Best Made Co. brings its $348 axes — and an indoor archery range — to La Brea ‘guys gulch’
Best Made Co., the New York-based 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-square-foot space officially opening today that showcases 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 stamp-size pop-up space called the Snug.
The store, next door to Sycamore Kitchen and a hickory-handled hatchet’s toss across the street from American Rag, has taken up residence in a space formerly occupied by Stone Island (which moved to a larger location a block north) and joins brands including Stampd, Aether, Bonobos, Stüssy and Undefeated in the “guys gulch†stretch of La Brea Avenue, and based on a recent preview tour, will likely be a magnet for many a man.
For the record:
3:10 p.m. Nov. 10, 2017An earlier version of this post misquoted Peter Buchanan-Smith’s description of a traditional snug. It is a small room with a fireplace in it, not bottles as originally written.
That’s because in addition to the aforementioned axes — displayed prominently behind a bar-like counter — and the range of well-crafted tools, toolboxes, satchels, enamelware, chunky blankets and hard-wearing apparel on offer, the store plans to host archery demonstrations (using a narrow indoor range banked with hay bales), ax- and cast iron-restoration classes, blade-sharpening lessons and a map-focused twist on happy hour.
We’re going to do this series called ‘Mappy Hour’ where people just bring in their maps and drink whiskey and talk about their adventures.
— Peter Buchanan-Smith
“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.â€
Buchanan-Smith 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 that will be available exclusively at the Los Angeles store (the company sells most of its goods online but also has a 900-square-foot store in New York). Another is a sturdy, handmade, hand spot-welded, white, powder-coated 22-gauge steel strongbox with a red data plate affixed to its top that bears the word “wonderful†(two sizes, $28 and $38) and the new store’s 145 S. La Brea Ave. address.
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] identityâ€) 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.â€
At the behest of Andy Spade (who knows a thing or two about retro-cool retail), the first dozen axes were made available to the public exclusively through Partners & Spade in early 2009. “As soon as I saw the response, I knew I was onto something,†he said. “This was a chance to start my own brand, and the ax was the perch.â€
The handcrafted, U.S.-made axes, with their drop-forged steel heads, colorfully painted hickory handles and price tag 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 utilityâ€).
“It took us about a year to crawl out from under the ax tsunami,†he said, “but I looked at it like a periodic table; the ax was our oxygen, and we had all these empty spaces. Hydrogen was a first aid kit or a knit cap, and from there it was almost a new product every week.â€
Best Made started moving into apparel two years ago, and Buchanan-Smith said one of the benefits of opening a West Coast store three times the size of the original New York location was the opportunity to display the full range of heavy-in-the-outerwear offerings, including flannel shirts, puffer vests, sweaters, fleece-lined ranch jackets and canvas field pants.
But the ax-wielding Canadian has one more thing hidden up his 100% cotton flannel sleeve. Past the shelves stacked with bonded canvas rucksacks ($198) and gear bags ($178), beyond the custom wood and glass cabinetry stocked with brass match safes ($78), Japanese chef knives ($98 to $458) and enamelware plates emblazoned with the words “Be optimistic†($68) and just behind a rack of heavy-duty Pendelton-made camp blankets cinched in leather slings ($198), tucked into the back-right corner of the store, is the space — barely bigger than two office cubicles crammed together — he calls the Snug.
“My dad’s from the U.K.,†he said, “and a snug was what you’d call a good bar — a small room with a fireplace in it.†Instead of a fireplace, this snug will be home to a frequently changing assortment of themed goods. For the store’s opening, the theme is wood, so one pegboard wall displays half a dozen handmade wooden arrows alongside an American longbow; hanging on another wall is a $698 limited-edition fir-and-birch cuckoo clock from Gemany’s Black Forest (a collaboration with Hubert Herr) whose tiny wood-chopping figures on the front are accompanied by an equally tiny version of a red-handled Best Made Co. ax.
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.â€
No, Angelenos, you probably don’t need a $348 felling ax with a drop-forged head and hand-painted 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.
Best Made Co. Los Angeles, 145 S. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
For more musings on all things fashion and style, follow me at @ARTschorn.
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