Staff Picks: November 9th

Welcome to InsideHook’s Staff Picks, a compendium of all the stuff our editors have been digging on recently.

Soho Light Neon Signs
I went to Austin a couple weekends ago, and I’m still nursing a tricky case of neon sign withdrawal. For most of my life, neon lighting has either shined with obnoxious frivolity (think … a 42nd Street McDonald’s) or flickered soullessly in the corner of the room, occasionally zapping fruit flies (think … Moe’s Tavern). But Austin’s signage is part of the city’s easy nights wallpaper, perched atop South Congress cafes and gleaming behind dive stages. Most of the lights are designed by artist Evan Voyles, who runs local outpost The Neon Jungle. If you’ve got the coin and the time, definitely seek him out here. Hunting for a more accessible end game, I discovered Soho Light on Etsy, a UK-based house specializing in custom orders. Their prices are nothing crazy (most go for around/under $500) and if you’re stumped for designs, they maintain a “store” of previous concepts that can be easily replicated. — Tanner Garrity, Associate Editor

Champion X Peanuts Gang Hoodie
In his lifetime, Charles Schulz drew north of 18,250 Peanuts comic strips. Which begs the question: are there more Peanuts comics or clothing collabs? Count one more for the latter, this time from Todd Snyder’s holiday collection with duds by Champion and tickers by Timex. Sure, I have a soft spot for the ragtag cartoon gang after growing up in Schulz’s home state of Minnesota (R.I.P. Camp Snoopy), but this is a categorically perfect white hoodie. From November to March, I wear a pullover hoodie 95% of the time when I’m not at work (under a jacket, in the house, destroying my family during Thanksgiving football) and this one’s going straight to the top of the pile. — Alex Lauer, Senior Editor

Stock Mfg Co. Kaihara Denim Workshirt
I do not know what a hotcake is. But I do know this shirt will sell like one, which is to say swiftly and decisively until there are none left. It’s the fourth version of Chicago-based Stock Mfg. iconic workshirt; I’ve been wearing my V1 for the better part of five years and it’s still robust as ever. The tech details — heavyweight 9.5-oz. denim with some added stretch, elbow patches, pockets reinforced with custom rivets — translate to a shirt that’s up for any task your garage or toolshed will throw at you, but it works equally well as a light fall jacket for less manual laborers like, say, your correspondent. It’s also available in black. — Walker Loetscher, Editor in Chief

Silk Magnetic Cable Manager
The night stand next to my bed currently houses a power strip tower, which connects me to six different devices. And those devices each have their own cord, which means my morning and evening bed ritual involves plugging, unplugging and untangling an array of Lightning/USB-C/Micro-USB connectors. My OCD solution: This pencil gray little bump, which looks like a cousin to my nearby Google Home Mini and magnetically holds all my cords in one place. (Note: It comes with magnetic cable collars if your cords aren’t, uh, magnetic enough). — Kirk Miller, Nation Editor/Managing Editor

Wildsam Field Guide Collection
This collection of six city guides will serve you just as well on your coffee table or toilet back (side note: remember the good ol’ days when people actually read printed things on the john?) as they will when you’re actually wandering the streets. The collections are filled with hand-drawn maps, anecdotes and recommendations from locals, essays and more — and, at 6.5″ x 4″, they’ll fit nicely in to your back pocket. — Eli London, Director of Partnerships and User Acquisition

Tissot Heritage Visodate
I spend an inordinate amount of my time on the internet lusting after absurdly expensive watches. Or, maybe not absurdly expensive as far as luxury watches go, but expensive enough that a man of my means can’t afford to own more than one or two of them at once, tops. For some reason, I’ve become really interested in dress watches lately, the platonic ideal of which I feel is the Patek Philipe Calatrava. But with a price tag of $35,000, the Calatrava, even if it were to be one of my occasional splurges, is out of my price range by about $32,000. Or, like, $34,500 if you ask my wife. Anyway, the truth is, even if I could afford it, it’d be a totally silly purchase since I rarely find myself in situations that call for a dress watch. My office is casual, and I’m at the age where I have more friends getting divorced than getting married. All of which is to say, I won’t be joining the ranks of Patek owners any time soon. I’m OK with this, though, as I found an alternative that is more than sufficient for my needs: the Tissot Visodate. It’s got retro good looks, and it checks all the boxes I’m looking for a dress watch to check: it’s a perfectly appropriate 40mm in diameter and 12mm in height, it comes on a black leather strap (with a deployment clasp!), and it’s got stick hour markers instead of Arabic numerals. If I had to complain about one thing, it’s that the day and date functions clutter things up a bit more than I’d like, but for $400, I’m not going to do that. — Mike Conklin, Executive Editor

THE BEST THING WE DRANK THIS WEEK

A quick shoutout to the late, great Dave Pickerell, the Master Distiller at WhistlePig — crafters of some of the finest rye you’ll ever imbibe — and co-creator of the just-released American whiskey Blackened, a collab with the band Metallica. Dave passed away earlier this month; sadly, we only just met him at WhistlePig’s distillery in Vermont in February (regrettably, we had to pass on an opportunity to try Blackened and talk with Dave again a few weeks back). But let’s celebrate his accomplishments: Please check out WhistlePig’s latest, Boss Hog V, or even if you don’t love the band, give Blackened a try — it’s a blend of bourbons, ryes and whiskeys personally selected by Dave, with the final result finished in black brandy casks.

Nota bene: If you buy through these links, InsideHook may earn a small share of the profits on some items

Photos: Stock Mfg Co.; The Neon Jungle; Todd Snyder; Stock Mfg Co.; Amazon; Wildsam; Kirk Miller