Five Things

I spent part of the week looking at products. Nothing I need, just things that made some kind of sense.

There’s a Nike Dunk Low Pro SB Shanghai edition dropping in September. I don’t usually care about shoes, but this one works—white leather, wine accents, a gold swoosh that knows not to be louder than it is. Limited production matters. A shoe designed carefully and made in smaller numbers doesn’t disappoint the way mass production does.

TheQ is a camera built for Instagram people. 3G built in so you upload straight to their servers, edit from your phone or computer. Around 180 euros. I’m not the audience, but I get the impulse—a tool made for that specific moment when taking pictures and sharing them started becoming the same activity. It probably arrived at the exact wrong time to sell, but as a concept it makes sense.

Oris made a limited Air Racing Edition III watch. Black with white and red accents, only 1000 made. I don’t care about watches, but I respect what this is: something built with actual care, functions properly, won’t be mass-produced junk. That covers most of what matters.

Someone finally solved the reusable coffee cup problem. Australian company, Charlwood Design, calls it the UpperCup. It’s such a basic problem to fix—why we’re still using paper cups with plastic lids every morning—but it takes forever for someone to actually do it right. Crowdfunded, which is how sensible ideas happen now.

LEGO and Belkin collaborated on iPhone cases. You can snap building blocks onto them. Master Builders line. Twenty-five euros. It’s the best kind of stupid: you’re hitting the nostalgia nerve but the execution isn’t cheap trash, and that’s the difference between something that lands and something you regret.