Hasta La Ideas

The Core77 Ultimate Gift Guide is one of the more popular pieces of content that we put together every year, both for our readers and those of us who have the privilege—and eye—for making the selections. In the interest of capturing the communal spirit of this year’s Gift Guide, the contributors will be selecting a few of their favorite picks from their cohorts’ lists alongside one of their own.

In other words, hint, hint.

Most stuff is junk, it just is. So when it comes to buying gifts, do the planet and your giftee a favor and get them something they’ll actually use, rather than throw out or toss in a corner.

For this year’s Gift Guide, I looked around my place for some of the most useful things I own, with a particular focus on objects that can not be replaced by other objects; meaning, almost everything on this list has a unique function or performs its task in a far better way than you could do it before that object existed.

None of the items on my list are sexy, so if you’re looking for wow-factor during the unboxing, you’ve got the wrong list. But assuming your giftee actually does the things these objects were designed for, they will find themselves using them time and time again, and you’ll get the credit for being one of those people that buys useful, kick-ass gifts.

To keep the Core77 Gift Guide going, we staffers were asked by the Core77 brass to pick some items out from other staffers’ lists. I take this to mean that after picking these items, we’ll then have them purchased for us on the company dime. Right? Boss? …Hello?

From Glen Jackson Taylor’s list, I’ll pick the Sheffield Kevlar Shears. (Note that Glen has three names, like some kind of famous political assassin, and his gifts are also three-worded. Something is going on there.) Why shears that can cut through Kevlar? Because you never know when friends are going to come knocking on your door at 2am because one of them was shot and they can’t go to the cops, and because you took a veterinary course in college you then have to put on a white lab coat and look nervously reluctant while you fish the bullet out with a pair of tweezers and drop it into a silver kidney-shaped bowl with an audible “clink.” And you might need the shears to cut through their clothes. Of course if they were wearing Kevlar there’d probably be no bullet for you to remove, so, fine, maybe I didn’t think this pick through… $76 at Best Made Co.

From Mason Currey’s list, I’ll select the 2014 Cat Calendar. I’m a dog guy and I don’t like cats, but my dogs like eating paper, and I’m hoping they go for the cat calendar before they hit my copy of the Woodcraft catalogue. $50 from United Bamboo

From Fosta’s list, I’ll pick the Magnetron Carabiner. Why? You know why. Don’t play dumb with me. $30 from Black Diamond

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