Men’s lumberjack club, L.A. chapter
Best Made Co., known for its high-end axes and other guy gear, opens a store on La Brea’s masculine stretch.
Best Made Co., the New Yorkbased purveyor of haute hardware that made a name for itself as the purveyor of $348 axes, has chosen Los Angeles as the home of its second retail store, a 2,700-squarefoot space that opened Nov. 10 and sells the company’s ever-expanding line of tools, apparel, accessories and home goods alongside an ax-restoration bar, an indoor archery range and a postage stampsize pop-up space called the Snug.
The store, next door to Sycamore Kitchen, joins brands including Stampd, Aether, Bonobos, Stüssy and Undefeated in the “guys gulch” stretch of La Brea Avenue, and based on a recent visit, will likely be a magnet for many a man.
That’s because in addition to the aforementioned axes and the range of well-crafted tools, satchels, enamelware, and hardwearing apparel on offer, the store plans to host archery demonstrations (using a narrow indoor range banked with hay bales), axrestoration classes, and a map-focused twist on happy hour.
“We’re going to do this series called ‘Mappy Hour,’ ” says Peter Buchanan-Smith, the company’s founder and chief executive, “where people just bring in their maps and drink whiskey and talk about their adventures.”
He says this as he holds aloft a poster-size reproduction of a vintage U.S. Geological Survey map of Southern California, across which the slogan “Everything here is wonderful” has been silkscreened. The $78 map is one of the items available exclusively at the Los Angeles store. .
Buchanan-Smith, who grew up in a tool- and workshop-loving household in southern Ontario, Canada, was working for fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi (“designing everything but the apparel,” he said, “magazines, books, packaging and [brand] identity”) when he began pursuing the idea of an extremely well-made ax.
“I would go away to camp in Algonquin Park every summer where I was taught how to really, really, really use an ax. It was the tool that was your lifeline. If you didn’t have it, you were useless.”
The handcrafted, U.S.-made axes, with their drop-forged steel heads, colorfully painted hickory handles and prices starting north of $200 (current prices start at $188 for an ax with an unfinished handle), may have been an easy target for derision and commentary about conspicuous consumption when they first debuted, but Buchanan-Smith has clearly carved out a place for himself in the niche world of haute hardware (he calls the aesthetic “refined utility”).
The themed space, the classes and the archery range are all part of Buchanan-Smith’s goal, which is as carefully crafted as any of the products that line his shelves. “I want the experience to be first and foremost — before anything is transactional,” he said. “They can walk in and feel the brand. They can touch it [and] they can walk out without having bought anything and feel really fulfilled.”
No, Angelenos, you probably don’t need a $348 felling ax with a drop-forged head and handpainted handle. But it’s a credit to the particular brand of retail magic Best Made has brought to La Brea that you’re likely to leave the store thinking it might just be a really, really good idea to have one.