The Best Stuff of 2018

This year we're prescribing a double helping of retail therapy. We scoured the web and cased the design stores to find the most luxurious—and eco-friendly!—vehicles, the rugged-est gear, and the edgiest new technology out there.
Assortment of multicolored patterned hexagonal tiles.
Prop Stylist: Alex Brannian at Art Department

All products are independently selected by our editors. If you buy something, we may earn an affiliate commission.

$160, goat.com

Sneaker of the Year

When Nike found itself in something of a sneaker arms race with Adidas, it brought out the React Element 87: a futuristic translucent shoe on a marshmallow-soft sole. Buy a pair if you can (they're released regularly but almost always sell out)—and then make sure you're wearing cool socks.


$35–$39, hay.dk

(Don't) Stay Thirsty

You can't keep buying plastic water bottles. And your college Nalgene somehow still smells like that one time you mixed a margarita in it. The Hay Sowden Bottle, with its fuck-minimalism colors, is the proper vessel for the coffee-shop gig-economy worker of the future.


Mood: Lighting

The w127 Winkel by Wästberg is made of a “biologically sourced” plastic that feels like metal. The light it casts is bright but not too clinical. And the crane neck holds any position you put it in. Now close the laptop and pull out that Moleskine you ambitiously bought last year.


Clout Goggles

These Vuarnets have all the glare-blocking features of the Bond-ian glacier goggles the classic French brand is known for. But they're a little better suited for more urbane movie-star adventures like, say, getting ambushed by paparazzi as you exit the Uber. They also work even if the only thing flashing in your face is the harmful blue light from your phone—99 percent of which these shades block out.

The side shields pop off if you're not keen on the goggle effect. But that little extra bit of glare protection is what really reduces eye strain.


Shag Is Back

Wanting to lie down on your floor the second you get home isn't usually a sign of things going well—unless you've recently bought this rug from L.A. design house Block Shop. It's so thick and fluffy and handsome that reclining on it will become part of your nightly routine. Standing on it, your feet will celebrate shag's aesthetic comeback. It feels that good underfoot.


The Best Polaroid Camera Yet

The OneStep+ i-Type is a classic instant when you want it to be, but also a modern camera equipped with self-timers, double exposures, and manually adjustable settings. It just depends on how staged you want your spontaneous party snapshots to be.

Ten years ago, Polaroid stopped making instant film. First, The Impossible Project started making the film; then it just bought the whole brand.


Price available upon request, jaguar.com

The Throwback Car of the Future

What's sexier than 170 miles of all-electric range packaged in Swinging '60s aah-OOH-ga curves? Very little. Jaguar will happily build you an E-type Zero by sourcing a vintage model or by converting one you own—either option costs about half a mil. No one said electro-sexy was cheap.


An Oil for Everything

What does one do with Everyday Oil? Anything. Literally. Rub this stuff everywhere. Face, hands, hair, wherever. The concoction of coconut, olive, jojoba, castor, and argan oils (with palo santo, lavender, geranium, and sage) will make your skin and hair feel smooth and rejuvenated.


$300, yeti.com

Tailgate the Apocalypse

The release of Yeti's first chair, this year, came with high expectations. So indestructible is the Hondo Base Camp Chair that when you throw it in the back of a pickup, it's the pickup you'll want to check for damage afterward. The cup holder, by absolute necessity, is included.

Yeti, which is famous for its forever-cold line of coolers, is expanding into other sturdily built products for buzzed enjoyment of the outdoors.


$35 for lighter, green-mister.com / $170 for oil burner, aesop.com / $49 for tray, shoptetra.com

High Design

A host of stylish brands are replacing the heady 420 gear of dorm rooms past. Magma makes the solid-resin rolling tray. Then there's Mister Green, which stocks boutique smoking goods—like this sharp Japanese Tsubota Pearl lighter. And this Aesop oil burner covers up any lingering smells.


The Waviest Board

The surf savants at Almond, out of sunny Costa Mesa, California, made a foam board, the R-Series, that's gentle and forgiving. It's the right size (five and a half feet) and shape (the company's Secret Menu outline) for beginners and seasoned surfers alike. We'll toss up a shaka to that.


Just the Right Amount of '70s

While turned off, this Tom Dixon pendant light—with its golden hue, mirror-ish finish, and polygonal shape—hangs like a big-ass fancy earring from your ceiling. And when it's turned on? Light bursts through the material, casting a kaleidoscopic series of reflections throughout the room.

Hang a couple of these together and the prisms of light dancing across the ceiling will make those childhood glow-in-the-dark stars look like, well, child's play.


$7,000, rwguild.com

Bring Your Favorite Hotel Home

That aesthetic taking over the hospitality industry for the past decade? Blame it on Roman & Williams—a.k.a. the husband-and-wife design team of Stephen Alesch and Robin Standefer. Their eye for vintage furniture—honed during their stint as Hollywood set designers—has informed the look and feel of the Ace, the Freehand, the Standard Highline, and a dozen other hotels and restaurants you've pined over on an influencer's Instagram. Their first store opened in SoHo last December, and with it their most expansive collection yet of consumer-facing goods. The best item is their Reader chair and footstool, all supple leather and hard wooden intersections.


Meal Prep

The Fundamentals from Material Kitchen has everything you need. A one-stop shop—for less than 200 bucks. When you have someone over for that first home-cooked dinner, it's going to look like you've actually hosted before—at least in the kitchen.

Time to clear out the “spatulas and stuff” drawer in your kitchen and swap in an actual, intentional collection.


From $25 per square foot, pophamdesign.com

Trippy Tiles

Make one surface in your home righteously bold. Bring on the bright, geometric bathroom walls! Give us loud backsplash tiling! Popham Design's tiles are hand-poured concrete, made in Morocco in patterns you'll never see in a friend's place.


$170, jabra.com

Earbuds That Stay In

Despite Apple's insistence to the contrary, not all ears do well with hard plastic lodged inside them. For people with—how to say this?—more delicate canals, Jabra makes a soft-tipped solution. Does it help that the sound is great, that they pair easily and quickly with your device, that they play for five continuous hours, and that they won't fall out while you're getting sweaty on the elliptical? Sure, you can check those boxes, too.


$195, 18east.co

Get Fleeced

How do you improve upon the humble fleece vest that's warmed the cores of untold mountaineers and urban explorers? If you're 18 East designer Antonio Ciongoli, you add hand-painted kalamkari fabric details and design it with a large internal pocket so the whole fleece can fold down into a handy travel pillow.


The Last Weekend Bag You'll Ever Buy

This insanely durable Patagonia duffel passed the test last summer on planes, trains, and automobiles nearly every weekend. Plus it looks approximately 1,000 percent cooler than everyone else's carry-on. The shoulder-strap attachments mean you can actually hoof it up a mountain.

Patagonia is known for its eco-conscious outerwear, but it just might be the world's best bag company, too.


Try Calling This Pot Black

Behold the Goldilocks of cookware: not too big or small, affordable but so well designed you'll want to hang it up like a piece of kitchen art. This saucier is a workhorse that doubles as a serving vessel in a pinch. Great Jones, a brand-new direct-to-consumer line of pots and pans, has the perfect upgrade from the ramshackle collection currently languishing on your shelves.