Mistakes Men Make
Hard Facts and Easy Solutions
Men fail to resolve a few issues more often than they need to. The modern search for ease and efficiency leads us to some dark sartorial places. The solution is not to wear a backpack.
On the thematic level, I hope you’re not trying to be the most efficient version of yourself. What fun would that be? If we got rid of inefficient things we have no fountain pens, no fly fishing, no asados, no long lunches, no long novels. Almost everything worth doing goes against the most productive use of your time. I like a man who does things his own way at his own pace. And he’s not doing that in dress sneakers.
So here we go, coming at you with some old time opinioneering. My last major initiative was a decades-long campaign against roller bags. And how did that go? Not well, dear reader, not well. I’m officially retiring the Coggins Anti-Roller Bag Campaign™. Anybody who rolls their bag inelegantly over the cobblestones of Paris, the sound echoing through the arrondissement, will not have my raised eyebrow to deal with any longer. They will, however, have to watch me sprint up the steps of Charles de Gaulle airport while they’re waiting with their fellow rolleristes on the escalator.
No, it’s time to look forward. Here are a few distinctly modern problems and some painless solutions.
-PROBLEM I: The Urban Backpack. A crime against aesthetics and a menace to urban life. The backpacked man takes up valuable space in crowded cities, trains and airports. Not only that, he often obliviously bumps into innocent neighbors, forgetting the basic rule: your bag is part of your person and you must take responsibility for it.
He looks like a schoolboy and relinquishes any sense of authority he might possess upon entering a room. The backpack, like its evil sibling the roller bag, invites over-packing. Relinquished from shouldering the true weight the backpacker greedily fills it like a refrigerator before a storm. To start with: carry less. You’d be surprised how little you can get away with. The secret to good packing, as we know, is not bringing everything you might need but the few things you do need.
Some solutions: Oh hello, it’s the Ghurka Field Bag. I worked on this and it’s very special and a real investment that you’ll have forever. So you don’t want to spend $1000, what about the Filson Tin Cloth Briefcase? Handsome, useful, better with age and just under $300. This old Jack Spade dipped tote bag or old Orvis canvas briefcase both have a lot of character and variations turn up on eBay from time to time.
There are so many great bags—this is something you carry every single day that everybody will notice about you. So ask yourself, do you want to look like you got strapped into some hideous technical material and are ready to step onto the surface of the moon? No, you do not.
-PROBLEM II: The Dress Sneaker. I wish you wouldn’t. A serious leather shoe should not have a white sole—a rare hard and fast rule. If a shoe looks like it belongs on the driving range then it shouldn’t grace your feet when you step into any civilized setting. Why are we suddenly complaining about the comfort of men’s shoes? There are so many classic options. If you’re looking for something for summer, here’s a Ben Silver white buck made by our friends at Crockett & Jones. Or an easygoing Rancourt camp-moc (under $300), Sid Mashburn’s are sportier. One of the best casual options is a Sperry boat shoe, a great seaside solution under $200. We have the good fortune to have inherited so many great shoes don’t disappoint the home team.
