Category Archives: ingenuity

Off The Path: FRIGO Revolution Underwear

At a Manhattan pop-up last December, the friendly folks at Frigo were kind enough to flow me a pair of FRIGO 2 boxer briefs. We agreed that along with footwear, good underwear is a key ingredient for great walking. The Frigo 2s are 92% polyamide & 8% elastane (feels like spandex). The revolutionary feature on these drawers is the netted pouch with a patented “soft lock” adjustment system. I’ve been wearing them every couple of weeks for six months, and now that hot temperatures and high humidity are upon thee in the northeast, I’m happiest to have them in my rotation.

FrigoRevolutionwearBlack2

There’s an inner line of fabric that is adjustable by a button on each out side of the hip. These small buttons are unnoticeable while wearing. Guys! you put them on carefully and find the right adjustment so that your family jewels are comfortably supported, then you keep the adjustment as is with the buttons. There is some counting involved. The design thoughtfully and structurally acknowledges male anatomy, and is light years ahead of some pitiful dollar store endcap tighty whiteys. Imagine a time when you experienced chafing of the thighs while walking, or underwear discomfort while exercising… chances are underwear like this may offer an antidote for that. You’ve got a smartphone now, why are you still wearing dumb underwear? I like the way they provide a little lift, and are in no way time consuming to put on or take off.

Inside-out Frigos
REVOLUTIONWEAR Inside-Out

In my experiences, most boxer briefs are too short and/or without properly elasticized leg bottoms- they tend to inch up the thigh, leading to wedgie conditions. Longer legged boxers help against wedgies. The FRIGOs feature a 6″ inseam.  Along with elasticized leg openings, they also have a strip of silicone material going around the inner thigh that successfully serves to keep the boxer legs from creeping toward the crotch during long wear. The strap-pouch gets all the attention, but these “stay4sure” hem stabilizers are just as cool of a feature- a good step in the war against wedgies.

FrigoStay4SureHem
No ride-up hem

 

FrigoRevolutionwearBox
Comes in a VHS style box

Many underwear companies now incorporate some sort of pouch for the male package. How are things in the FRIGO Zone? Keep in mind that these are the entry-level FRIGO “2s”. Their top of the line product has similar construction, but uses pricier fabric. I’m intrigued enough by the design to where I’d invest in a pair of the “1s”. The company is still new, so has an open horizon to grow the line and dream up more innovations. My bros and I are definitely starting to be more accepting of newer underpant designs. Some Joe Sixpacks may balk at the $100 price tag on the FRIGO 1s, but a little math containing X amount of lousy underwear the average dude has probably bought or been gifted, it’s freaking worth it for the long haul. MLB star Derek Jeter, a big investor in the company, is retiring from baseball after this season and- who knows- might devote more energy to Revolutionwear. More visibility and more adoption lead to higher chances that your family or loved ones may buy you some as a gift. Good luck. 

Image from Freshpair.com
Image from Freshpair.com

I washed them a bunch, air-drying each time on a wooden rack. Aside from a few very small fabric pulls, and a stray thread or two, the sewing has kept together fine. I envision these lasting for years. They are a great choice for walking. Once you put on your favorite overwear, and everything starts to settle, they offer a pleasant machine-like feeling that promotes healthy completion of one’s day.

Popdiatry occasionally writes about other wearable gear in this feature called “Off The Path”

Coating Insoles With Reused Leather

Replacing your factory footwear insoles with third-party products can be hit or miss. Insoles are often built around a native piece of material that goes perfectly with that particular shoe.  I have a great pair of Zamberlan Trekker boots. After a year or so, the insole fabric started to separate from the insole mold. I brought them to East Village Shoe Repair, where Boris replaced the fabric with soft leather cut from an old jacket.

Fabric is ripped off the insole to get ready for replacement @ EVSR

ZamberlanInsoleRepair
Fabric is ripped off the insole to get ready for replacement @ EVSR
ZamberlanInsolesREadyToBeCustomized
Insoles stripped and ready for a new coat An old soft leather jacket is about to have the arm material become replacement insoles An old soft leather jacket is about to have the arm material become replacement insoles
Cut piece from jacket on the EVSR operating table
Cut piece from jacket on the EVSR operating table
RubberCementontoInsole
Rubber cement gets applied to the stripped insole
Rubber cement applied to the piece of leather
Rubber cement applied to the piece of leather
The leather is pressed onto the insole mold
The leather is pressed onto the insole mold
EVSR cuts around the dnow dried leather to fit to the insole
After a quick dry, EVSR cuts around the leather to fit
Blam- new and improved
Blam- new and improved

ZamberlandInsolesWithCustomLeather

ZamberlanCustomizedInsoleThis operation took about as long as it takes to boil a pot of water. Now I have better insoles than I could have ever bought off the racks. Nothing beats a leather insole, but many of our favorite kicks don’t come with them. I treated them with a very small amount of Obenauf’s leather preservative- now I’m ready to go on a trek. Big shout out to East Village  Shoe Repair (now located in Brooklyn, NY).  You might want to have this procedure done on some of your kicks.

East Village Shoe Repair is located on 1083 Broadway in Brooklyn, New York attached to the Brandhunters fashion complex.

Popdiatribe: Long Walk Weekend

Designer Satsuki Ohata was inspired by cheese dip to create a new concept in minimalist footwear that may perfectly match your foot by “dipping” it in liquified polyvinyl chloride.

SatsukiOhataFondueSlipper

Images from Satsuki.co
Images from Satsuki.co

These have been created around a foot mold, but Satsuki hopes to develop a dip & dry kit so we can safely make our own Fondue Slippers at home. Something like this:

SatsukiFondueSlipperKitIdea

FondueSlipperDiagram

 And then:

Images from Satsuki.co
Images from Satsuki.co

Footwear Industries of Tennessee Inc. (FIT USA) just opened a brand new footwear manufacturing plant in Jefferson City, TN.  The 40,000 square foot facility will be making a line of men’s work and hunting boots, complete with soles fabricated on location by a state-of-the-art direct-injection molding machine.

FIT USA sewing

FIT USA plant images from WATE.COM
FIT USA plant images from WATE.COM

Inventor/videomaker Colin Furze is bringing X-Men powers to life in his Lincolnshire garage. Weeks after he had the net going nuts over some convincing Wolverine claws, he’s back with a D.I.Y. version of Magneto’s boots that enable standing on a (metal) ceiling.

Don’t try this or the PVC dip thing at home without expert supervision! Have a nice weekend.

Popdiatribe: Playoff Blues

Four Parsons The New School For Design students are each pitching an idea for a new mens’ shoe to Allen Edmonds and the world via a social media contest this month. I vote for this entry by Michelle Brown, which would feature a combination of both cow and salmon leathers to create a dress boot with a nod to Alaskan heritage.

Allen Edmonds Contest Entry

Brand Eddie Bauer plans to compete for your outdoorsy shoe bucks this summer by offering their own line of outdoorsy trainers. Reebok went Gundam style. Nike did some Kevin Durant MVPs. Crocs hired a new president, but is still looking for a CEO if any readers are interested.

Strong opinions continued to pour out in the press about the recent Vibram FiveFingers legal settlement. The debate about wearing toe-shoes has somewhat evolved into a tiered discussion, with the requisite edgy fringes, and even a piece by the Onion to put a smiley bow on the story.

Thumbtack Pant Leg Savers

You know that thing where your pant leg droops down a little bit below the heal, and the bottoms of your pants begin to fray? Do you hate that? There are any number of straps, clasps, and ways to deal with this. You could roll up the bottoms a bit (meh), revel in the rippy fashion (bleh), move to a warmer climate and switch to all shorts; You could even carefully shop as to buy pants that are exactly the right length- though there is a fine line between “high-waters” and the prefect bunched up look.

Or you could:

Courtesy of a guy I saw walking down 6th ave.
Courtesy of a guy I saw walking down Avenue of the Americas

Late last year I was about to enter the NYC subway station at the corner of 42nd Street and 6th Avenue (Bryant Park). I remembered there was a decent dollar slice (of pizza) place a block south after 41st so instead I continued my stroll. That’s when I saw a guy walking with thumbtacks stuck in the backs of his shoes, keeping the bottoms of his pants bunched so they didn’t touch ground. He happened to go to that dollar slice place as well, where I was able to confirm that the thumbtacks were in fact serving the purpose of pant leg protection. I wasn’t going to further bug this fellow to get a sketchy poorly lit picture of his ingenuity, so I recreated his method in the Popdiatry photo lab.

Thumbtack Pant Leg Saver

I applaud this man’s thrifty, novel way to combat what I call fraying-pant-leg-condition. With all the custom spikes I’ve seen sticking out of footwear lately, I wouldn’t be surprised if this evolved into a hot trend some day.