The year is 1995. You walk into a shoe shop and are confronted with shelves upon shelves of technical outdoor footwear. Chunky soles, intricate lacing systems, lumps of…
Christ. January was that long, I feel like I’ve aged about 15 years since I put the last Proper Picks together. But at long last, we’ve arrived at…
Speak to enough people in the fashion-outdoor-lifestyle orbit and, sooner or later, the name Iain Grainger will surface. He’s often described as a figure shrouded in mystery: universally…
Usually in these articles, we like to take things somewhat unseriously. But there are a few brands that change that, and Massimo Osti Studio is one of them.…
To most people, the word ‘Manchester’ conjures images of damp streets, industrial buildings, grumpy locals, dirty canals & ever creeping gentrification. But to a certain subset of individuals,…
Maybe you’ve noticed, maybe you haven’t – but low-hikers are suddenly everywhere. On the street, on the train, outside the pub, usually attached to the feet of someone…
Few brands wear their home country on their sleeve quite like 66°North does. The brand’s identity is intrinsically linked to Iceland, and a little piece of the nation…
Usually you’ll find Nanamica hanging out along scenic coastline, sharing the horizon with sandy dunes & rockpools – but recently they’ve traded all of that for… London. Yep,…
Paris Fashion Week, and its abundance of bright lights, espresso, and intimidatingly cool people, can be overwhelming. There’s so much to see, so much to do, and never…
We were recently lucky enough to fly out to Paris Fashion Week – but don’t worry, we haven’t let the fame change us. We spent far more time…
You’d be hard-pressed to find a product lineage with more of a cult following than the ASICS GEL-Kayano. First launched in 1993 by designer Toshikazu Kayano as a…
Somewhere in the madness of the modern world, bicycles – as a concept – have become strangely intimidating. Surrounded by specialist language, bad moustaches and performance data, they’re…
Fleece may well be the most influential fabric to emerge from the 20th century. Before Yvon Chouinard started tinkering with polyester toilet seat covers (more on that here),…
Anyone who spends enough time on outdoor subreddits will understand they function solely as an echo chamber for people to obsess over their new Arc’teryx, The North Face…
January in the UK proves, as ever, that the country’s fiercest opponent isn’t the people (although sometimes it may feel like it) – it’s the weather. Not just…
Almost every footwear brand on the planet claims to be doing things differently from the rest. But in reality, very few are. Rehashed colourways of a generic-looking low-top…
Gritty Parisian streets. Police brutality. Angst. Murder. Intense performances. Sportswear. Only one piece of media should be springing to mind – Mathieu Kassovitz’s 1995 masterpiece La Haine. La…
Convincing yourself to get outside in January is hard. It’s cold, wet, often snowy, and the only thing more depleted than your motivation is the amount of daylight…
We’re becoming increasingly aware that people are using the phrase ‘big coat’ in contexts where it’s not warranted. We’re here to remind you that a big coat isn’t…
You might think it’s cold in the UK right now, but trust us, it’s nothing compared to Nozawaonsen in Japan. They’re currently sitting in -10 degrees, and 40cm…
If you set yourself a New Year’s resolution, chances are you might be giving it up today. Research has shown that the second Friday in January, often referred…