Every now and then we at CH find ourselves overly intrigued by a certain brand or product—usually one that shares our obsession with aesthetics, pursuit for quality and dedication to innovation. And when the stars align, a collaboration is born, giving way to…
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The contest conluded Wednesday 19 June at 4PM EST. Thank you to everyone who entered. In recent months we’ve teamed up with Tumi to design our ideal travel backpack and 3×1 for a denim apron worthy of the finest cook-outs….
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For city dwellers, it’s rooftop season. For everyone else, it’s time for backyard parties. Either way, nothing makes good company better than a BBQ and some cold ones. With this in mind we recently teamed up with NYC’s preeminent denim heads, our friends…
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Our Quarterly Co subscribers know we love to work with artists and are very inspired by our travels. CHQ05, just hitting mailboxes, celebrates Huichol, a traditional Mexican art and craft using small colorful beads to decorate clothing, instruments, animal figures, skulls, and other items in traditional motifs including rain,…
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We modified the classic tank boot to create a design perfectly suited to walking in the bush
For our first Cool Hunting Edition travel experience we brought 24 friends and readers on safari in Zambia. Over the course of eight days CH Zambia guests experienced the wonders and wildlife of Africa with a few surprises from our brand partners. More stories and videos here. One of…
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Travel with Cool Hunting editors on a very special trip to Zambia’s South Luanga National Park
When we learned about The Bushcamp Company, the only safari operator in the southern part of Zambia’s game-filled South Luanga National Park, we not only wanted to visit, we wanted to share it with our readers in a way that a story or video couldn’t provide. We decided the best way to share the experience was to actually share the experience, and we are proud to announce our first CH Edition trip, which is available exclusively through Jetsetter. This trip of a lifetime combines adventure, education and community action as well as a few surprises.
We chose The Bushcamp Company for several reasons. The South Luanga National Park (which is half the size of Massachusetts!), is one of the greatest game reserves in the world, home to a range of more than 60 mammals (including lions, tigers, rhinoceros, elephants, zebras, buffalo, hippos, baboons, giraffes and impalas), some 400 species of birds and vegetation unique even in Africa. It’s also one of the least visited, so you won’t be spending your time looking at other travelers instead of the amazing surroundings. Combining both driving and walking components, this safari offers a different experience from many others. It’s been said that “From a vehicle you see Africa. On foot you feel, hear and smell Africa,” and we agree. By walking through the park in small groups with a guide (and armed chaperone) we’ll get to experience the smallest details alongside the biggest game.
We’re pretty decent photographers, but in planning this trip we realized that even we could use a bit of help, so we’re partnering with Pentax Ricoh Imaging Americas to help document our experience. The new PENTAX K-01, designed by Marc Newson, will accompany us on our trip along with the just-announced Optio WG-2 rugged adventure camera, as well as celebrated nature photographer Kerrick James. We’ll all learn how to capture incredible imagery in informal demonstrations, and Kerrick will join us in the field to help you document the experience. It wouldn’t be a Cool Hunting trip without a few surprises, and we have several in store for you.
Our days will consist of an early morning, late afternoon, and evening safari. We’ll talk photography, share stories, enjoy a siesta and tea, and three meals a day. You’ll be traveling with Josh Rubin and Evan Orensten, the co-founders of Cool Hunting, and Greg Stefano, our video producer (as we’ll be creating a Cool Hunting video of the trip). All travelers will start the trip at the Mfuwe Lodge, where we’ll spend the first two nights. Then we’ll split up into smaller groups as we venture into the park and spend the next five nights in the bushcamps (each bushcamp has three or four rooms), though we will all meet up once a day. We’ll come together again on the last night.
Supporting the local rural community is part of The Bushcamp Company’s mission, and we will not only spend our last day visiting the local school, we will contribute to it. Guests are encouraged to share their life experience with the students with a lecture or demonstration. Chilongozi is a rural school with very limited means, and they are in the process of building a much needed classroom and dormitory. Each guest, as part of their tour fee, will be donating a desk to the school, and The Bushcamp Company has generously offered to match our donations. The desks, which cost $120, are made locally, providing jobs and additional revenue to the community. We’ll also be accepting donations for so many other things that are needed at this school.
This very special trip is limited to 12 rooms (a maximum of 24 people). Travel of this sort is unfortunately not inexpensive, though through our partnership with Jetsetter we’re able to offer it at a thirty percent discount off of standard pricing. The price, $4,595 per person, includes the charter flight from Lusaka, Zambia’s capital, to Mfuwe, lodging, all meals, park fees and a desk for the Chilongozi school. Some alcohol is included in the price, and the rest is available for purchase. Airfare from your city to Lusaka is not included.
For complete details and booking, please visit Jetsetter. We expect this trip to book quickly. If you’re interested and it’s sold out,. We’ve sold out on the first day. Looking at other possible date, so please add your name to the waiting list. Questions? Feel free to contact us directly at info [at] coolhunting.com
Last chance to get some of our exclusive product collaborations
Over the holidays we started experimenting with some of our favorite brands to create CH Editions of their products—variations in material and color that offer our unique twist. Today, with Gilt Groupe, we’re selling the last of these items—Rickshaw bags, 3sixteen ties and Outlier hats. The sale just started so hurry over to check it out: CH Editions on Gilt.
3Sixteen details three of their uniquely talented clients in video
In celebration of the unique individuals that wear 3Sixteen, the denim-focused label recently created a series of videos showing off their customers’ talents and hardworking lifestyles. The trio of intriguing mini-docs, all profiling people in their homebase of NYC and cleverly titled “Singularities,” follows the dedicated coffee roasters at The Coffee Foundry, the skilled tattoo artists at Invisible Ink and the laid-back drummer Jahphet Landis. Directed by Kellen Dengler, the vignettes capture each of their subjects without ever mentioning 3Sixteen. This subtle brand-building project, much like their clothing, keeps it about the product not the name.
We had the pleasure of getting to know just how the clothing company works when we collaborated with Andrew Chen and the 3Sixteen team late last year on a series of ties made from locally-sourced wool in Manhattan’s Garment District. Like everything the brand produces, the attention to detail and commitment to craft really shines in each of the four styles, with a simple label hand-sewn on the back.
Dengler and the team are still searching for the fourth subject for the Singularities series. If you think your talents deserve some airtime, submit your work using one of their various online platforms for the project before 1 April 2011. To get your hands on one of our remaining collaborative ties, check them out in our online shop, where they sell for $80 each.
Colorful scrunchies reinvented in Maharam fabric by a crafty Ohio mom
Last but not least in our series of limited-edition collaborations, the Maharam and Cool Hunting hair scrunchie (or Ma-hair-am Scrunchie, as we like to call it) is the upshot of a typical late night at the office when we were sourcing the items for our pop up shop with the Gap. When CH editor Ami Kealoha whipped out a scrunchie to keep her hair back, it sparked a nostalgic conversation about the beloved hair tie that ruled the ’90s.
“Wouldn’t it be great to make scrunchies out of
Maharam fabric?” was all it took for us to reach out to the NYC textile legend. Once they were on board, we tapped the woman who made over 100 scrunchies to hold up my side ponytail for all of fifth grade (aka my mother Debbie), who whipped up a batch of the fabric-covered hair-ties for us.
A fourth generation family-run business, as the major fabric supplier for much of NYC’s fashion and furniture industries, Maharam is a perfect example of one of NYC’s enduring brands and a great fit for the project.
Despite the infamous scrunchie episode of “Sex & The City,” we’re here to tell you that girls in NYC do wear them. A well-made throwback and the perfect stocking stuffer to add a little splash of colorful fun, the Maharam and Cool Hunting scrunchies sell online and in our pop up with the Gap for $6 each.
Win our exclusive prize pack—a limited-edition chocolate bar, caramel sauce, and iPhone case
In an effort to treat our loyal readers outside of NYC right, we’re giving away three items that are otherwise only available at our Cool Hunting for Gap shop to one lucky winner. The triple threat prize includes the insanely delicious Happy Goat caramel sauce infused with Macallan scotch, an equally mouthwatering chocolate bar by Mast Brothers and June Taylor and lastly the Cool Hunting iPhone case by Uncommon, boasting a Spirographic-style snowflake and created for either the iPhone 3 or 4.
To win this giveaway, you must follow us on Twitter and Tweet @coolhunting with #chforgap in your reply. We will choose one person at random on Monday, 20 December 2010, at 10am.
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