Snake America Seventy Nine: GIFT GUIDE
Snake is a bi-weekly newsletter--though not this week--covering sold and for-sale second-market goods, generally on eBay. Subscribe.
This week, a gift guide for Christmas.
1. For your own special sweetheart:
eBay: His and hers matching parkas: They say in Korea that couples wear the same thing on their anniversary, which is like a more romantic version of wearing a Merauder T-shirt to a a Merauder concert. I wonder who the first person to come up with that was. Was it a Korean person? It's such a good idea. Every country that hasn't picked this tradition should answer for its inaction. I think Korea's pickup of this inspired idea speaks to the deep supremacy in Korean culture. I was watching the Olympic weightlifting championships from Houston last month and one of the guys from South Korea had a bowl cut ... 94kg weight class. He also had gauged ears but small and jeweled. The North Korean team all wore these Asics shoes with a piece of wood taped on the heel. ... a few were pinched for steroids. Both countries are doing everything they can to win. The jackets here are commemorative tour jackets given out on the M.S. Linblad explorer, a Liberian-registered cruise ship that was originally a Swedish explorer vessel. Lars-Eric Linblad, the Swede, was described in his New York Times obituary as a tourism pioneer-cruises to Antartica in 1966, the Galapagos a year later. At the time of his death he lived in Wilton, Conn., which is where Steve Phillips and Linda Blair lived. The couple who wore these jackets on their Antarctic cruise is probably dead, because what kind of person would sell these memories while they're alive? The seller doesn't have anything else good except those Sears sneakers from the 80s. Which aren't good. If you are love someone, buy them this, even if the feeling is not reciprocated.
2. For yourself:
eBay: ROCKY MOUNTAIN FEATHERBED LEATHER VEST: Behold one of the greatest and most enduring mysteries in American vintage clothing pricing. Why do these vests keep going for so much money and where do they keep coming from? Rocky Mountain Featherbed, from Wyoming, makes or made vests and jackets with downward triangles on the chest, cowboys style. The company dates to the 1960s but is based out of Japan now. (Most likely some Japanese guys bought their name and are making reproductions.) The vests inevitably pop up at thrift stores, flea markets, estate sales, and so on. (Jackets do too but they're not as good--they look like country raincoats.) RMF vests have been popping up on eBay for 20 years and through select Japanese sellers and their prices don't have cycles. A leather RMF vest has hovered around $1,000 for the past 15 years and the non-leather ones half that. Sometimes they go for more if they're in good sizes. I've never seen one in a store or being worn by anyone in this country or even in an Instagram photo. I can't imagine any piece of clothing being paired with this vest to form a good outfit. But prices stay high. So it's clearly worth buying.
3. For the whole squad:
eBay: Lot of 5 deadstock blank Screen Stars tees: No size measurements given on this group of unused and unworn T-shirts that are 30 years old and Honda Del Sol green. Screen Stars, which was owned by Fruit of the Loom, were the T-shirt brand through the 1980s and 90s on which a plurality of screens were printed. (Fruit of the Loom also made T-shirts, but mostly blanks.) Originally the Union Underwear Company, est. 1926, from Bowling Green, Kentucky, the union has presumably been broken up. The abovementioned shirts are deadstock--never worn, tried on, washed, etc--but fit smaller than a medium from today or even 20 years ago. This is because people are thankfully more obese now, and sizes have caught up, and because Screen Stars' stuff fits smaller than most blank T-shirts used for screenprinting. Unfortunately, screening a design now onto this shirt for your squad, say "Valdazzo Brothers Olive Oil," or Metallica tour dates, creates a disconnect. The shirt is old but the print is brand-new. My friend Jay says some vintage stores in Japan do that with old punk shirts--find an old blank and drop a new screen--but I can't confirm so I won't name them. I don't think there's a way to make an old shirt with a new screen look legitimately old unless you have a rock tumbler or something.
4. For your personal trainer:
1stDibs: Walter Van Beirendonck cycling shirt: There's nothing better with pants on than bicycling, but from here it's a don't-ask don't-tell sport. Why read or write about it? Unlike fishing, few of cycling's great athletes are from America, and unlike Olympic weightlifting, most cyclists can't perform the olympic lifts. They're so skinny--none are obese. There's a video on YouTube of the Russian junior weightlifting team doing a training hall while 50 Cent's "The Massacre" plays in the background ... the song is "Get In My Car." Neither Van Beirendonck nor the entire cycling apparatus have ever been associated with anything that tasteful in their careers. Van Beirendonck is, of course, a genius--some of his more colorful suits look like the old Mr. Fish of London shirts from the 1960s--but the best thing about this shirt is you can wear it either fishing or weightlifting. Athletic-leisure wear works because clothes like the above-mentioned, simply look better than whatever poor choice of cotton clothing that's out there now. I think buying vintage and affecting a style is a lot of work. Some of the stuff at Niketown looks just as good. If you wear this shirt with Filson oil pants, or to power clean--or both--then you are no longer in need of training, be it personal or having to do with anything else.
Thanks for reading and Happy Holidays.
Snake
Last Snake: Completed Items compendium (completed!)
Snake Before That: Beatles White Album 0000001 (sold for $790,000, $730,000 over estimate)