With so many cool things coming out each week, it can be hard to wade through all the rock-awesomeness. With ‘Cool Tools’, we’ve done the hard work for you. This week we saw everything from a skateboard stool featuring comfy Pendleton wool to a new light-based navigational system for bicycles, an update to the popular Pocket app, how to make a grass lunch tray, a kid-friendly version of Fight Club and more… Ready? Let’s go! This week we look at: DESIGN PENDLETON x MADE BY SEVEN Skate Stool “Made from authorized Pendleton Wool, a fresh new skate deck and a stool base…” SmartHalo “We built SmartHalo to bring the power…
Between the launch of their new world headquarters in Boston’s Lovejoy Wharf back in May to the launch of their newly-redesigned Chuck Taylor All Star just last month (the first redesign since 1917), it’s been a busy Summer season for the Converse brand – and they’re not showing any sign of letting up soon. More recently, the iconic brand has been showing off some of the results of their “Made by You” campaign that started earlier this year – a campaign centered around Chuck Taylor fans who ‘hacked’ the shoe to their liking. Among others, Converse tapped the artist Remy Boiré and agency Wunderman Division Blast Radius to create a…
Like so many other great craftsmen who are operating at the top of their game, the story of how Andrew Hibbs got started bending neon light began at a young age with skills passed down by his father David – who himself started bending light over 30 years ago. Today, Hibbs is continuing the family business through the brand Endeavor Neon and creates a range of pieces by hand for a range of different clients. Because there aren’t many neon benders left, Hibbs as the advantage of being a young and energetic craftsman in a trade that’s starting to come back. Unsurprisingly, the process of creating a neon sign requires…
When you get that video card upgrade and see it supports 4K resolution, your first thought may be, “I should be getting paid more.” Your second thought, however, is, “I need to replace this scrubby blur of a screen with the rich, encompassing light of a 4K monitor.” While the prices for 4K monitors have been enough to leave you puckering, prices are dropping substantially. BenQ is on a mission to deliver high-end monitors at prices that beat the competition, while targeting the needs of designers, engineers and those in the CAD/CAM industry. It’s a strategy that seems to paying off for them, and for their customers. They tore out…
As the fastest road bike on the planet with wicked-cool industrial design, the new Specialized S-Works Venge is also one of the most technologically advanced bikes ever made. Needless to say, Specialized didn’t want to skimp on the marketing for this one. In an effort to engage their audience beyond photos and videos on their website, the Specialized Bicycle Components marketing team wanted to expand the story of the S-Works Venge while allowing the user to control how they viewed the bike and how quickly the “exploding” animations occurred – animations that were beautifully lit and accurately rendered. Ultimately, what they wanted was beyond what most animation experiences on the…
It’s a problem that’s plagued riders for over a century and has even spawned an entire industry of accessories: the flat bicycle tire. Although many have come to just take flat tires in stride with a variety of fix kits or even entire tube replacements in their riding gear, the problem of a flat bicycle tire leaves a lot to be desired – for obvious reasons. Thanks to recent efforts in research and development from Korean company Tannus however, the days of cursing flat bicycle tires may soon be coming to an end. The company has just announced a new bicycle tire that’s made from a unique Micro Closed Cell…