Five Things 05

Knitted Chuck Taylors, Lynch’s Longbill Cap (and Ironing Board), Ecru-colored Big Totes, and a Skate Ramp Inside a Syracuse Museum for Friday, May 30, 2025

May 31, 2025

Summer’s creeping in. Some of us are prepping for camp drop-offs, others are gearing up for long-overdue getaways. Maybe we’re sending the kids to camp and sending ourselves to camp, too. Either way, take a moment and check out a few things that caught my eye.

Have a great weekend, guys.

— Jeff

Knitted Converse Chuck Taylor All Star by Adewale Quadri

Adewale Quadri kicked up a storm for NY lovers with his hand-crocheted New Era 59FIFTY fitted caps last year or so. They’re bonkers good and the fact that they’re hand-knitted in New York only adds to it. American craft fundamentals are alive and thriving through young creators like Quadri. We keep calling it art or fashion, but really, we should be calling it craft.

Now it looks like Quadri’s back at it, bringing his signature knitting style to the Chuck Taylor All Star in partnership with Converse. The execution is beautiful—but honestly, I’d be terrified to get them dirty. Like most handmade pieces today, they feel like a modern take on folk art—only now the canvas is iconic cultural staples: the fitted cap, the Chuck Taylor.

I’m curious to see which cultural icon he reimagines next. Hypebeast has a solid early interview with Quadri about how the pandemic gave him space to explore creatively.

As for where to buy them? No idea. Just follow darkphilknight on Instagram for more.

Grease Point Workwear Hauler Tote Bag

Yes, you do need an oversized tote. What in your right mind would make you think a modest little tote is going to do you any favors this summer? We need big.

Step up to the Hauler Tote Bag from Grease Point Workwear, a serious carryall sewn by a crew of guys up in Seattle who are doing their thing, truly. They hold tight to core values around where and how they make things, and their line of clothing is well worth a look as well. This is not fast fashion by any means.

But I’m here for the Hauler, their oversized tote bag made from 12 oz. USA-milled natural canvas, in that perfect flax/ecru shade I love so much. I love natural because it holds well under distress and discolor: the dirtier canvas gets, the better it looks. It’s meant to be used and worn.

And yes, its shape is Frakta-inspired, and yes, I’m here for it.

The Hauler Tote Bag is $99 from Grease Point Workwear.

The David Lynch Collection at Julien’s

Comprised of 450 items, The David Lynch Collection offers a direct look inside his home—from the kitchen to his personal studio. It’s actually a remarkable collection to browse as a whole. Right out of the gate, Julien’s takes us into Lynch’s kitchen with his personal La Marzocco GS/3 Home Espresso Machine (current bid: $7,000) and a humble Mr. Coffee maker (current bid: $1,250).

It just keeps going from there. I encourage you to page through the entire catalog—but one piece making the rounds, brought to my attention by the great Sofrak, is Lynch’s longbill cap. Paired with his woodshop straw hat, the set is currently sitting at $1,750.

His personal Shop Vac is north of $1200.

Side by side, the two ironing boards and two Marilyn Monroe portraits by Milton Greene.

Seen side-by-side, it’s a bit of a position to have these two items listed next to each other. It really shows how tricky it can be to represent someone’s personal effects through a visual catalog.

A bunch of personal interior designs by Lynch are sprinkled in there including this end table.

Either way, the longbill cap is one to watch. I’ll report back after the auction closes to see where this one lands, price-wise.

The David Lynch Collection at Julien’s auction ends June 18 at 10:00 AM PST.

DEAD END. Art Show at Everson Museum of Art

A new exhibition is opening at the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, NY: DEAD END. Curated by William Strobeck (a name that should ring familiar to most), the show continues the conversation around skate culture, offering a lens through which we see a city like Syracuse where Strobeck grew up and skated. He brings it all back to where it started by showcasing the people and places that anchor it within the broader skate story.

I asked DEAD END.’s exhibition producer, and dear friend, and son of Syracuse city, Ben Dietz about what made the local Syracuse scene work.

Without exaggeration it was the Everson that’s set skating in Syracuse apart; it’s been a spot for 40 years and with the exception of a couple years in the “skateboarding is not a crime” era of the late 80s it’s never been a bust. That’s one of the reasons it’s such an honor to be able to help with this show Bill’s curated – the opportunity to do something inside the museum. The Everson crew really gave us carte blanche on the show, too - it’s got pieces in it like Gonz’s mural from Max Schaaf’s ramp – that nobody outside skating will have ever seen and has never been exhibited, so it’s been awesome getting to getting to work on that with some of our heroes, too. And there’s a miniramp in the museum that Kunle (EARSNOT) from IRAK covered completely in tags - so we’ll get to literally skate in the museum.

What we get from this is that the skate ramp installed inside the Everson Museum is functional art—a canvas of plywood against concrete and metal, two surfaces where art and artforms are performed, but rather on its exterior, interior.

Preview notes from the show tell us more about William Strobeck’s intention with his curation. While a few of his own works appear, the exhibition is more about the people and moments that shaped him coming up. Strobeck’s lens is locked on youth culture—always a blur of uncertainty and wide open to whatever comes next.

There is also something quite appealing about the curation that looks to photographs and works using what many will remember as pre-Internet. The release says it best “In unguarded and casual images… subjects point to skate culture’s influence on the popular culture of today: handheld skate videos are today’s TikTok and Instagram reels, while the microcultures of Substack, Reddit, and Tumblr echo the DIY skatezines of the past.”

The exhibition DEAD END., curated by William Strobeck, will be on view at the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, NY, from June 7 through August 31, 2025. The museum is located at 401 Harrison Street, Syracuse, NY 13202.

This is not an ad.

Sometime over the past three years—while adjusting to the wellness lifestyle Miami practically forces on you—I started drinking differently. I moved away from hard spirits and into the softer, more forgiving category of hard seltzers, where I convince myself I’m hydrating as I drink. I swear by them to some extent, usually reaching for whatever variety of canned vodka is in front of me.

In just the past day, I spotted these on shelves at Whole Foods and Target in Miami: High Noon, NÜTRL, Plant Botanical, TRULY Extra, Bon & Viv, White Claw, Mom Water, Stateside Vodka Sodas, Western Son Vodka Seltzer, and Onda.

Part of me is just fascinated by the hard seltzer category—its history of false starts and now full-blown dominance. I guess Seagram’s wine coolers were an early ancestor. But today, wellness culture and calorie consciousness have pushed these drinks into the mainstream, especially in places like Miami, where low-sugar and low-cal counts matter to people trying to stay fit and on track.

And for the hard seltzer haters—whatever.

This summer, I’m drinking Suntory -196 vodka seltzer. Pronounced “minus one nine six,” it’s been on Japanese shelves as Strong Zero since 2005. Only last year did it land in the U.S., trying to carve out space in an already crowded market. Flavors like lemon—no joke—actually taste like lemon.

The agency Johannes Leonardo did some fun creative for the 2024 U.S. launch, leaning into the punchiness of it all.

I found Suntory -196 at Target and Total Wine down here in Miami, Florida. Distribution may vary across the states. Also available in Australia.