CH Gift Guide: Stocking Stuffers
Pint-sized gifts for everyone on your list
This time of year, showering friends, family, colleagues and your favorite bodega owner with thoughtful gifts is a congenial way to show your appreciation. More than simply a token stocking stuffer, the below items culled from the Cool Hunting gift guide make for an excellent present that’s smaller in size and a little kinder to the wallet. From a whimsically kaleidoscopic Eskayel iPhone case to the palm tree-patterned bandana by our friends at record label Hit City U.S.A. to vintage foosball bottle openers, there’s plenty to choose from at a bevy of price points. See these and more in our holiday guide and iOS apps.
Various Key Tags
These witty key tags from Various Projects add a lighthearted label to any batch of openers. Intriguing titles such as “Current Boyfriend,” “Temporary Solution,” “Parallel Universe,” and a hundred others are customizable into 17 different colors, and provide a new perspective on locking and unlocking. $15
Breaking Bad Stickers
Breaking Bad fanatics will get a kick out of these illustrated stickers, portraying a pant-less Walter White, and a half-faceless Gus Fring, eating what we would assume to be his last Los Pollos Hermanos meal before straightening his tie and dropping dead. This unique set of two was created by Leeds-based illustrator Josh Parkin. $5
Raw Selvedge Denim iPhone Sleeve
More than individually made by hand, on a single machine, all Unwashed Denim products are designed, sewn, packaged and shipped by one NYC teenager, Will Berman. Composed of the highest quality 12.5 oz Japanese sanforized selvedge denim and accented with 10 oz Kurabo Mill indigo strip denim, the sleeve is crafted to adapt to your iPhone, molding over time. Altogether, it’s super stylish and from a designer we should all keep our eyes on. $40
Hit City U.S.A. Bandanas
The small but smart LA-based imprint Hit City U.S.A. clearly has a sense of style just as enticing as their roster of artists. These new palm tree-patterned bandanas are made in California and are “specially tailored to flawlessly line your pockets and wipe dirt off your beautiful faces with nothing but class.” $12
Foosball Bottle Opener
Beer and foosball are an excellent combo, and never before have these activities been so dually represented in one object. Authentic little foosball players, each one perfectly weathered and unique, have been plucked from true vintage tables and reconstructed into ever-useful bottle openers. Long after our foosball careers has come to an end, we can still pop open a cold one and reminisce about the glory days. $48
Corkscrew
Open the spiritual path to your happy place (aka a bottle of wine) with the steel cross corkscrew wine opener from Los Angeles-based artist and interior designer Kelly Lamb, who laser-cut the heavy-duty cross from solid iron. $50
Douk-Douk Knife
The douk-douk was originally created in 1929 by Gaspard Cognet for sales to France’s Oceanic colonies. A knife originally intended as a utilitarian pocketknife for the common worker quickly gained a massive following among the French Foreign Legion. Constructed like a slipjoint knife, which has a loaded backspring rather than a locking mechanism, and engraved with a representation of the “douk-douk”—a Melanesian spirit meant to bring good luck to the knife-bearer—this rich piece of history will fit easily into your pocket for ultimate indispensability. $32
Letterpress Matchboxes
Sarah and William Allardice, the print-happy duo at A Fine Matchbox Co., use their vintage windmill press to create an array of intriguing and special matchboxes, which encase their signature sturdy, blue-tipped, extra-long safety matches. Who has room for freebie-branded matchbooks in their life, when each stroke of the flame can lend a small moment to look at something beautiful. $8
Dark Chocolate + Malted Milk Bar
The Dark Chocolate + Malted Milk Bar is a slice (or bar, rather) of a chocolate-lovers heaven courtesy of a palate-gripping collaboration between James Beard award-winning chef Jeni Britton Bauer and the folks at Askinosie Chocolate, a small batch, bean to bar chocolate maker in Missouri. $11
Izola Flasks
Izola provides a good flask for every type of sipper. Constructed from the most durable of stainless steel, available in 5-ounce or 3-ounce sizes depending on one’s tolerance, these classy vessels are available inscribed with a number of different cheers-worthy expressions—”to hell with work” for instance. The pleasing circular shape of these containers is quite aerodynamic, easily moving from your pocket, to your mouth, and back again, and again and again. $24
Nuggets Keyrings
Designers Chen Chen and Kai Williams’ collaborative Greenpoint studio space was flooded during Hurricane Sandy, perhaps causing these Pratt grads to ponder the immense power of the natural world. Their recent collection of chunky keychains raises the question, how will the polymers, the structures, the chemicals and the art that we have created hold up to the freezing and fiery nature of the cosmos? Aptly titled “nuggets,” each intricate resin sculpture showcases a dense universe, meant to represent man’s forgotten excess of material and its inevitable fusion. $30
Eskayel iPhone Cases
Artist and Designer Shanan Campanero founded her organic yet modern line of wallpapers in 2008, and has been creating divine interiors with a commitment to environmental responsibility and natural luxury ever since. Those who aren’t ready to take on any interior decorating projects can still take joy in the ethereal beauty of Campanero’s hand-painted works of art with this stunning array of iPhone cases depicting her exclusive designs. $40
