Gears moms want
Why should Dad have all the fun when it comes to tech, booze and outdoor adventures?
Somehow, when it comes time to buy a token of appreciation for the person who does the most demanding, important job in the world (some daunting amalgam of cop, psychiatrist, tech support, CFO, and life coach), we tend to stereotype shop like we’re buying for June Cleaver. Flowers? Lovely but forgettable. And that day spa gift certificate from last year? Did that even get used? Consider instead a bottle of toe-curling mezcal, or a piece of garden hardware that looks like it could be used to slay dragons. Traditional gifts can even take on a tech edge—turn a little one’s drawing into a 3D-printed sculpture, or, for the beauty-minded, a high-tech blow-dryer that happens to be gilded in 23.75-karat gold.
This Mother’s Day, think about all that she does and all that she can do, and loves to do, and gift her ways to do it all better, easier, and with more bravado. Here are a few ideas to get you started.
A fly rod should be an extension of the person using it—if it feels wrong, it will work wrong—so you know a custom rod from woman-owned SaraBella (from $570) will get it right, with a wide range of lengths, weights, and grip choices, as well as aesthetic considerations such as a custom thread color.
Similarly, Furrow Surfcraft surfboards (from $1,025), designed and shaped by Christine Brailsford Caro in Southern California, are built not just with performance and aesthetics in mind, including striking carved wooden inlays, but also environmental concerns, in a solar-powered workshop.
Death metal band or garden tool? The serrated edges and ergonomically designed handles of Radius Garden’s Root Slayer five-piece landscaper set ($199) will ensure that even after a day of planting black dahlias in the garden, Mom isn’t too wiped out for some headbanging.
Whatever you need—Band-Aid, phone charger, hand sanitizer—Mom’s typically got it. Now she can add wire cutters and Phillips head screwdriver to the arsenal. A new magnetic architecture on the Free P4 multitool from Leatherman ($139.95) is designed to make opening and closing its 21 tools easy on those with nails.
Sure, any patio umbrella can keep the sun’s rays at bay, but forward-thinking moms, with a penchant for flourish, will appreciate the solar-powered tech features of Shadecraft Robotic’s Blossom umbrella ($6,000): built-in Bluetooth speakers, app-controlled lighting, automatic opening, closing, and even wind closure. Umbrellas are available with three wood choices and five fabric colors.
Chelsea Miller’s one-of-a-kind, handmade chef’s knives (from $800) are in such demand, you’ll need to order now for Mother’s Day 2020. In the meantime, a six-piece Miller-designed steak knife set ($850), forged in the French village of Thiers by a family who have been making knives for more than 700 years, is a handsome addition to Sunday dinner. Bundled in a very giftable leather case, the set has violet-wood handles and elegantly curved, savagely sharp blades.
Use them on a perfectly seared, 45-day dry-aged bone-in rib-eye from Belcampo meats ($45). Belcampo’s Anya Fernald has cracked the code on making grass-fed beef as richly marbled and deeply flavored as anything the traditional grain-fed instry can produce.
If Mom’s more of an eating-clean type, consider juicing’s dark secret: For every hour that a cold-pressed homemade kale and rutabaga juice adds to her life, the aggravation of cleaning the machine takes away two. The Hurom H101 Easy Clean Slow Juicer ($499), available in black and silver, has reconfigured its strainers so that a rinse is all it needs, while its 43 rpm juicing speed guarantees that ingredients don’t get heated and oxidised.
The most recent entrant to the connected home audio market, Bowers & Wilkins Formation speakers (from $700) set the bar for combining striking design and uncompromising sound. The new suite of products is released under the Formation banner-branding, which might bring Beyoncé to Mom’s mind: “I see it, I want it,” indeed.
Mesmerizing is not a typical word for a table.
Then again, a Sisyphus Industries side or coffee table (from $1,299) is anything but typical. Available in wood or welded steel frames, they’re like dynamic Zen gardens in which a magnetically guided ball etches complex patterns in the sand that she can choose from in an accompanying app or design herself.
And while giving Mom anything to do with cleaning is admittedly a risky move,the Lidar-enabled (yes, like a self-driving car) Neato Botvac D7 Connected ($830) is robotic one-up from a Roomba that makes (not) vacuuming, dare we say, … fun. An app maps everywhere it has cleaned and can summon it to trouble spots, like beneath a highchair, on demand or on a regular schedule. The adorable little shimmy it does as it backs itself against its charging dock is a bonus.
In the same vein of maximizing time, particularly those fragile yet all-important bedtime hours, Bose noise-masking sleepbuds ($250) block out ambient noise, the pitter-patter of little feet, and the snoring that you definitely don’t do with a wide selection of sounds, from gentle rain to the muted whir of a jet engine (heard in a cozy first-class seat, no doubt).
Come morning, upgrade her routine with a Special Edition Dyson Supersonic hair dryer ($499), which includes a free stand or a free styling set with a detangling comb and paddle brush on all Mother’s Day orders. Although typical hair dryers are brute, simple appliances comprised of a fan and heating element, Dyson engineers have raised the technical stakes—it checks/tweaks the air temperature 20 times per second—and its looks with a 23.75-karat gold face and a slick red presentation case.