Little Lad in a Fraught Polycule

Show & Tell 2/22/24

First Show and Tell of the new year! As Neverrong slowly shifts gears to make you even better and more informative long-form episodes in this new year, we’re continuing to do these Show and Tells - mainly just for us to get to riff and hang out… but yeah, I guess it’s for you too.

Amuse-Bouche

As you know, our actual Show and Tells are usually a bit more abstract, but we actually have some tangible things to show you!

Albert wanted to talk about a watch he recently bought - a co-branded 1971 Datejust. You may recall from a previous Show and Tell just how much he loved those markedly sillier takes on the classic Rolex. His particular watch was sold to him by Craft & Tailored, which is a great place for a vintage watch if you’re in LA, and bears the insignia of Aladdin - not the animated film - but a company that began making kerosene lamps in 1949, eventually transitioning to lunch boxes.  

Lunchbox by Aladdin

“How many lunch boxes do you have to sell to get a Rolex?” David wonders – and yeah… how many do you think?

David also has something to show off - a purchase, which for him is quite rare. While passing through Gallup, New Mexico, David found a pretty cool pair of boots. It’s a small town, which has some of the most impressive selections of Native jewelry. While looking through the rugs and turquoise, he happened upon some shoes.

In City Electric Shoe Shop, he found something he’d only seen in museums - Pueblo style moccasins. With a raw-hide sole and a leather, wrap-around upper, these are extremely special shoes that will certainly be a challenge to break in - we think he can do it – we also think that because he supported actual indigenous craftspeople in buying them, that it’s kosher to wear them.

Albert makes reference to the Polo Ralph Lauren collab with Naiomi Glasses, which you can see here, if you want to buy some mass-market Native iconography that is actually designed by a Native person!!

A rare fit-pic from Reed

Reed, shockingly, also has something for our pre-show. He bought JEANS! This may not sound especially shocking, but if you’ve known Reed for as long as us, it’s quite rare for him to buy “hard” pants. Though he sure loves so shop, his tastes tend to skew more towards elasticated waists, but no more! His many year flirtation with Orslow, which began with a pair of Orslow 105s, has continued to a newer Orslow cut, the 101 (the dad fit) from Pilgrim Surf Supply. They’ve taken the mantle as his favorite Orslows.

David’s Spiel: Tiktok Shop

Reed isn’t on Tiktok, so he doesn’t quite get it, but David and Albert know all too well how prolific the Tiktok Shop has become on the algorithm. He refers to a New York Mag article about a writer using this to sell a chewed up pencil. Any social media platform is only good for so long - until rent comes due - or things change. Could this be the beginning of the end? Or will there be a large enough backlash to this garbage on our feeds??

Apparently you can block certain hashtags that will prevent you seeing more tiktok shop ads, but we haven’t figured it out yet. You can always just wholesale block any accounts you see shilling in this way.

Albert’s Spiel: Ballet Flats For Men

After we here on Neverrong debuted a completely original phrase: Dainty Footwear - we’ve heard some other people in our niche using it… how dare they?!

You’ve maybe heard some talk about ballet flats for some time now so Albert wanted to look a little deeper into this trend and thinks it might be a new term to sell men… loafers.

As far back as 2020, fashion commentators have been saying that this is the summer of the ballet flat, but in most of their articles, the pictures they show are either espadrilles or some sort of very dainty unlined loafer, but nothing quite as ballet shoe-coded as they would have you believe. Another article has the subtitle “Did we trigger you already?”

A cursory search for men’s ballet flats online yield more leather slipper type shoes. It feels disingenuous. But to be clear, we’d love to see men wearing actual ballet flats or any other shoe that tickles their fancy, but as ever, we are skeptical of capitalism.

But we agree, if done right, it’s the perfect shoe for a little lad in a fraught poly-cule.

Reed’s Spiel: New York Market Week

Reed went to three different shows: Man/Woman, Welcome Edition, and M5. 

Reed was a big fan of the offerings from Pilgrim Surf Supply (as always), Wythe was strong, and a new brand called Big Rock Candy Mountaineering made a big impression too!

Retro Gorp was strong, “evil cowboy” is bubbling up, and if you like denim, you’ll be in for a great year to come. Earth tones, natural fibers, and the color “aubergine” - we are so back!!