JON CARAMANICA GOES SHOPPING: Urban Alpha Male Edition

In this week's Thursday Styles, Critical Shopper John Caramanica makes his way to the heavily publicized Best Made Co. in Tribeca. What can you say about a store that opens in Tribeca in 2013 to sell $300 axes? Who needs an axe, anyway? Caramanica decides to embrace the store, even though he notes that this sort of hyper rugged lumberjack-chic peaked a couple of years ago when Sweden's Fjällräven opened its gear-filled shop in NoLiTa. Our shopper is ultimately seduced by the surprising, primal appeal of holding a finely made, chopping implement.

Some people dress a certain way to feel more like a man, and some people buy an ax. Or at least think about it, dream about it, while their better halves are curled up in the bed, facing the wall, like in Hopper’s “Excursions into Philosophy.”

Is there really a customer for such high-end ruggedness here in Manhattan? It turns out that the urban metropolis has its share of folks who long to camp under the stars away form the city swirl, but only in a particular, high-quality-minded style. We don't know any of them, but we'll take Caramanica's word for it.

Critical Shopper: Brick and Mortar and Cold Steel By Jon Caramanica (NTimes)
Best Made Co. 36 White Street between Broadway & Church Street, Tribeca