Dan Matsuda

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Outside of bag nerdia, the name Dan Matsuda is not going to ring many bells. Inside the regular old bag enthusiast world he probably isn’t all that well known either. But, if you are a real bag nerd… someone that spends far too much time setting up a backpack, organizing it, and obsessing over the details – well then, Dan Matsuda is probably your homeboy.

Anyway, Dan makes pouches out of his little shop every week using exotic and/or modern materials. And then, on Friday at around 2pm central or so he lists them for sale on his site. Typically, by 2:05pm they are all sold out.

I recently got my own Matsuda pouch and I am here to tell you – the underground hype? It’s all for good reason. Sincerely.

Details here. Good luck to you sir.

MA-1 Flight Jacket

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Feels like everyone makes an MA-1 these days, but no one makes it better than Triple Aught Design. While I don’t own one, a buddy of mine does and the detail work and construction is unmatched. Sure, it costs damn near $300… But ya get what ya pay for. In my opinion, this is the best on the market.

Details.

Suavs Legacy

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Crazy comfortable shoes made out of recycled bottles… All that, and they still look somewhat timeless, no?

Details.

Alpaka Hub Pouch

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Alpaka has been killing it lately… They’ve introduced a number of new products and all of them have seemingly been a hit. In fact, they just dropped the Hub Pouch – a simple pocket organizer made out of X50 X-Pac.

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Yakoda Supply Square ‘Biners

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Square carabiners are actually far more practical for hanging and attaching things than traditional round carabiners. The thing is though, finding well made square examples is difficult. I’ve been looking for some to use as an attachment point for a homemade camera cube for months and have found nothing but trash in my search.

Recently, however, I was turned onto Yakoda Supply’s carabiners. My search is finally over. They are the right size, the right weight, they lock, and they are made like someone gave a shit. Perfect.

Details.

Peak Design Mobile Mod

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So it’s no secret that I love the design team at Peak Design. Recently, they released a new line of mobile products – basically, phone cases that match to very secure mounts for things like cars, motorcycles, tripods, etc…

I bought a universal mount for review and testing and was really impressed. But, I didn’t really have a use for it as I have a RAM mount standard for all of my devices. If it doesn’t mount by 1″ ball, it’s just not for me.

Still, the Peak Design mount worked so well that I figured I should at least try to adapt it. Turns out, it’s an easy job… After about 5 minutes on the CNC router, I had an adaptor that allows me to use the PD mount with my RAM system.

I can’t recommend this enough.

More info on the Peak Design Mobile line here.

Leica M11

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Leica released their latest M-body today – the M11. Basic selling point is the new triple resolution sensor essentially allowing you to choose between high resolution 60mp files or lower resolution files (36 or 18mp) giving better high ISO performance.

This thing is undoubtedly capable of producing gorgeous images and will probably do so with perfect ergonomics and unmatched build quality, BUT… the biggest issue I have with modern digital M-bodies is inconsistent range finder calibration. In the past, I’ve found that M8, M9, and M10 rangefinders let me down over time.

Oh… and if you get one, go for silver – it’s the only color way made in traditional brass.

Details.

Kyoto Black

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This is pretty interesting. Reigning Champ has been working with a Japanese Dye house in an effort to perfect the black dye process on western materials. The result is a black with crazy depth and no blue. Apparently, this process took over a century to perfect and the dye includes all kinds of shit in it… Things like tea leaves and bark.

Crazy, no?

Details here.