Product Review: ShirtsMyWay

There is a certain inevitability that we as men must all face in our lives, and that is that, as much as most guys hate to shop, occasionally we have to buy new dress clothes.

That dress shirt you bought five years ago for your buddies wedding? It doesn’t fit anymore, and actually makes you look like Artie Lange in the movie “Dirty Work.”

Since it’s time to buy a new shirt anyway, why not do it from the comfort of your own computer chair and design a shirt that you like without anyone hassling you, and at an affordable price? www.ShirtsMyWay.com makes custom dress shirts that fit really well. Many men have the problem that normal shirts just don’t fit well in certain areas and custom shirts are the solution.

Do you even know how much a custom dress shirt typically costs? At your local tailor, you can bet it will be at least $200. Even if you attempt to purchase one online, you’re not going to spend less than $135, perhaps even more when you factor in shipping and handling. That is, unless you check out www.ShirtsMyWay.com.

I went to the site and created my own shirt. Even as a child of the internet age, at first, I was somewhat daunted. “How long will this take? What are the odds I screw this up?” These thoughts and more careened through my brain, like a pinball in an empty auditorium. But once I got started, it was easy — the entire process took less than five minutes, perhaps more if you don’t have your measurements handy? Don’t know your measurements? Go to the men’s department of any reputable clothing store in your area and they should measure you for free.

The site is straight forward and easy to navigate thanks to the “point and click” setup. First, I picked the color of my dress shirt (Atlantis L. Purple). From there, the customizing options were seemingly endless; you can customize everything from sleeve length (long), type of collar (classic), cuffs (1 button angle) to yoke (plain) and even the placket (seamless). One really cool feature is that you can actually combine different fabrics for your design, which is something I have never seen anywhere else.

With my custom shirt now completed, I proceeded to check out and see what kind of financial damage I had incurred. Even with a custom color, my total was just $85 dollars. And since www.ShirtsMyWay.com has free shipping and handling (if you choose Standard Delivery; $10 for Express), there were no additional hidden fees. There are also no extra charges for any extra options.

New to the idea of a custom dress shirt and curious to exactly what that entails? You can download the free Book of Dress Shirts for more inspiration and tips on designing your dress shirts. Check out the site and read more background info on the company here: http://www.shirtsmyway.com/about.php

If you’re looking for gift ideas for Father’s Day, consider a gift certificate from ShirtsMyWay. You can email them at support[AT]shirtsmyway.com to set it up.

  

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The Ten Best Video Games for Dad on Father’s Day

In case you need a friendly reminder, Father’s Day is approaching once again. On June 17th, millions of dads will wake up to ties, cards and decorative beer mugs for them to drown their unspoken gift disappointment sorrows with alcohol in.

But not your dad; not this year. This year, you are going to give dad the gift of gaming. In trying to help all sons and daughters with this task, I was shocked to discover that there are actually quite a few good games for dad available. While you can’t go wrong with classics like “Call of Duty,” “God of War,” “Uncharted,” or a genuine full-size arcade cabinet of “Cabella’s Big Buck Hunter,” these are the ten titles that I feel most dads would want most on their big day.

Red Dead Redemption

If you’re dad’s anything like mine, he can catch a Sergio Leone movie or “Unforgiven” rerun on TV with frightening accuracy and consistency. So what better gift than what is far and away the best western game ever made?

Whether it’s ropin’, ridin’, thievin’ or shootin’, your dad won’t need the letter “g” if you give him the game that lets him freely roam the west and re-enact his favorite moments from the great western genre. To make the gift even better, pack it in with the “Man with No Name Collection“, or the first season of “Deadwood” to insure that you put your dad in a deadly entertainment cycle that will be driving mom crazy for months to come.

Forza Motorsport 4

This is just a gimme. Featuring over 500 cars (well over half of which most normal people will never see with their own eyes) and an almost endless amount of customization, tracks, game options and other extra content, “Forza 4” is simply the greatest racing game ever made. Even if for some reason your dad isn’t a car nut (the odds aren’t great there), “Forza 4” is a game that is having so much fun with its subject that it basically becomes impossible to not get swept up in it.

The only way you can miss on this one is if dad doesn’t own an Xbox 360. Then your prospects get trickier. For PlayStation 3, you could always go for the stuffier but enjoyable “Gran Turismo 5” and just never let dad know there is a better option out there, and for the Wii there is always “Mario Kart.” Everyone loves “Mario Kart.”

Read the rest of this entry »

  

Kenneth Cole’s new Automatic collection of watches

Watches always make a great gift for Father’s Day, so check out the new Automatic collection of watches from Kenneth Cole.

They sent us the KC 1631 model to check out and we loved it. The Automatics are truly unique as they offer exposed gears on both sides of the watch. Our model had a black band and a large face that highlighted the skeleton dials so it definitely grabs attention. Yet it’s stylish without being gaudy. The watches also feature a self-wind function that automatically powers your watch by the motion of your body. No batteries are required.

These watches make a great gift for the dad who appreciates style and also wants something new. The Automatics are unlike anything else in his collection. This applies to you as well. Watches make great accessories, and having something unique yet elegant will give you a great option for everyday use and also nights on the town.

Check out our Father’s Day Gift Guide for more great gift ideas, including more watches and plenty of gadgets.

  

Celebrate Father’s Day with a Contest from Ram Truck

With Father’s Day just around the corner, the guys over at Ram Truck have put together a cool prize pack in appreciation of all the great dads out there, comprised of a Margaritaville Tailgate Propane Grill perfect for the upcoming (hopefully) NFL season and a $100 gift card to Omaha Steaks to get you started. Three runners-up will also receive a $50 Gander Mountain gift card, so there’s plenty opportunities to win. All you need to do to enter is head over to the official Ram Zone website and submit a picture link of you and your dad (along with your Ram truck, of course) in the comments section at the bottom of the page. Hurry, because the contest ends on June 19th.

  

Product Review: Old Spice Fresh Collection

When braving the untamed wilderness of manhood there are many pitfalls and natural predators. The greatest of all? Your own body odor. The only thing worse than smelling bad is not knowing you smell bad. So for us guys who are too busy, unconcerned or stupid to realize it, Old Spice has your back (and underarms, and banus) thanks to the Old Spice Fresh Collection.

The Original Scent of Old Spice “High Endurance” body wash or deodorant has been a staple of many a man’s self-cleaning regiment for years. Mainly because of the great smell; for years chicks have been complementing me on my “cologne” and for years it’s been nothing but Old Spice deodorant, baby. And though Old Spice has been around for years, it isn’t just for your old man, man. Because it isn’t made for faceless/nameless guys who want to smell like a bar of soap. It’s for men whose identity screams “I know the Heimlich and can deliver a baby; and I did both before noon today, damn it!”

The collection of scents, comprised of some of the best odors on the planet, are “inspired by the freshest places on earth”. And though these places are uncommon and difficult to get to, Old Spice has made it easy (and cheap) to take the essence of these places and cram them into your nose holes. Five places from around the world are featured as both a body wash and a deodorant; Fiji, Matterhorn, Denali, Cyprus and Komodo.

Because I was a fan of the “High Endurance” line of the body wash and deodorant, my favorite was Matterhorn because it was like the original scent, except, just like the amplifiers for the band “Spinal Tap”, Matterhorn “goes up to eleven.” When you need that “little extra push over the cliff” both scent and feel were potent, but not “over the top.”

My least favorite scent in the Old Spice Fresh Collection was Komodo; it was just too subtle and didn’t deliver the strong punch to the nostrils that I enjoy. But that’s what Old Spice did right with all five of the aforementioned scents; if you want something a little more subtle than Matterhorn all five of the scents are easily distinguished and noticeably different, just like the men who use them.

Denali was my second favorite, marketed as smelling like “wilderness, open air and freedom.” Sure, it sounds ridiculous but is it any more ridiculous than a congressman with the last name of “Weiner” sending pictures of his unit to unsuspecting babes? If that can happen, then why can’t a deodorant/body wash actually smell like those things?

One more thing worth noting is the cost of any of the available scents. At $4.29 for a stick of deodorant or $3.99 for a bottle of body wash it’s cheaper than other leading brand names like Right Guard or Axe.

So “Axe” yourself a question; do you want to smell like a man, man? With Father’s Day right around the corner, pick up a bottle from the Old Spice Fresh Collection and watch your father inhale the initial scent and wistfully remember that time he slayed the local babes on the island of Cyprus. Your mom wasn’t his first.