Essential Summer Gear for the Minimalist

Now that's what I call a handsome juicer. Simple, modern, and available in 7 different earthly styles, these wireless charging stones are simultaneously the most standout and most discreet Qi chargers I've seen. They're compatible with most Qi-enabled devices, delivering 10W charging to iPhones, Samsung Galaxy S10, S9, and S9 Plus, AirPods 2 and AirPods Pro, Galaxy Buds, and Pixel Buds.

Classy is in Session. The Designer Bong by Session Goods seeks to be your "beautiful, functional, and unapologetically simple" smoking companion. To bring you a little joy and a little indulgence, without making you feel illicit or taboo. In other words, this is one classy water pipe.

Session Goods hopes their fresh, modern design will also be the preferred bong for smokers who want to keep smoking paraphernalia in their living room, but don't want their living room to look like one of Brad Pitt's scenes in True Romance.

No one knows how to pack it in and pack it down better than camping gear, airlines, and me on Taco Tuesday. MSR's Trail Lite Duo Cookset is a prime example of compaction and consolidation. The nested, 1.35-pound design allows 2 x MSR DeepDish Bowls and 2 x double-wall insulated mugs to slip neat and small into a 2-liter anodized aluminum pot. With a strainer lid on top to lock it all in.

The Spare Tire BBQ Grill: For roadkill feasts wherever you may roam.

This stainless steel cooking grate fits over your car's spare tire whether back-mounted or trunk-stored - for space-saving grilling adventures both planned and impromptu. The grate is divided into triangular segments that can also disassemble and stack alongside its solid steel legs for transport alternative to the rubber-hugging method. Once placed over a campfire, separate griddle and grill sections accommodate bacon on one side and that armadillo you took out rounding a curve without decelerating on the other.

The Ridge's slim front pocket wallets fight the pants bulge. Well, the wrong kind of pants bulge anyway. The kind caused by thick, overstuffed bi-folds the size of a double bacon cheeseburger piled high with lettuce, tomato, and a few onion rings. The Ridge wallets go for two of today's EDC must-haves, simplicity and compactness, across a line of minimalist and rugged cash and card carriers guaranteed not to bulk out your back side.

NakeFit stick-on shoes - or, to be more precise, NakeFit hypoallergenic adhesive pads - remind me of when I'm walking barefoot and start to feel like something's stuck to my heel, but I'm loath to look down because I just know it's going to be someone's dirty old Band-Aid. Except with NakeFits the thing stuck to my foot would be supposed to be there. It would also be helping to protect me from the dirty old Band-Aids in my path, along with any sharp objects and fungal infections looking to latch on to my feet too.

Designed, like all fine shoes, in Italy, NakeFit adhesive pads look like a cross between an insole and a tray of paint you accidentally stepped in. According to the team that created them, the barefoot enablers stick on and peel off your foot easily, and stay firmly in place, ready to provide a bevy of services during your wear time in between.

Got my super-slick orange tie-dyed Helinox Incline Festival Chair, now all I need is a festival. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

While festival season may not make it out in full force for Summer 2021, with COVID vaccinations on the rise, and restrictions loosening, there will surely be more live music and celebratory mayhem this year than there was in 2020. Especially since outdoor gatherings are still considered the safest way for people to convene, and we are all jonesing for some sunshine, some IRL entertainment, and most of all, some normalcy.

And one very normal thing from pre-the-pandemic is attending outdoor shows, and not being the jackhole who blocks the view of those behind you by sitting in a full-size camp chair. The Helinox Incline Festival Chair was designed specifically for outdoor events where organizers, and common courtesy, require seating to be low to the ground.

Solo Stove believes their Bonfire firepit "pushes the limits of both combustion airflow efficiency and minimalist outdoor design." Use it simply, safely, and beautifully on camping trips, tailgates, or in a backyard not big enough to take on a permanent pit installation.

The Bonfire cylinder is made of 304 stainless steel, including a fire ring engineered to keep your flames centered and even. The body of the pit has also been specially crafted with precision-cut and -placed air intake holes along the outside bottom and inside to deliver a powerful and complete log burn. This both significantly reduces smoke output during burning, and means you won't have half-consumed wood to dispose of when the party's over.

Manitoba-based Origin Handcrafted brings some character - and some Canada - to the traditional Japanese Kiridashi with their Stoneblade Pocket Knife. The textured Kiridashi is both minimalist and standout in design.

No folding or flipping here, and no handle that doubles the length of your carry; the Stoneblade's grip is an extension of its 2" 1095 carbon steel blade, for a total length of 5". The knife stores in an equally simple Origin handcrafted vegetable-stained leather sheath, and has a leather cord lanyard to facilitate adding it to your EDC.

Aesthetically, the Stoneblade has a rustic, yet clean look, with its primary point of interest obviously coming from its textured, stonelike surface. After cutting the rough shape of the blade by hand, Origin shapes and facets the Stoneblade on the grinder to achieve the dashing visuals.