a little bit like that. It's just a different sort of nylon weave. I don't know if it's more durable or what, but it's shinier. Oh, yeah. And it feels really good. It's super comfortable. It's a little bit thicker, but you still get that great hardware. Yeah. And there's a couple of shots on my Instagram and I'll put them in the show notes or whatever. But if you're looking for kind of a different spin, He's got four or five different versions, maybe even six different versions of the coloring. Yeah. But these are solid. I mean, the guy's on his game. Obviously, we love toxic NATOs. And thanks very much, Terry, for sending those my way. I'm always happy to take a look at any new stuff that's coming out. And anyone that I talk to from now on that maybe doesn't like the more... I wouldn't call them coarse. The standard grey NATO is just a very functional NATO. Yeah. these are just kind of a step up in terms of, they're a little bit more polished, a little bit more smooth, and they look, maybe they even look a little bit more fitting on a more classy sort of watch. Yeah, yeah. Huh, nice. And how about you? Anything new for you?
Jason Heaton Well, you know, you had pointed out that somebody had asked about the Doxa, the black one. Oh, right, yeah, yeah. And, you know, I think just our travel schedules and recording schedules kind of, we kind of just skipped right past that. You know, I think that review published on, I think it was the first of the month, um, and I don't know, we were gone or something happened. We just blew right past it. But yeah, really, you know, it was a really cool watch. Um, you know, essentially the same piece as the, the 50th anniversary sub 300. Um, you know, that was such a big hit last year and still is this year. Um, I, I do think the addition of the, the old Aqua lung logo on that watch is, uh, um, It makes a huge difference, but, you know, it's still the same watch identically. Oh, they sold out. They sold out. Yeah.
Co-host That's not to say Doxa sold out. Sorry, that is to say the model sold out. All that were made have been sold or reserved or whatever.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And I think, you know, I think what was particularly neat about this one is, you know, certainly visually, it's just really cool to see that on a new watch again. But I think what's really neat about it is that they actually got, you know, full buy-in from Aqualung, the company, which you know, for, for kind of a niche, small brand like, like Doxa to get that level of, you know, to, to sell that to, to the big shots at Aqualung, which is a really big company these days, um, was really neat. So that was really cool. I think that that actually is courtesy of, um, a guy named Ty Alley, who's been a long time Doxa guy. I think he's a moderator on the forum and he's, um, he actually kind of owns a dive gear company down in Louisiana and he was on mission 31. trip a few years ago with Fabian Cousteau, and I think he kind of used some of his networking contacts in the dive industry to kind of get the ear of someone at Aqualung to pitch that. So hats off, you know, great. I mean, it's amazing that within less than a month that that watch is entirely sold out. And congrats to everybody that got one and just a really cool piece. So anything else to do for you? Yeah. In addition to that, you know, I just finished up. In fact, it'll be live, I believe, tomorrow, or at least before this episode airs, uh, reviewing the CWC, the 1980 Royal Navy diver reissue.
Unknown Okay.
Jason Heaton Which, you know, CWC is one of these brands that, that, you know, unless you're kind of a deep, deep watch nerd, uh, you might not have heard of them, but you know, it's Cabot watch company, the brand that was supplying the British Navy and air force and army with, with watches for many years, since the early seventies. And kind of one of their coveted pieces was this automatic diver that replaced the Rolex Millsub in 1980. And they only made this automatic version of it for two years. And so if you can find one nowadays, a vintage one, they're very rare and fairly expensive these days. And so I think they kind of caught wind of, you know, the kind of the rarity and the way people were coveting these watches, and they decided to reissue this. And so they sent me one to review, and I had it for just about a week to 10 days. took a bunch of photos and wore it around and you know I have one of the old like a mid-90s quartz version of the same watch and I just adore it. I dove with it on the Hermes for one of the dives and I wear it quite a bit. The reissue is you know from a distance it looks just like the old one and it's well made. It's a beautiful watch. I kind of feel like maybe something has diminished a bit in my mind about the brand. I shouldn't say about the brand but I guess the bloom is off the rose a little bit when it comes to CWC because I thought that, I think what I liked about them was this no-nonsense kind of military supplier vibe that they always had, you know, it's just they never gave names to their watches and they always just kind of stamped issue numbers on the case back and, you know, fixed spring bars, you could get it one way and that's it. And, you know, here they are releasing a watch with, you know, faux patina and kind of, you know, limited edition with the old logo and a premium price. I mean, it's more than twice the price of the standard automatic that you can get from them. So it's not so much the watch I didn't like because I do like it quite a bit. And I think it was just this notion of now you're not, the company's become more self-conscious about who they are. And I think that somehow didn't play as well in my mind. So anyway, you can, you can read my review on Hodinkee and we'll, you know, we'll put that in the show notes and, curious to see what other people think of it as they're getting this watch. There's only 600 of them being made, so chances are they'll sell out regardless of what I think about it.
Co-host Yeah, well it sounds like it's still a solid watch. It's just that maybe the way they went about designing it or the way they're leveraging it as a reissue of something that is kind of more or less still being made didn't sit as well.
Jason Heaton Yeah, and certainly I shouldn't blame them because everybody's doing it now. I mean, you know, pilots aren't wearing old Mark Series IWCs anymore and yet you know, IWC has great success selling those watches. So the brand has to adapt and maybe military contracts aren't, uh, aren't paying the bills like they used to. So they've probably got to do something. So, um, maybe I'm being, I'm being too harsh on them, but, uh, anyway, it's a cool watch, but those are kind of my, my first impressions of it.
Unknown Okay.
Co-host What about, uh, what about you? Anything else? Yeah, one last quick update is I had a really nice breakfast in Austin. I had a very short window of time early morning and thankfully Enrique Machant of Machant Flashlights was willing to meet me for breakfast tacos at a place called Torchy's that was not too far from my hotel. And, you know, we've talked about his product kind of ad nauseum and it was a really, really a treat to meet him. And I got a chance to see a few new iterations of the Beagle, including the two super rare ones that are going to be produced, which is the Opus series. So you have the Mokume Gane. I apologize for obviously any pronunciation here. So the Mokume Gane and the Mokume Ti. And one is kind of a blend of, I believe, copper and steel that's been twisted and then heat treated to have kind of a wood grain. developed and it's done by hand. Wow. It's a very rare piece of metal that's used and it's obviously to use it in a flashlight is to make something kind of extraordinary. I mean, the normal Beagle is an expensive flashlight to begin with, but when you get into the details, you can totally see where that comes from. So if you're in that mind space of appreciating that sort of thing, it makes sense. And then there's also the Mokume TI, which is a, again, kind of a twisted Um, almost Damascus like, uh, titanium and it's all blues and yellows and kind of these weird greens. Uh, it's hard to explain. I'm sure the photos will be on Machant's website at some point when they are, I will put them in the show notes, but I have a photo that I snapped, uh, at breakfast, uh, which is in the show notes now, which shows kind of the three, um, including the kind of more everyday normal, if you could call it that, uh, turned titanium, which is a lovely standard sort of finish. And then the two Mokume finishes are simply like nothing I've ever seen before.
Unknown Huh.
Jason Heaton Nice. And it's always fun to meet a listener or an Instagram friend or something for the first time. You just you never quite know what to expect. And yet there is something familiar about it, even if you've just exchanged, you know, direct messages or an email or two.
Co-host Yeah, for sure. And, you know, I've gotten to know Enrique more and more over WhatsApp, just kind of chatting back and forth. We love to talk about products and design, and I've learned a ton from him. You know, he's obviously a talented engineer and I think a very talented designer. And I have a huge respect for his products because you can really see the level of care that goes into it. I don't think he's that concerned with the fact that there are people who don't understand the product from both a price point and a necessity. What he's done is he saw something that he really liked and thought that he could improve. And he's taking that to its absolute end. So I'm a huge fan. And again, Enrique, it was a treat to get a chance to meet you in person. So I think that probably wraps up what's new, eh? Yeah, I think so. You want to move right into a main topic then? Yeah, let's do that. OK, so this main topic today is we're going to be chatting about clothes, believe it or not. And it's actually just a response to a handful of queries we've had asking what kind of clothes we wear, what we recommend, that sort of thing. And, uh, I thought that we could kind of dig into it. And as we built out the notes and kind of discussed it, it looked like it was going to make for a full topic. So, uh, let's, uh, let's lean into that, right?
Jason Heaton Yeah, I think so. I mean, you know, for, for, I get a lot of questions on social media and, and, you know, certainly we've gotten a handful of questions that have come into the show about, you know, the technical clothing, the casual clothing, the footwear, the jackets and stuff that we like. So, Maybe we just go kind of, uh, not, not quite head to toe, but let's, uh, let's sort of dive in.
Co-host And yeah, I think, I think that if you're talking about casual and especially casual outerwear, which I think it's safe to say is probably the majority of our needs for clothing. I mean, like I wear jeans or khakis most days. I don't dress up that often. And Vancouver obviously is a city that likes its weather as is Minneapolis. I mean, you guys get a wide swing. throughout the year. So you tend to have an appreciation for these kind of nicer made, lasting outerwear products. So I think that's a decent place to start. And yeah, I have a huge love for both Eddie Bauer and Patagonia.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I think, you know, we both own Nanopuff products. I think you have the jacket, I've got the vest. Yeah. They're just such versatile pieces. If you're not familiar with Patagonia's Nanopuff, it's a synthetic insulation piece that is just feather light. It's not, it's not a high loft, so it's not, you know, really puffy jacket, although I guess you'd consider it in that sort of family of, of puffy jackets that sort of down or synthetic down type of insulating piece. Um, it is, it's quite thin. I've got the vest and it's a very slim fitting. Um, you know, you hardly even, if you stuff it in a pack, you just, there's no weight penalty at all. You just don't even notice it. Um, it's, I wouldn't say it's a super warm, but you know, I layer it over sometimes just a t-shirt, um, or, or like a button down shirt. It works really well over that. Um, great for travel. Um, you've got, you've got the full, full length jacket, right?
Co-host Yeah, I have the, I just bought a full length, the normal full jacket with full sleeves and such. And, uh, it's a really basic, easy to understand sort of thing. It's their down, it's their aesthetic of their down jacket or their down shirt, I guess they call it. Yeah. But yeah, with a synthetic, so when it's wet, it still preserves heat. Yeah. Whereas down clumps up and then you don't get any benefit from the jacket if it gets wet. Uh, they're DWR coated, so you could take them out in a very light rain. I wouldn't push that really. DWR typically lets you down, um, in genuine rain and real rain. Um, but the jacket's super versatile. It's really comfortable if you're, I find it, uh, it just, the warmth really depends on how much you're moving around. Yeah. If it's cold and you're sitting still, it might as well be a sweater. Yeah. I mean, you have to generate some heat to get it into that filling. And then, and then it, and then I find it, it can get quite warm, but it's a perfect mid layer. Basically it'll go under any jacket. I I've really enjoyed using it for travel where there's a disparity in the temperature of where I'm leaving and where I'm showing up. Right. Because if I leave Vancouver and it's cold and I'm going somewhere warm, like to Southern California, then I won't need that jacket, but I might want it on the plane.
Unknown Yeah.
Co-host It makes a great pillow when you stuff it into its pocket. It makes a perfectly good blanket. And then coming home, you know, I don't have a bulky jacket that couldn't fit inside my bag that I want to pull out while I'm waiting for a cab to go back home in, you know, 10C weather, whatever it is at home. So, so far I've absolutely adored that. And obviously Patagonia for me is one of my most favorite companies. I absolutely love the way they do business. I have a huge respect for Yvon Chouinard. Dude's nothing short of a hero. We've talked about him a lot on the show, so you could just go back and listen to some of the past ones. But yeah, I mean, huge love for what he's done and the products. And now, as we'll mention later in the show, they're endeavoring to sell used products to really cut down on the churn of perfectly good product, quality product that's not being used and is just being replaced with something that might be seen deemed more fashionable. And, uh, and so there's, there's that. And then with, uh, with Eddie Bauer, it's really simple is you're getting, I would say most of the quality that you find in Patagonia. This is in select products. We've talked about things like their guide pro pants and some of their adventure shirts. And I've had one of the, I have a few of their sweaters and I would say they're similar in quality. They're not as nice as Patagonia, but they're drastically cheaper and they still have a lifetime warranty. Assuming, uh, assuming Eddie Bauer still exists. Yeah. They've had a few, we'll call it bankruptcy snafus recently in the last few years. So that's something to keep in mind, but I've been really impressed with their stuff. And I would say my favorite product from them is those Guide Pro Pants.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I wear those all the time. I've got, I think, two or three pairs and I've, I've paired them with a, you know, a sport coat. Um, I've done, you know, I just wear them hiking. Um, super versatile. Um, they fit well. They're, um, quick dry. Um, fantastic. I, you know, when Eddie Bauer kind of turned the corner, um, was I don't know how many years ago it was, but they launched their first ascent line, which they were kind of partnering with some Rainier mountain guides out in Seattle where they're based. And they really started making this, this really tech gear that was kind of going back to their roots because, you know, in the early days Eddie Bauer was making, you know, really good down jackets for, you know, American, the American Everest, uh, uh, expedition back in the sixties and, um, So they were kind of known for that. And then I think they kind of lost their way for a while. They were kind of doing the Land's End sort of, you know, khakis, very sort of conservative office wear. But the First Ascent stuff is great. I've got one of their windbreakers that I wear, you know, cross-country skiing and cycling a lot. And it's been great. I've got about a dozen of those sort of adventure shirts. I don't know if they call them guide shirts or departure shirts, but they're, you know, real breathable, quick-dry, button-down shirts. They weigh nothing. They weigh nothing. You know, I lived in those in Sri Lanka. Just fantastic. Yeah. Eddie Bauer, Patagonia.
Co-host Definitely. Definitely. The First Ascent is a great, is a great addition. I don't, yeah, I'm not wild about like their jeans or their, their button up. Yeah. Flannel. Like I could, you can get that stuff from anywhere.
Unknown Yeah.
Co-host And, and often the fits a little strange and all of it just kind of ends up looking like kind of dad core. Right. You know, bulky, like it looks fine, but it's all nicely made, but my, my drastic preference for them is for the more technical stuff.
Unknown Yeah.
Co-host And by all means, if you like the idea of essentially a pair, like something you could treat like sweatpants, like I wear my Guy Pro pants whenever I'm hanging out with my daughters because they constantly have something sticky on their hands that ends up on a pair of pants that like I have to wear out to do things, like to see people or go to dinner or whatever in. And so I wear mine essentially like some people would wear joggers or sweatpants. And then on top of that, you've got a couple of nice pockets. They don't weigh anything. And in a pinch, they really don't look like that sporty of an item. And they even make them, if you go down a level or two from the Guide Pro and you're willing to give up the thigh pockets, they make a pair that just look like khakis.
Jason Heaton Yeah.
Co-host They're stretchy and they have all the good material and a good warranty and come in lots of sizes. So I like their stuff quite a bit. You know, I've been impressed with it. I wouldn't necessarily wear it to an office. I mean, obviously they make some stuff that you could definitely wear to most offices, but the stuff that I have, is more applicable for airplane travel and kind of adventure work, getting in and out of cars to take pictures in the rain, that kind of stuff. It's just a nice, you know, if you have kind of a moving around lifestyle, that's good stuff.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Now we're both kind of big fans of wool. I've got a couple of Merino wool sweaters. I kind of have, I've kind of gone between three different brands. I do a lot with Icebreaker, which is based out of New Zealand, and then Ibex, which has kind of done a push for kind of more American-made stuff, and then Smartwool. Of the three, Icebreaker makes really good stuff, but it's pretty spendy. The Ibex, I have a kind of a quarter-zip Ibex merino sweater that I've just put through everything, and it doesn't pill. It's just the right level of warmth for, you know, pretty much three seasons. I've hiked in it, I've worn it to nicer events, out to dinner, just fantastic stuff. It's just the perfect weight. I just find that sort of lightweight merino zip neck sweater to be such a versatile style.
Co-host Yeah, I have a couple of those from, I probably have one from Banana Republic that I'm not that wild about. But it's held up okay. With those clothes, it's how much you wash them, that's the difference between a good how they look. Yeah. But the Icebreaker stuff, you can wash it a billion times. It makes no difference. Yeah. I would say arguably one of my most favorite pieces of clothing I own, period, is a sweater from Icebreakers that I don't think they make anymore, but was called the Spire Crew Sweater. So if you're on The Last Hunt or Sierra or whoever that might carry things that the original brand no longer carries, like, you know, additional product or whatever. Yeah. take a look and see if you could find this. It's literally a perfect everyday sweater. It's a gray sweater. It's got like a red detail on the cuff. It's a crew neck. It's heavy, but not heavy like warm. It just has this nice weight when you put it on. And I wear it all the time from now until April in Vancouver. And I absolutely adore it. I got it Oh, man, it was probably 200 bucks Canadian. I had a friend who worked for Icebreakers. So it was like a half off thing. So it wasn't that expensive in the end. And if I had known not only that they're going to discontinue it, but that my friend would lose that pro card kind of discount, I would have bought it in every color. It's just an absolutely fantastic product. I really like it. So yeah, if you don't mind spending the money or you're patient and do the sale thing. Yeah. Icebreakers makes really nice stuff. The only note that I would have is I have a selection of their really lightweight merino t-shirts. Oh yeah. So I think they call them the 100 weight or they used to call them the 100 weight. Yeah. And they will tear really easily. Yeah.
Jason Heaton I found them too warm too actually. I've tried those.
Co-host I found that once they were just soaked with sweat. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They cooled off. Oh yeah. I have a couple of them and I really love them for the base layer when I fly.
Unknown Yeah.
Co-host because they really kind of help you pad the temperature differential in the plane.
Unknown Yeah.
Co-host If, if you know what I mean, but I do agree that they run warm, so you have to be prepared to wear them as a t-shirt.
Unknown Yeah.
Co-host And then, uh, as not like, not just as an undershirt. Yeah. And I think a lot of brands now make these, so I don't see why, why you would spend the money necessarily on icebreakers, but that's my one note is that the hundred weight of anything, um, in the Merino wool, you have to be very careful what catching it on, a rough edge of a chair or a branch or whatever, because it just rips. The material is so thin and so light. And then as soon as you go to the one step up, I find that problem goes away immediately. I have a black, what they would have called a medium light, probably a 140 weight, I think. I could have said these numbers off by a bit, but I think it was called like a 140 weight. It's indestructible. So just that small difference. Granted, it's quite a bit warmer for the additional bulk. But yeah, any of that. And then I guess that kind of stretches into socks, too. Do you have any huge love for socks?
Jason Heaton I love a good pair of socks. I'm kind of a big Smartwool guy. And I also use, I have a brand called, there's two other brands I'd recommend. One is Darn Tough. Yeah, for sure. And another one is Dahlgren. Both make really good Marino, lightweight Marino socks that you can wear for pretty much anything. I mean, you could wear them running, hiking, with dress shoes if they're the right color. Yeah, I'm a huge Marino sock fan. I wear pretty much, pretty much exclusively Marino wool socks year round, no matter what I'm doing.
Co-host It's a perfect material for covering your feet. Yeah. And I have, The ones that I like, certainly the Darn Tufts are amazing. And if you can get the ones that are the lower on the ankle, you can wear those all year round. They're perfect. They don't, there's nothing to see that would look like a hiking sock. And then the other two that I would recommend might not be helpful for those that aren't Canadian, but I assume the brand Hiker GX exists elsewhere. I bought them at Mac, which is like Canada's REI and they're not crazy expensive. And I just managed after I don't know, three years of wearing them pretty much constantly to put a hole in one pair. Huh. So I don't think they're necessarily as tough as, you know, people say the darn tough ones are. Yeah. But these are really nice and maybe REI carries them. I don't know. Maybe just Google it. And then the, uh, the other one is Mark's Work Warehouse, which I think is a Canadian thing. I don't know if that's a thing in the States. Huh. Never heard of it. Yeah. It's like a menswear place. Uh, like it's imagine what we were saying about some of the, the Eddie Bauer stuff that we weren't huge fans of.
Unknown Yeah.
Co-host A store dedicated to that. And then also like work boots and Carhartt stuff and. Oh yeah. It's just like work wear.
Unknown Right.
Co-host General work wear. They'll carry Levi's as well. Yeah. But they carry these, you know, these really generic, like if you think of like a lumberjack's wool sock. Yeah. Yeah. Like Dick Pranicki's wool sock. This is what I have them on right now. I wear them like slippers in my house. They're not especially thick, but they're Really nice and warm. And as long as you don't put your feet under a blanket, they're never too hot. Yeah. And man, you go in there when they've got a sail on and I bought like five or six pairs for $30. Wow. And they wash really well. I would not hike in them. Yeah. Because they're just a basic wool. They're not merino. Yeah. They're a little bit rough to the touch. But that's what I'd recommend. I like them because they look kind of rustic.
Unknown Yeah.
Co-host Like your typical kind of grandpa wool sock.
Unknown I dig them. So that's
Co-host That's what all we probably have to say about socks. Do you have any special preference for your jeans? Jeans are a big deal for me.
Jason Heaton I've always worn jeans, but I just don't have any... I'm not a jean snob, I guess. A lot of people really get into jeans. I ended up... I did buy a pair of these Japanese raw denim jeans that were regularly some absurdly incredibly high amount of money, like $400, and I think I got them on clearance for about $80. And, you know, they're the kind that you don't wash and, you know, they sort of form to your body. And I admit they're really well made. I can't even remember the name of them, but really, you know, cool jeans. But no, I'm not particularly a jeans guy. I do wear a sort of a jean. It's from Duluth Trading Company, which is based actually in Wisconsin, strangely enough, even though it's named after a Minnesota city. They make a pair of pants called the Flex Firehose Pants, which They kind of, their claim to fame was a pant called the fire hose, which if you can picture a fire hose, it's that heavy canvas material and they were kind of making sort of a Carhartt competitor. Yeah, for sure. The flex fire hose are slightly lighter weight and they've got a little bit of stretch to them. I think they put some spandex in and they're, they wear really tough and, and they look good and you can get them with all sorts of configurations. I think you can get them with, you know, double knees and thigh pockets and hammer loops and the whole bit, but I just get the kind that don't have any, sort of extra pockets. And that's I wear those a lot. So that sounds great. Yeah. What about you? You're into jeans.
Co-host It sounds like I just like to have one or two pair that require nothing and could be worn all the time. Yeah. So I like a pair of simple dark blue jeans. I'm really I'm like obsessively picky about the size and the fit. Yeah. And what I found is and I guarantee some guys listening to this will know and agree with what I'm saying is gustin.com. So Gustin basically is a neat way of providing clothes and I bought a few pairs of their jeans back when the Canadian dollar was at parity with the USD. So the jeans are a little bit more expensive now but I've always thought their pricing is really fair and basically they show you the material and then if enough people buy into the material they will produce the jeans that you ordered. Wow, that's unique. So there's not a bunch of excess. You can't go on there. You can if you buy enough stuff from them, go on their site and actually see what's been maybe returned or overproduced and buy from that.
Unknown Yeah.
Co-host But typically speaking, and I've bought, I don't know, five, six pairs of pants for them. And basically you go on their site, see what they're offering, and then pledge to buy a pair, basically by choosing the material. And they have a good description of the weight of the denim, the color, what color it will be as it wears, if you should size up or size down, if this is sanforized or whatnot. And it's always really nice material. I've been really impressed with everything I bought from them so far. And I would say on average, I spent $130 a pair. And let's keep in mind, like I wear them like sweatpants. I will almost never wash a pair of jeans unless they require specific washing. Yeah. The pair I have now is a really light pair that actually has a little bit of Lycra in the weave. So it's a little bit stretchier. I'm bending down, picking up kids all the time. And like, if you're doing that in a 14 ounce, like stiff pair of denim jeans, especially if you're in the break-in process, it's not comfortable to move around in jeans like that. I mean, once they're broken in, sure, but it's really hard on the seat of the pants, which is a weak, weak spot for pants. uh, to be doing that all the time. And, uh, and, and what I found is these ones were fantastic. I think I paid 80 bucks for these and I absolutely adore them. The sizing is really interesting because you basically pick a pair of pants you have that are good and then go on their site with, um, and there's a sizing guide and use a tape measure and measure your pants and then compare four or five different spots on the pants to their guide.
Unknown Yeah.
Co-host And then they tell you your size. And then they give you, they tell you if the pants would fit right when you get them or if they'll kind of stretch a bit. And so you can choose if you'd rather them fit immediately or if you're okay with essentially them being a bit tight for a little while, but it's denim, it breaks in.
Unknown Yeah.
Co-host This is essentially sounding like a Guston ad. I promise they've never paid me anything. I've spent several hundred dollars on their site. I absolutely adore the product. And if you find that going to the store and buying jeans is a huge pain, which I think it is for pretty much everyone. Yeah. And then you don't really know how they're going to wash. You don't really know how they're going to last. Typically any brand that thinks they have a good jean on their hands is going to charge you a fair amount of money for them. Yeah. And, uh, and I found Guston, once you knew your size takes all the guesswork out of it, you know, that you need a new pair. Like I know that I I'd like to get a thicker pair for the fall. Uh, so I probably a month ago, I probably should have placed my order because there's a bit of a delay in the process, but if you can deal with that kind of patience, then I would go that route. And they have tons of different materials and denims and all that kind of thing. They do shirts and bags and jackets and all that stuff, too. I just haven't gotten to it. Huh. Wow. Maybe we move down to shoes, huh? Well, the only other thing I would say for just general clothing, and we can definitely end on shoes, I think that's perfect, is there's a brand, a Vancouver Island brand called Sitka, S-I-T-K-A. Yeah. And I'll put them in the show notes. If you buy anything from them, you'll love it. Oh, really? I have two or three items from Sitka and they used to have a store not too far from my place in Vancouver. And and I think that they maybe weren't getting the foot traffic that you need to on West 4th to support a store. So now they just have their website and their store in on Vancouver Island in Victoria. And then you can buy through their website. But I have like a work shirt from them and a couple of sweatshirts. My brother, a huge portion of his entire closet is Sitka and the stuff is indestructible. It looks really good if you like that kind of west coast, uh, forest hipster sort of look.
Unknown Yeah.
Co-host It's totally on point. It doesn't look especially lumberjack-y. It's kind of a little bit more considered than that. And I absolutely love their stuff too. So I'll put them in the show notes, but I can't really talk about clothes that I really like and not mention Sitka.
Unknown Yeah.
Co-host And last but not least, we certainly can't forget Kill Hubris. I just ordered the other three colors of the wash pocket tee that we enjoy so much. Nice. So really looking forward to having those. And, um, Yeah. And anything else you'd want to get to before we move to shoes?
Jason Heaton Yeah. I mean, well, we have to end with the Uniqlo, but before we get to that, I want to... Oh yeah, for sure. Before we get to that, I just want to give a shout out to Alpha Industries, because you and I have talked about flight jackets for a couple of years, at least as long as we've known each other. And I've got the MA-1 flight jacket from Alpha Industries. It's kind of the classic nylon bomber jacket. I got it about three winters ago and it's just, you know, I mean, look, it's something you get at a, at a military surplus shop. Um, and they've been supplying, you know, Navy and air force and probably the army for, for decades. I think since the forties or fifties, um, just really amazing jacket. Um, it's reversible. The inside is bright orange in case your plane goes down in a forested area and rescue comes to find you. Um, but I, uh, I just love the jacket. I wear it, you know, for all of the sort of technical outerwear that I've got, you know, I've got like a Canada goose parka and down jackets, et cetera. Um, I'd say eight times out of 10, when I'm leaving the house in the winter, I'm grabbing that alpha industries flight jacket. It's just, it's super warm. It's because it's kind of nylon, both sides. It's like slides on really easily. You know, the, the cuffs are frayed a little bit now, but, uh, I just kind of liked the vibe. It's, uh, um, it's just nice. The only thing it doesn't, do well is it, it has no collar at all. So if it's cold out, you got to like wear a turtleneck or a scarf or something. But other than that, you know, for what they sell it for, which I think is, you know, 120 bucks or something, it's a, it's a great, great jacket. If you like that aesthetic.
Co-host Very nice. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. And then, yeah, I guess we, we, we've talked about it before, but the Uniqlo comfort blazer, I think that's the right name for it. Comfort jacket, comfort blazer, something like that. It's about 60 us bucks. You've had one for a while. And I bought one just before this IWC trip because Uniqlo is now in Vancouver, so I could try it on. Oh, nice. And medium fit perfect. I absolutely love it. It wears like a cardigan, but it looks like a like a blazer. It's awesome.
Jason Heaton It is so awesome. Yeah. Yeah. We went into some detail. I don't remember which episode it was, but we talked about this this jacket. And, you know, you and I both can just I can't recommend it enough. I take it on every press trip and anytime I need to to kind of dress up, but maybe not too dressed up. Like you said, it wears like a cardigan. It's just, it's, it's very cool and breathable. So if you don't like wearing like a heavy wool blazer of any sort to, to any sort of indoor event, um, it, it works really well. Yeah. Highly recommend it.
Co-host Fully agree. Yeah. And yeah, so that'll be in the show notes and, uh, I guess we can finish it off with shoes. It's pretty easy for my part. I, uh, I really only wear a couple and have been happy with a couple. Yeah. Uh, red wings. Iron Ranger fan to the to the end. I absolutely adore mine. I really wish I hadn't kind of hemmed and hawed on the price for so long. I wish I just kind of bought it. Yeah. And I wear those pretty much fall right through winter in Vancouver nonstop. And then in the summer, I usually stick with either a pair of like desert boots of some sort. Yeah. Or I have a pair of Allen Edmond Carson City boots. Huh. I believe is what they're called. And it's their, so it's kind of like a Dalton upper. So it's a Brogue upper with a standard sole, like a red usable city sole. Yeah. And I find those as, I mean, mine haven't seen rain or anything, so I, I, I treat them well, but those have been fantastic. I've had those for years. I've worn those to pretty much every Basel and SIHH for the last, I don't know, three or four years. They need a new pair of soles. That's where I'm at with them currently.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I'm a huge Red Wing fan. I've got, I've got, um, Iron Rangers are probably the ones I wear the most. Now, you have the ones with the lug sole, which... I do, yeah. I really need to get mine re-soled. I've got the ones without the lug sole, so they're, you know, they're perfectly fine pretty much year-round, but the soles just don't work well with icy sidewalks here, so I need to address that.
Co-host I wanted the lug sole, again, because of how much rain we have, and I wanted to use them on, you know, wet tile and that sort of thing, and these turned out to be absolutely fantastic. What's changed since I bought these, which are the Oxblood Mesa leather? Yeah. It's an interesting color. It's a purplish red. I absolutely love it. And then you have the MicroLug sole. Since then, they now offer all of the leather colors with the MicroLug. So if you want the standard brown Iron Ranger, you can get it with the MicroLug, which I think is a great development. And probably I would have bought the normal brown, but looking back on it, I'm quite happy with the Oxblood Mesa, which is a fun color and a fun one, a name to remember. Yeah. It's like a, it sounds a bit like a paint to sample Porsche color. And I like those a lot. And to be honest, I honestly think that shoes are one of the few places where like you spend the money and you get a better product. Yeah, totally agree. Maybe not beyond, say, $400 or $500. Yeah. I'm not saying that's not true. I've not spent that much on a pair of shoes. Yeah. But man, I bought a pair of the Converse All-Star 2s a year ago. Yeah. I never wore them when it was wet. I didn't abuse them. I didn't use them to run. I would wear them going to the coffee shop, walking around in nice weather, maybe going to the park with my kids. They didn't see mud and they've absolutely fallen apart. I've worn them. I've worn them maybe 100 days since I bought them. Never twice in a row. I know that's a real rule for shoes. Don't wear them twice in a row if you really want to like protect their longevity.
Unknown Yeah.
Co-host And these things are a pile of garbage. Wow. These would make your typical Nike or Adidas seem like a $5,000 shoe. Wow. They weren't especially comfortable. So you had to wear them with like, I have to wear them with insoles, which is fine. I prefer to put insoles in any shoe. Yeah. But for the hundred bucks that they charge. Yeah. Either I got a pair of duds or Converse should be legitimately embarrassed at their product. And I know so many people that have these ratty, beat up old uh chucks yeah and then you talk to them they go like oh no i bought mine before they started making them in china oh huh and i don't know if that's true i don't have time to research why my hundred dollar pair of shoes fell apart i just won't buy any more converse you know what i mean yeah right what i what i should have done is just bought the uh the desert boots the was it the weekender from iron rangers yeah And I think I'm just going to buy a pair of those in the spring and that'll be my warm weather shoe. And I'll be done with it. I think they look really nice. And I like the idea of wearing a sneaker, but I don't like the idea of that kind of Jerry Seinfeld look where you've got, you know, one look happening shoulder to ankles and then a pair of running shoes. Yeah. I don't care for that either. And I can't get away, like I don't mind it on other people, but I don't love the new balance. or the, the, you know, Nike flyweaves with jeans or something like that. Yeah. Yeah. It's a very Vancouver-y look. It's like wearing yoga pants everywhere. I get it. It's fine. It's just not for me. Yeah. So I ended up being really picky about the, uh, running shoes that I wear. And I just, in the end, I just think like, I just don't know what you wear for running shoes. You know, I've had vans that I really liked that lasted forever. Right. and we're in the rain and everything. So I'll probably just go back to Vans is what it's going to come down to because at least you can get like a basic simple shoe. Yeah, that doesn't cost a fortune and like at 60 bucks. It doesn't have to last forever just doesn't but I don't know. I guess maybe I bought into some of the hype and I love the way that Chuck the tall Chuck's look.
Jason Heaton right and uh and i was just really disappointed they just maybe i just got a dud i don't know but they just fell apart like i can literally put my finger through a hole in the sole well i've got a recommendation for you then i was i wasn't going to bring this up but um one pair of boots that i have had for several years that i like are from a french brand called palladium and they make a canvas i think it was like a jungle boot sort of french foreign legion jungle boot kind of thing um has a heavy rubber lug sole it's not heavy it's a it's a a big chunky rubber lug sole. Oh yeah, look at these. But they're canvas and they've got like a bit of a toe cap and you can get, I think you can get a low cut version I think, but they make, the ones I have are high cut and they're super light. They pack really small and I wore them to Sri Lanka both times I went and I tromped around in the, you know, hiking with them and they look decent with a pair of pants and they're, they wear like sneakers. I mean they really wear like sneakers, but they kind of have a bit of more of a hiking boot vibe. I can't recommend them enough. I mean, you can throw them in the washing machine because they're canvas. Man, they look great. They're really cool.
Co-host Yeah. The Pampa.
Unknown Yes.
Co-host Yeah. Okay.
Unknown Yeah.
Co-host Cool. We'll throw them in the show notes. These look cool. They definitely have kind of a Chuck sort of vibe and I like the tall option. Cool. Thanks for the tip. I appreciate that. Where do you land on shoes now that I'm done my Converse rant?
Jason Heaton Well, you know, Palladiums in the summer, Iron Rangers quite a bit. I've got a pair of Ice Cutter. Red Wings, which they've discontinued now. I think they were kind of a niche product for the Minnesota market. They're wool lined and they've got a really heavy lug sole for walking around in the snow. I really love them. They're super comfy. Nice. But a pair of boots that I wear a lot are Blundstone, which is an Australian brand. They're kind of that Chelsea style. Yeah, for sure. They're pull-on boots. And it's kind of a love or hate sort of aesthetic. At first, I didn't like them. Um, wearing them, they're, they're so easy to just kind of pull on. Um, I kind of keep them by the back door, especially when the weather's bad or it's winter. I can just sort of pull them on and go out without dealing with a lot of laces. And they're really comfy. They don't look great with shorts or with, you know, certain pairs of pants, but, uh, I don't know. I, I really like, uh, like Blundstones. And then, you know, we were talking about sneakers. I think in lieu, I don't wear a lot of sneakers, but, but I guess the closest I come are. These approach shoes, and we've both had the same kind, actually, the Scarpa Crux, which I got years ago, and they're in bad need of a new sole. I don't know if I can get them resold. But they kind of have that climbing shoe vibe with the lace-to-toe style and sort of a rubber rand that goes around the whole width, kind of a soft, sort of a suede kind of leather. And they still sell them. They've been probably the shoes that I've worn the most of any shoes that I have just because I've had them for, you know, five, six years. And I don't know, I quite liked them. Yours kind of got, had some sort of funky sort of manufacturing defect or something, didn't they?
Co-host Oh yeah. Mine were like the heel or the sole didn't quite line up with the body of the shoe exactly. So it looked like I pronated terribly.
Unknown Yeah.
Co-host And then, you know, you put on another shoe and it was like, I pronate, I do pronate a little bit and I tend to stand on that part of my heel. Yeah. But in these shoes, it looked hilarious. It looked like I was walking mostly on the material. of the inside material of the shoe. It was perfectly comfortable while I wore them. And I wore them through all the hiking I did when I moved to Vancouver.
Unknown Yeah.
Co-host Was in those because if you want to do some of the more interesting stuff here, you have mixed trail and then sub alpine and then alpine. Yeah. And so the approach shoe is handy. I wasn't necessarily going climbing. They're not climbing shoes, certainly. But you get this nice kind of bite from the toe. Yeah. The rubber on the toes, nice and soft. And you can kind of get through some kind of scrambly sort of areas. And I absolutely adore these. I would happily buy another pair, especially now that I have the Helly Hansen GTX, you know, with the midsole and the Gore-Tex, a little bit better for the mud and all that kind of stuff. Oh, yeah. And then these scarves don't really weigh anything. You could throw them, you know, lace them onto a loop on your bag and then switch if you got into a scenario where you wanted a shoe that trended more towards toe grip and climbing. Yeah. Uh, function and maybe less for things like, uh, ankle protection. Right. Right. But really nice shoe. I think I paid maybe 110 bucks for them and, and they lasted quite a few seasons before, uh, before I kind of, uh, wore them right out. I think that, which would have been on my first, my first run at Baker, which is where I hurt my foot. So I definitely, I definitely put too much time on those shoes. That's not their fault at all. If you overwork a pair of these shoes, the cushioning doesn't spring back. This happens in running shoes. Yeah. And so you can't blame hurting your foot if you literally just wore a shoe that was totally clapped out. Yeah, yeah. And if you like the Scarpas, but you have kind of a different foot shape, you might like 510. They make all sorts of really popular climbing shoes, but they also make approach shoes as well. Nice. It's funny that you mentioned Blundstones because I was actually just pricing those today, wanting a more legitimate winter boot that didn't have all the laces.
Unknown Oh yeah.
Co-host They're available all over Vancouver, and obviously they're super popular. You see them everywhere. It's like Ray-Bans around here. Yeah. But yeah, I think that especially the chisel toe is kind of a nice clean look, and I definitely hope to add a pair of those. I'm glad to hear that you dig them and that they've been good to you.
Jason Heaton Well, cool. Yeah, I think we've pretty much gone head to toe here with clothing and outerwear and pants and socks and shoes. Maybe it's time to jump into final notes.
Co-host Yeah, I'd say so. You want to give it a go?
Jason Heaton Yeah, so this guy got in touch with me on Instagram just the other day. His name is Peter Elliott and he's a watchmaker and he has this really ambitious goal to kind of make an entirely handmade watch in the way that a George Daniels or a Roger Smith or a Philippe Defour is making handmade watches. So, you know, we're talking making all the wheels and the bridges and the plates and everything basically except for the jewels and the hairspring himself, which requires the use of, you know, a lot of intricate machinery, but, but most expensively he needs a, a lathe, um, to, to do the turning work. And, um, so he has started a Kickstarter project kind of called P Elliot, which is, you know, obviously his initial and last name to raise some money to buy the equipment particularly the lathe that he needs to kind of undertake his project of making a watch. So, you know, he contacted me. I checked it out. He's 82% funded as of this recording. Hopefully he, you know, will go higher and maybe even get fully funded by the time we air the episode. But, you know, I think it's something worth checking out. He's got a little kind of video overview of what he's up to and a description on the Kickstarter page. You know, again, I don't know this guy. He, he just sort of reached out to me, but it seemed like a worthy cause. And, um, you know, as, as watch nerds, I think, uh, um, I just admire the, uh, kind of his ambition and can't wait to kind of sit back and watch what he does. And if you feel inclined to give him a helping hand with some funding, uh, go right ahead. You can check it out. We'll, we'll put the Kickstarter on the show notes.
Co-host And do you know what he's offering for various levels of support?
Jason Heaton Uh, let's see here. He is offering. Uh, if you make a pledge of 10 euros, he will give you a shout out, um, 50 euros or more. You will get an exclusive first look during the process of producing my first handmade watch. He'll be sending in depth information, um, pledge a hundred euros or more, and he'll make you, he'll give you a handmade gaming dice, which he will be making on said equipment. So that that's what you get. I mean, you don't, you don't certainly don't get the watch out of this whole thing. No, no, no. Yeah. But, um, you know,
Co-host Fairly modest rewards, but I think... It's probably more about supporting a guy in his dream and he doesn't sound like he's asking for a ton. Sorry, what was the total amount he wanted?
Jason Heaton The total amount that he wants is $5,884.
Co-host That must be... This doesn't seem like a crazy thing to request.
Jason Heaton No, it doesn't. No. And he's raised $4,800 already with 27 backers. So he's got like three weeks to go. He's based in Germany, in Cologne. You know, you've got till November 15th to give him a hand. So, um, good luck, Peter. And, uh, and we'll be watching.
Co-host So, yeah, that's very cool. I hope, uh, I hope a few guys from the listening audience can back that if they find it interesting and maybe the TGM bump will get them to his goal. That seems like a fairly realistic amount of money to start producing some, some neat stuff. I think it could be an interesting project just to follow for its novelty. Yeah, I agree. What's your first one? Yeah, let's take a look. Let's take a look. So the first one for me is I'm actually going to promote Wolfpack again. I want to say this is the second or third time I've mentioned them on the show. And really, I've just I just feel like I have to share this with people because it makes me happy. And and I'm fascinated by what they do and how they do it and the manner with which they carry themselves online and in their music. So we've spoken about Wolfpack in the past. It's basically a four to six piece group, um, existing in Spotify and YouTube. They do these amazing videos for YouTube. I won't go into a huge explanation of what they do, but you know, they, they describe themselves as kind of minimalist funk. And you could imagine that if like the Pointer Sisters backup band still existed now, maybe this is what they would be making in terms of music. And this song is Hero Town by Wolfpack. It was just released recently. It has one of the most amazing hooks coming in right after a drum fill. So Turn it up.
Co-host It fits really well into my workflow where I will actually pick a song like Hero Town, put it on repeat for several hours and bang out thousands of words. It's a really effective thing that's worked for me. I try not to overuse it, but if I can't get it to a coffee shop and noise is an issue, or if I really know what I want to say in the piece, but the piece is very long, you know, you've got 1500 words, which means I'm going to write more like 2200 words and then trim it down. this is exactly how I do it is with music like this. And I'm absolutely just fully in love with everything that they do. So it really felt like something I had to share.
Jason Heaton Yeah, it's funny, I you know, you've recommended Wolfpack in the past, and I've tried to warm up to them. It's not, it's not exactly the genre, the type of music I like, I certainly respect their musicianship. I think I commented earlier today that it just looks like these guys are kind of musician nerds. They're not They're not rock stars. They're guys that are just getting together to jam. And, uh, yeah, it's interesting. I can't work to music, um, unless it's like jazz or classical. I just, it's too distracting, but that song you, uh, you recommended, of course, doesn't have any singing. So, um.
Co-host Lyrics really messed up my ability to write.
Unknown Yeah.
Co-host Cause I'll start typing the lyrics.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I think your Pointer Sisters backing band vibe. I think, I think that kind of hits the nail on the head. I was trying to think what that music reminded me of, and you're right. It's sort of this, funky R&B backing music. Yeah, I think that kind of hits it.
Co-host I mean, I would say go ahead and listen to the whole catalog because it fades between a few different styles, but it's always fairly minimal and super funky. Yeah. And I honestly think that this kind of music will change the course of a bad day. Yeah. It's always upbeat. It's always different than you expect. The level of quality in both the production and the performance is super high. And a lot of these guys have other bands where they play other instruments or are the lead singers, like they're just hugely talented dudes. And I just get hooked on it. I think it's great. It makes me happy. I can have kind of a rough day and then maybe putting a meal together or just kind of hanging out in the living room and you put this on. And I think the other music I tend to be drawn to is maybe a little more demure or melancholy. And this is the opposite. And I like it. And I like that there's nothing really in it that my little kids would repeat at the supermarket that would get me in any trouble. And yeah, I'm a huge fan. It's kind of timeless. It's certainly fun, definitely happy, and I love how funky it is. So I've rambled enough about Wolfpack. I'll give it a rest. And I know people don't listen to their show to hear about music, but I honestly think there's an application here that might turn around a bad day for somebody. So give it a spin the next time you're feeling kind of drained from a long day at work.
Jason Heaton Yeah, cool. So my second sort of final note for today is a set of photos from a really talented underwater photographer named Becky Kagan Schott. And Becky is someone who, I think she lives somewhere in like the Pennsylvania area or something, but she's really made a name for herself doing extreme underwater photography and videography. And she kind of splits her time between, she does some sort of cave stuff in Florida. She also does a lot of kind of sharks and open ocean stuff, but then Her real passion is for Great Lakes diving, which of course appeals to me quite a bit. And every summer she hooks up with one of the local dive charters in the Great Lakes and kind of makes the rounds of some of the grail wreck sites around the lakes. And this summer she was up in Northern Ontario, the Northern tip of Lake Superior, diving a shipwreck called the Gunilda, which sank I think back in like the 1990s. 30s, I want to say, belonged to, um, an East coast, um, sort of tycoon who ran at a ground there and then insisted on having his own guy, uh, tow it off the rock that it was stuck on. And it sunk immediately down the ledge and sank in 260 feet of water. It's wild. Yeah. It's a, it's a great kind of one of those sort of, uh, fables or cautionary tales about hubris. Regardless, it's considered one of the best wreck dives in the world. Simply because the level of preservation is remarkable, given the depth and the cold water and the fresh water that you get up in Lake Superior. It is about, I think it's about a 200 to 300 foot luxury yacht. It was probably the mega yacht of its day. And it's sitting upright, very cold, very deep, very dark, strictly technical mixed gas and rebreather diving. But what's really amazing about this wreck is, you know, it's remote and hard to get to and difficult to dive, but you're rewarded by this opulent mega yacht that has everything in it still. I mean, it has the ship's telegraph and the binnacle and the bell and, um, you know, lanterns are still hanging and there's, I think there's a chandelier in one of the rooms. Um, I sent you a picture earlier today of a state room with a piano in it, um, sitting upright. Um, There's still gold leaf that's visible on the bowsprit at the front of the ship. It's just remarkable stuff. And Becky's photography is, I would say as far as shipwreck photography goes, I can't think of anybody that does it better. Her use of lighting and kind of collaborating with the other divers that she's with to kind of illuminate a scene and kind of create an eerie sort of setting is just remarkable. So she has put up on her website, which is liquidproductions.com, There's kind of a subset or a page that has a set of photos, about three, but 50 some photos of her dive on the Ganilda. And if you want to see an incredibly well-preserved shipwreck and just some amazing photos, you got to check that out.
Co-host It looks amazing. And I've, I followed her on Instagram some time ago, I think at your recommendation and we'll put her account in the show notes. It's a fantastic follow. Uh, really talented and really tough dives. And that photo you sent me of the piano room is insane. It looks like you could play the piano. Yeah. It's just, I mean, it's just all there. It's so deep and so cold.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Really amazing.
Co-host And you've got one more too. I got one more. So, uh, this last one is actually about REI in Patagonia, previously mentioned in the show, Ad Nauseam. And, uh, it's from, uh, Adventure Journal and they're simply, uh, talking about the fact that REI and Patagonia are breaking into selling used gear. You know, there's not a ton more that has to be explained to understand the concept, but this will be direct through the brand's ability to sell reclaimed goods or repaired goods or used goods back into the market and keep this kind of quality goods moving as opposed to either sitting in a drawer or being thrown out or a lot of these items are designed to be worn for a long time and then people wear them for a bit and then maybe they need a different size or they don't like the color, they don't like the style and this way it keeps their life cycle going and it's something that I absolutely love so I won't go too far on it. They've got links and everything in the site and I hope that this is something that we see much more commonly with the high quality gear that exists in the world and clothing and such that it can gain this other life. I mean there's lots of secondary sales options for high-end shoes and jackets and things like that. And I think that it could definitely apply to things like outdoor gear and outerwear.
Jason Heaton So how do they procure the gear? Is it a trade-in program?
Co-host It uses Patagonia's worn wear used apparel program, which started I believe earlier this year or maybe just in the last few months, but I think that's directly through the store. And then with REI, it's if a piece of equipment or gear is returned. Yeah. They'll inspect it. And if it's still sellable, then it's eligible as used gear in the store.
Jason Heaton Oh, sure.
Co-host Yeah. I think that this is a great way not only to get gear that's cheaper, but again, to support, you know, less overall production and some of the waste that goes into that. And especially when you're talking about something like, you know, one of the examples they used here was a tent. Oh, yeah. And the tent was 380 bucks, or you can get it used for 190. So What's the difference going to be maybe somebody used the tent once or set it up in their garage, or maybe it's not the exact color you wanted? Yeah, right. Who cares? Yeah, yeah. And then it's one, you know, it just, I just really like this sort of a concept. You know, I've been a fan of thrift stores and come from a family of people that really like thrift stores for not only the deals, but also for the kind of ethos of you know, the lifecycle of this product isn't over and it's almost wasteful to just walk away from it. And I don't mind somebody getting rid of a piece of gear they don't use anymore. That makes perfect sense. But you give it to a friend or in this case, you could now take it back to the store or whatnot. And I know like even my local MEC, they offer like a gear trade and sale area.
Unknown Yeah.
Co-host And then you see a lot of that on Craigslist too. And it's, it's fun when you're kind of considering a new piece of gear to see what these other options are, because a lot have never been used. Right. Or have been used once or twice and literally have a life cycle of 500 uses or a thousand uses.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I mean, it's, it's kind of like the outdoor industry catching up to, you know, auto dealers doing, or auto companies doing certified pre-owned, um, where, you know, certainly for forever, we've been able to go to thrift stores or scratch and dent sales or whatever, to buy used gear, jackets and things like that. But when the brand that actually makes the stuff, in the case of Patagonia, is taking back stuff, it gives you this extra measure of sort of confidence that you're getting something that is going to continue to serve you really well.
Co-host Yeah, with their worn wear program, it's only Patagonia products, where of course, I guess the REI could be anything that REI sold. Yeah. And then you get trade in credit with Patagonia when you trade in your used gear. So if you have something that you flat out don't wear anymore and you just want to put it towards eventually buying that new puffy jacket or whatever, you could trade that stuff in and the pricing looks really fair. And then of course, when they repair it, they're also backing it as well, which is kind of a nice system as well. So I think it's a cool thing. I think we've probably over-explained this part. Uh, but check out the link in the show notes or, or swing by your local REI or Patagonia store and ask for more details direct from, uh, direct from them.
Jason Heaton Yeah, that's great. Yeah. And it feels, it feels like a good sort of bookend of this episode where we were talking about a lot of great. Tons of clothes. So yeah, good way to get it.
Co-host Alrighty. So I think that pretty much does it for the episode. Uh, you know, as always, thanks very much for listening, Jason. I really appreciate it. And you can hit the show notes for more details. You can follow us on Instagram at Jason Heaton and at J.E. Stacey, and you can follow the show at TheGreyNado. If you have any questions for us, please write TheGreyNado at gmail.com and please subscribe and review wherever you find your podcasts. Music throughout a siesta by Jazza via the free music archive.
Jason Heaton And today we leave you with this quote from the late famed science fiction writer and avid scuba diver, Arthur C. Clarke, who said, the only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible.