EDC’s are an inevitable part of every guy’s wishlist – the cooler your gadget is, the better! A great mix of form and functionality, EDC’s are the best example of great power that comes in small size. The true value of an EDC comes up in times of need – from fitting on your keychain to holding all your valuables in an accessible yet trendy wallet – EDC designs are the sidekick to the superhero you are always meant to be! Have a look at the curated designs here to pick the best and worthy design that will make an awesome gift this Christmas!
MSTR’s Linx ensures that interchanging keys between keychains will never be a headache again. Linx’s rather creative key-swapping approach isn’t time-consuming, requiring you to slide out a key by wedging your thumbnail into the keyring and rotating the key for minutes before it comes out, only to repeat the process, in reverse, for putting the key back in. Relying on a system that uses positive and negative shapes (think: jigsaw puzzle, or key and keyhole), Linx allows you to simply slide the keyring in and out of its holder by matching shapes (seen below), and sliding the keyring in or out in a manner that’s just extremely soothing to look at!
The Fold wallet is one of Lemur Design’s many single-piece-foldable designs and comes crafted from a single piece of full-grain vegetable-tanned leather. Its unfolded, flatform folds together in three quick steps, going from a mundane piece of leather to a feature-laden wallet that holds your cards, banknotes, and even your coins! The wallet comes with two access-points, allowing you to quickly reach your cards or bills via the main flap, and access your coins in their dedicated coin-pouch via a secondary flap.
Provoke First Responder karambit knife by CRKT is one EDC you need to have in your arsenal for a tricky situation – whether you are stuck in a car with the doors locked out or when someone wants to steal your stuff on a lonely street in the dark of the night. The hawkbill-styled blade is the work of designer Joe Caswell, who’s known for his knife crafting prowess, and this has to one of the most intuitive knife design out there. With the pressure of the thumb, the knife is ready for use, and the ergonomic design means, it fits perfectly in your hand for the grip. Provoke is forged out of premium D2 steel and coated with black titanium nitride, making it ultra-durable and sharp for years to come. Even the opening mechanism is made out of superior material i.e. aircraft-grade 6061 aluminum for unmatchable toughness and deploys one-handed, like a claw!
YeongKyu Yoo of cloudandco has designed two wallets that are extremely slim – WalletType1 and SlimWalletType1. The former is a bi-fold design with 6 pockets, and the latter is a card wallet with 2 pockets. The key to the form is the layers and the invisible stitches. Sporting a multi-layer construction with uniform thickness, the edges of the wallets are precisely painted for the ultimate seamless look.
The GPCA Carabiner’s titanium construction (there are stainless steel and aluminum variants too) literally makes it one of the toughest EDCs to fit on your belt… so much so that you can literally use the GPCA as a pair of brass knuckles to fight off any threat outdoors. The carabiner itself is sturdy enough to carry up to a few hundred pounds more than any EDC carabiners *Not rated for climbing, yet compact enough to work as a keychain. Integrated into its outer frame are a Philips head and a flathead screwdriver, as well as a box-cutter that can also be used to whittle wood, pierce packets of food, or cut cords; while the frame itself is optimized for function too, with a bottle opener and a prybar built right into its bottom.
Stilform Studio known for working with simple shapes and subtly beautiful magnetic interactions, the Arc Pen follows suit with a magnetic click-to-lock pen cap that automatically aligns in place as soon as you hold it near either end of the pen. However, it isn’t simply the use of magnets which makes the Arc Pen delightful, but rather a combination of design and engineering. The pen comes with a deceptively simple form, machined out of aerospace-grade aluminum. Its cylindrical design is punctuated by a chamfer, running along the length of the pen on both sides. The two chamfers prevent the pen from rolling on flat surfaces, as well as a visual indication of the pen/cap alignment. The pen’s internal magnet follows this chamfer, snapping into place perfectly every time.
The Compass is a solid piece of machined stainless steel that works not just as a compass-guide, but also as a pen-stand. It has a hole at its base that you can use to place the Compass wherever you need and magnetically allows the ruler units to snap to it. Once magnetically attached, the ruler units swing freely in 360° around the base, allowing you to create circles and measure arcs nearly perfectly while achieving this feat without piercing the paper. Markings on the Compass base even let you measure degrees as you draw circular lines, giving you control and intuition, bundled together in tools that don’t change the way you make circles or lines, but just innovatively improve the process and cut the clutter, thanks to its minimal design.
Just 54mm long, and 25mm wide, Dapper Design’s TL Micro flashlight puts a powerful 280-lumen torchlight into the form factor of a key-fob. It runs for 17 hours, and its highest brightness setting is said to be five times stronger than your phone’s flashlight! The TL Micro is aided by the Klip, a pocket knife. With a 66 millimeter pocket-clip-shaped body and a foldable tanto-style blade, the Klip pocket knife is capable as well as compact.
The Manmower is entirely crafted from surgical-grade stainless steel and comes with an outer casing and an internal blade that traps and shear facial hair (you can use it on your head too, for a nice, manual buzz cut). Just like a lawnmower simply works on the grass without touching the soil, the Manmower trims only the hair without touching the skin underneath. The entire product is designed to work without any cream or gel, and can be simply rinsed under running water when done shaving. A simple 5-minute ritual not only trims your beard it also massages your skin, and gives you a fidget-toy-esque activity to keep your hands occupied. Strap it on your keychain and carry it around with you as EDC, or slip it into your toiletries bag to carry on travels and trips. The Manmower will be the craziest, most unusual self-grooming tool you’ll ever own!
James Brand’s compact screwdriver (no bigger than a pen) with multiple bits is really useful – instantly fixing your broken bike light or changing the batteries of an RC car in a jiffy. James Brand’s Cache River is a screw and bit driver on a bearing that comes in a set of 3 bits – Phillips #2 bit, a Torx T6 bit, and a Wiha slotted 4.5 bit – which should get you through any precarious situation. The tool is CNC-machined using an aerospace-grade aluminum billet, and then black-anodized for super durability. The bits attach to the driver seamlessly – after all, they have magnetic attachments and made out of chrome-vanadium molybdenum tool steel. The two bits that aren’t used at any given time rest inside the body of the tool.
For more nifty EDC tools that are sure to make a valuable addition to your collection, check out more designs of this series!
