Where do you find dozens/hundreds of hot mens gift ideas in one place?

A couple of days ago one of my readers asked me a question about how to find great men’s gift ideas when you’re short of time. She was shopping for Christmas however she was going overseas running up to Christmas and wanted to get all her Christmas shopping done now in as short a time as possible.

She had a number of men to buy for and was looking for a suggestion of somewhere to go where she would be most likely to be able to buy everything in one visit.

There’s lots of ways to buy gifts online. I love to find small obscure websites that sell unique men’s gifts and to feature them here. There are some wonderful and quite unique gift ideas around and you can find small websites which sell just one item, and for the right man they would make a wonderful gift.

If you have the time you can have a lot of fun browsing around the web looking for obscure websites like this offering wonderful products which you may not find anywhere else. And you know that when he opens his gift at Christmas it’s highly unlikely that he’ll get the same gift from someone else.

But as I say this can suck up a lot of your time. It’s fun but it’s time consuming. It is also very rewarding when you find the perfect gift idea for him after putting in the effort.

To me there’s nothing worse than giving a gift at Christmas just to find that he gets the same gift from someone else, often from several other people.

What this reader wanted was a place where she could go to find all sorts of gift ideas like this. Unique, unusual gift ideas so that she could be confident that he was highly unlikely to get the same gift from someone else.

Is there a place, a one-stop shop, where you can find tons of wonderful and unique gift ideas all at the same place. Where you can do all your Christmas shopping on one website happy in the knowledge that you’ve made some great selections for hot gift ideas that are unlikely to be found everywhere else on the web.

I’ve been looking at online men’s gifts stores for quite some time and one store immediately sprang to mind. It’s my favourite men’s gifts online store and I’ve found more wonderful unique gift ideas there than anywhere else.

It’s called Hammacher Schlemmer. The site is huge, they have hundreds if not thousands of products available and so many of them are unique to their store.

It’s not uncommon when searching for gift ideas to find the same product on quite a few, if not dozens of other websites. However it’s rare to find products that are featured at Hammacher Schlemmer anywhere else.

I don’t know why. Maybe they have wonderful buyers. Either way Hammacher Schlemmer is, to me, the first place that I would go if I was looking to do all my Christmas shopping in one go and I wanted to find some unusual or unique gift ideas.

Rather than simply reply to my readers enquiry I thought I’d write this here because I’m sure there are many other women who would also like to find a one-stop gifts shop where they can get all their Christmas shopping done, including shopping for gifts for their man, in one go. Read more

Why not give him a hot watch?

I think one of the finest men’s gifts is a watch. There are some wonderful watches available now, both functional and good-looking, and most of them look great on a man’s wrist.

More and more these days men want to look good, and it’s not always just about clothes. A fine fashionable good-looking watch can top off the look for a man, and make him feel good as well.

I’ve featured watches here before, however I’m always happy to look at watches again, just to drool over some of those available.

Today I’ve been looking at some of the watches at ShopNBC.com and I like what I see. In fact I put some images here of those that appealed to me.

My taste in watches runs to color as much as style. I love a good watch that stands out from the crowd, that gets noticed on his wrist and which draws attention. I’m also more an analog man than a digital man.

Not only that I’m also lazy, and so for me a watch that I can wear in the shower is essential, because I’m too lazy to take it off and put it back on every time I take a shower. Luckily nowadays there’s so many fully waterproof watches available.

Now of course your man might be a digital man, or he might love gold, or muted colors, or a different watch band to the one that appeals to me. But either way I can just about guarantee he will love a new watch as a gift for his birthday or Christmas or any other special occasion.

Nowadays the range of watches that you can buy for your man is enormous, and there is something there to suit just about any taste in watches either digital or analogue, colorful or muted, flashy or just plain stylish.

ShopNBC.com is a good place to start looking for a great watch for a gift for your man. They have a massive range of choices including Renato, Swiss Legend, Stuhrling, Movado and more, available in a range of different prices to suit any pocket. One of my favorites is Invicta watches. That’s from ShopNBC.com.

But you can also choose direct from the Invicta Watches website, where you can download the catalogue. Invicta make wide range of different brands of watch.

And there’s some stunning watches right there in that catalogue. I was drooling, again.

Even if your man has a watch already, or even a couple of watches, he can always do with another one as long as it’s different to what he has already and looks great.

Oh, one other thing. To me one of the best things about any gift is that it be personalised. A watch that looks hot is a fine gift, but one that looks hot with a personalised engraved message on the back from you to him is a far better gift than just the watch alone.

The message that you engrave on the back is as important as the watch. The message is a huge part of the gift so you need to think about it carefully and work out what to say in a way that will fit on the back. Read more

So your man loves cigars, and loves golf

I love the aroma of a good cigar. Whilst it might not be politically correct to be a cigar smoker, or a smoker generally, I can quite understand the attraction. After all, not all of us are entirely politically correct.

There’s been some famous figures in history who have loved a good cigar. Winston Churchill comes to mind immediately. And I’ve written on this website about cigars and cigar accessories as gifts for your man before.

Equally I love golf, as do a substantial percentage of men, and for that reason I have also written extensively about golf gifts for your man if he is the golfing type.

I’ve recently come across another cigar accessory. It’s something that I would never have thought of myself however when I start to think about it it seems to me that it’s a great gift for a cigar smoking man who plays golf as well.

Think about it. He’s enjoying a good cigar on the 5th hole. He stops to take a shot. What is he going to do with that cigar? Well of course he’ll do what almost all men do on the course in that situation, he’ll put it on the grass while he takes his shot, then pick it up afterwards to keep smoking.

No problem there. Or is there? What about all those pesticides they spray on the grass to keep all the bugs away and to keep the grass looking good? When he puts his cigar on the grass isn’t it picking up pesticides to put in his mouth?

What about if the grass is wet? He ends up with a soggy cigar, or else, as I have observed myself, tries to balance it on the cover of his driver until a gust of wind blows it off to end back on the wet grass.

How about a great gift idea for him to overcome this problem? Well I found one. It’s called The Cigar Gard and it’s specifically designed to overcome all these problems. And it works for cigarettes as well as cigars.

It’s a simple piece of equipment that attaches to his golf cart magnetically. He puts his cigar in the clamp, which has a range of sizes for different cigars or cigarettes, leaves it there while he takes his shot and it stays there till he comes back. Dry and pesticide free.

What about when he’s putting? He may spend 10 minutes on the green taking his shots and waiting for his friends. Half his cigar may be gone.

No problem there, The Cigar Gard can be detached easily from the cart and taken with him, and put down whilst the cigar is still carefully taken care of.

There’s some very clever people out there thinking of simple but effective ideas to overcome simple problems like this. This is a great idea for a gift for a man who loves his cigars and who loves his golf, both at the same time.

There is an entire website just devoted to The Cigar Gard, and you have the option of buying the Gard on its own or in a dedicated Humidor.

At $39.95 it’s a simple, cheap but very unusual idea for a gift for a cigar smoking golfing man. Read more

Is an Ottoman the perfect gift? (And what is an Ottoman?)

A friend of mine recently told me that he had purchased an Ottoman. He was extremely proud of it, hoping to show it off to me, however I have to admit that I really didn’t know what an Ottoman was. I try to keep up-to-date with modern trends however every now and then something throws me completely.

So I decided, without admitting my ignorance to him, that I should do some research and find out what an Ottoman was and why it appealed to him. And I thought, given that he was so pleased with it, that maybe an Ottoman might be an unusual gift idea for your man.

And of course although I try to keep up-to-date with modern trends it turns out that they have been around for a long time and aren’t recent at all.

An Ottoman is, in effect, a footstool. If you’re sprawled on the lounge watching the game at night an Ottoman is something for you to put your feet up on to help you relax. They’ve been around for centuries, so I was a little embarrassed at not having come across them before.

I have to confess that I’m one of those people who lie on the couch as much as sit on it, and like to put my feet up. I eventually end up putting my feet on the coffee table which doesn’t go down well with the family. Something that I can put my feet up on that is politically correct, in furniture terms, appeals to me hugely.

So after figuring out what they were, I looked around to see what they were like and why my friend was so pleased with his purchase.

I was delighted to find that Ottomans come in all shapes and sizes and styles to suit just about every taste in furniture. I found some wonderful Ottomans at Overstock.com, including some particularly artistic looking examples from Morocco.

Of course most Ottomans are styled to suit your average house and your average furniture. Many are leather covered and would look fine in your average living room. And plenty are also built so that the top can be lifted and all the space inside can be used as storage, making it useful as well as functional for putting feet on.

However it wasn’t those that appealed to me. What appealed to me were some of the more trendy and artistic Ottomans that would, in my view, suit the more artistic man with a slightly different and more trendy taste in furniture. Now of course your regular leather Ottoman may well be a fine gift for a man with leather furniture. In fact the ones that did appeal to me would probably look out of place in many homes. However I was so taken with the more trendy looking Ottomans that I’ve chosen to feature their images here.

So if your man is the type, like me, who ends up with his feet on the coffee table watching the game, an Ottoman might be a wonderful gift for him. It will give him somewhere politically correct to put his feet, and because that’s what it’s made for you can relax. Read more

MBT shoes are not your average shoe

So many men suffer from physical problems that in many instances are related to their feet and how they walk. In fact there is a whole profession, called prodiatry, that is simply based around helping people solve physical problems that can arise as a result of problems in the feet and ankles.

And in many cases one of the major recommendations podiatrists make is that people with various physical problems change their shoes or use specific types of insoles to improve the way their body interacts with their feet when they walk.

Studies have clearly shown that various physical problems can be a direct result of the type of shoe worn as well as how the individual walks. One of the most significant physical ailments in our society is back pain, and studies have shown that back pain can in some cases be caused by the type of shoes worn and the way the wearer walks as a result.

If you’ve never heard of the MBT shoe you may be surprised to learn that there is a range of shoes specifically designed to improve your posture, increase the activity of your muscles and help reduce back pain and foot pain. MBT shoes are not your ordinary shoe. And if you see an MBT shoe it immediately strikes you how different they are.

The first thing you notice is that they have a curved sole rather than a flat sole. There is a lot of research which has gone into the MBT shoe, and much of it has shown that using a shoe with a curved sole, which allows the foot to roll as you walk, is beneficial for a wide range of physical problems.

Studies have demonstrated that walking with a shoe with a curved solve such as the MBT shoe will improve the walking posture resulting in less loading on the back, thereby aiding in improved overall posture and reduced back pain for some people. And it’s not just back pain. There is evidence to show an improvement in posture related health problems such as osteoarthritis, stress fractures, tendinitis and more, including low back pain from wearing MBT shoes.

As well as an improvement in posture the MBT shoe also stimulates the muscles of the buttocks, stomach and back to work harder strengthening those muscles and helping maintain improved posture. Stress on the joints of the ankle, the knee and the hip is reduced.

As the news gets out about MBT shoes they are now being worn by a much wider cross-section of the population, and in particular by active and sporting men and those with specific problems such as back pain.

However the bad news is that MBT shoes are not cheap. Normally, for a pair of men’s MBT shoes, you expect to pay over $200, sometimes well over that and approaching $300. So I’m delighted to say that I’ve found a website with men’s MBT shoes on sale right now. That’s as of 7th of July 2010, I don’t know how long the sale will last.

It is not a 10 percent off sale either. There are men’s MBT shoes available there that have been reduced from $250 to $99. The men’s MBT Karani is down from $270 to $99. That’s a serious saving. And with free shipping.

So if your man would benefit from a pair of shoes that will help him improve his muscle strength and posture, a pair of mens MBT shoes will be a fine gift for him. And if you’re quick you won’t need to pay $250 plus, $100 will do it. Find them at http://www.footwearetc.com for as long as the sale lasts and surprise him with a wonderful gift. No need to tell him you didn’t pay $260 for them.

To conclude I’ll quote from one of the customers who bought some MBT shoes, you can see the customer comments on the website:

“I herniated a disc in Sept and was in tremendous pain. After chiropractic and orthopedic visits improved the condition, I wanted shoes that cushioned my walk. MBT’s did that. They are very comfortable, they do improve my posture and relieve the strain on my back. I was skeptical, but I am now a believer.”

Another customer said “I may never own another brand of shoe again.” Read more

You find so many so called “unique” mens gifts, but how unique are they?

I recently came across a wonderful website by an Israeli artist. She alerted me to her site by a comment on this site and I went to visit and have a look.

Her name is Nava Steinmetz and she produces “miniatures”. I have to confess that I didn’t quite know what a miniature was so I had a look at her website to find out and was very pleasantly surprised. On her site she describes the miniatures she produces as “a scene of reduced size reproduced in 3 dimensions by placing objects, figures, etc in front of a painted background”.

These miniatures are custom-made for individual customers tailored to the profession of the person for whom the miniature is made.

If you look at the examples on her website you can see extraordinary detail, right down to books with titles on them, and even computer screensavers. You can even see posters on the wall down to the finest detail. I’ve put some images here for you to see what I mean.

Basically what she is doing is recreating an office of any professional person in complete detail. If you look at the image above it’s actually a complete recreation of the actual office of the pharmacy owned by the gift recipient.

It seems that she will make miniatures on order for anyone, according to the order. I assume she works from a photo of the office that she is reproducing.

I was also pleasantly surprised by her prices. Looking at the examples it would seem to me that many hours of meticulous and painstaking work must go into producing just one of these miniatures, and I was expecting prices in the many hundreds of dollars. However those that I looked at were priced at $140.

I consider $140 for a personally handmade gift such as this to be exceedingly cheap. It is very rare to be able to buy unique handmade gifts of this quality by an artist with this sort of ability at anywhere near this price.

It is certainly a unique gift idea for a man who has everything. Maybe he is a lawyer or a businessman who can afford to buy anything he wants. Maybe you’re totally stuck for a unique gift idea for him. However I’m willing to bet that he doesn’t have a miniature like this.

It’s a fascinating website which you can find at The Miniature. Note that that address should bring up the website in English, though the main website is in Israeli script, and if you encounter this version then look for the small button at the top right to change the site to English.

So many products nowadays are mass produced, normally in China, down to a price and down to a standard. You think you’ve found a unique gift idea for your man and if you dig a little deeper you’ll find it in dozens of other stores online, and sometimes, annoyingly, at much cheaper prices. Read more