These Are The Best Products Our Editors Bought In 2017

The holidays have finally come and gone, but that doesn’t mean you’ve quite scratched that new-gear itch. Whether it’s all the shopping that got your mind turning or a few Amazon gift cards in your stocking, you’re probably still in the market for a few post-Christmas presents for yourself.

Instead of going through our shopping carts of all the things we want to buy/think you should buy (and would ultimately be cooler), we decided to stick to things we have purchased in the last year.

Seiko’s automatic dive watches are tougher than a bag of hammers. The recently debuted “New Turtle” takes that legendary durability and adds a little classic style. Its looks are derived from the legendary cushion-cased Seiko Turtle of the 1970s, and unlike many of Seiko’s other affordable dive watches, can be wound by hand using the crown. My New Turtle is weighty, solid, and still keeping perfect time after a year of abuse.

We’re in a sweaty business; it’s just a fact. I’ve gotten used to my cotton shirts eventually getting wrecked by pit stains. Rather than binning my old favorites, my wife (a clothing designer and an expert in not wrecking expensive apparel) suggested simply switching from an antiperspirant to a natural deodorant. To my surprise, it’s worked wonders. Sam’s does a decent job of keeping the stink away and eliminated pit stains, while being available in a myriad of manly scents.

Like most motorcyclists, I have a handful of different, cheap, essentially disposable tire pressure gauges strewn around my garage. Annoyed at the disparity in their readings, I plonked down a whopping $33 this year for a professional-grade item from Longacre. It has a digital display. It’s tough enough to live in my toolbox. Zero regrets.

Taking a job in Orange County means a long commute from LA. If I'm not riding, that means a train trip from Union Station to avoid Southern California’s legendary traffic. That’s where Anker’s decent and startlingly cheap Bluetooth headphones come in. They block out noise, do a better than expected job of making their own, and cost peanuts.

My toddler niece is a bit of a daredevil—and Uncle Chris is all too happy to encourage her curiosity. Especially if it means aiming her at two wheels. The Strider teaches balancing skills, bypassing fiddly training wheels all together.

Spotify sent me an email last week saying that I’d listened to just shy of 90,000 minutes of music in 2017 (and that I still listen to way too much Chance the Rapper), which equates to about four hours a day if spread evenly throughout the whole year. When I’m not listening to music from my studio monitors in my office, my home stereo, or headphones, I use the nearly indestructible Roll 2 to bring my jams on the go. I love the little strap on the back that makes it easy to attach to just about everything, and the fact that you can pair two of them together.

I’m an Apple fanboy through and through, but most people aren’t as dedicated to giving the Cupertino company as much of their money as possible. For those of you as insane as I am, Apple TV is a better user experience; but for you smart people there’s the Amazon Fire TV Stick and Fire TV. I bought the Fire Stick for my bedroom and it’s perfect for streaming Netflix, HBO, Spotify, and any number of apps. If I had it to do over again, I’d get the snappier Fire TV, but either are better than using those silly smart TV apps.

I’m normally very good about being organized, but I swear my keys hide from me. My job is amazing, but it comes with a lot of stuff and it’s amazing how easy it is to misplace things. I also put my keys somewhere in my luggage for safe keeping when traveling, only to not remember where I put them upon my return. Since ordering these last August, I’ve used the app to “ping” my keys three different times when I thought for sure they were gone. Also, in case you’re wondering, it costs about $400 to replace a lost Toyota Tacoma key.

Shea Serrano is a writer for one of my favorite websites theringer.com, which was started by one of my heroes, Bill Simmons, and he gets to write the kinds of stories I only dream about. Stories about the morality axis of Denzel Washington’s characters in his movies, the multitude of ways Samuel L. Jackson used my favorite word in every movie he’s been in, or rating how disrespectful LeBron’s dunks and blocks are. He also wrote a story about the 25 things people do to show how sad they are in R&B music videos—genius. One time, someone tweeted that he and I were their two favorite writers, and it’s still to this day easily the nicest thing anyone will ever say about me.

The cheapest and oddest thing I’ve purchased on Amazon this year is also one of the ones I was the most excited to discover. I’m not a huge pin collector, but I’ve gotten a few over the years at events that I like to put on my Aerostich or denim vests and jackets. Several times, I’ve arrived somewhere to find the pin barely hanging on, at least until the Google helped me find these guys. You’ll pay more for shipping than the pin backs themselves, but still totally worth it to make sure you don’t lose something of sentimental value.

The more I tinker with motorcycles and cars, the more I run into the little pull tabs that manufacturers use to keep paneling in place without using screws or other more traditional forms of attachment. Fumbling idiot that I am, I tend to break the things more often than not but, because no tool was actually required, I sort of just accepted it as part of life. But this year I decided to grow up a little and do things the right way, and it’s one of the best $25 I spent.

These earbuds are cheap, sound great, and seal off well so they cut out most of the wind noise when riding. If you ride with headphones in, these are the best cheapish pair I’ve found.

My phone’s battery tends to drain quickly while on the road constantly using navigation, music, and whatever else. I’ve been using the Lander Cascade battery pack for almost a full year now and I never leave home without it. It’s small, holds enough battery to charge my iPhone more than twice, can charge two things at once, and has pass-through charging, so it can give while it gets.

I’ve been invited to way more parties since I bought this thing and started using it. From brisket to pork butt, it’s easy to use and produces great results. The electric heating element stays steady and is easy to monitor. It’s insulated, so you can smoke outdoors in the winter, even if it’s cold, and it’s big enough to fit more than I’ve ever wanted to cook at one time. I’m no pitmaster, but this thing has helped me make a few dishes I was real proud of.

On the road, you have to catch sleep wherever you can find it. This little pillow packs up tiny, inflates in an instant, and the stretchy fabric is surprisingly comfortable. I’ve been keeping this in my backpack for ages now, and for how much room it takes up, it’s massively useful.

One of the biggest drawbacks of using a motorcycle as your sole form of transportation is cargo capacity. Thankfully, Pronghorn straps make securely strapping boxes, bags, and other stuff to your seat simple. These big rubber bands are a close competitor to my tried-and-true Rok Straps, but they offer a little more adjustability and a lot more tension for heavy loads.

I never hesitate to treat myself to a new tool because, as my dad always said, your tools pay for themselves. And even if the dowels that align cylinders and heads and cam holders and case covers are only a couple of bucks apiece to replace, this dowel puller from Motion Pro has definitely paid for itself in the last 12 months. While seized or rusted pins used to piss me off, now I just smirk and reach for this rad set of collets. It’s even got a mini slide hammer to help crank out really stubborn pins.

Up until recently I was still holding a flashlight in my mouth when I needed hands-free illumination. I don’t know why it took me so long to get around to buying a headlamp, but I’m glad I did! Sure I look like a dork, but whether I’m under my wife’s car or setting up a campsite, this Petzl LED headlamp is there to shine its light exactly where I need it while leaving my hands free to work. Genius.