Put Your Brand on Everything
Newsletter Introduction for Thursday, February 9, 2012Of the three products we so recently introduced under our "SPC Gear" category last Thursday (SPC is an acronym for Smokingpipes.com, I should clarify - an unofficial interoffice shorthand term we like to use), by far the most popular item has been, not surprisingly, the glass tobacco jar. Go figure that when shopping online from a website that has built a reputation around the retailing of tobacco pipes, pipe tobacco, and tobacco/pipe accessories, a customer would purchase merchandise very appropriate to pipe smoking instead of acrylic-nylon socks and plastic cups. Nevertheless, like many of you, we do also like our Smokingpipes.com socks and cups as well, and so plan to add even more zany paraphernalia bearing our pipe-in-circle logo in the relatively near future.
A Smokingpipes.com smoking jacket of some kind strikes us as one obvious choice, and certainly worth adding to the mix. And so too would be like-wise branded slippers, if only as a properly opulent complement to the aforementioned jacket. We’ve discussed boxer shorts with little maroon logos all over them, which combined with the jacket and slippers, would make for a classic weekender outfit for the man who has not the slightest intention of leaving the house all day. Of course, hats have also been mentioned. Furthermore: coffee mugs and tumblers, Glencairn Scotch glasses, pajama pants, drink cozies, t-shirts, long-sleeved shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies, brigandines, bracelets, stickers, lapel pins, fez caps, escutcheons, pens, sombreros, key chains, spurs, temporary tattoos, permanent tattoos, ivory pistol grips, and Czech tools. Lisa and Susan want to see flip-flop sandals that are debossed at the sole to leave imprints of the Smokingpipes.com logo behind in the sand. John has dreamed up a USB memory stick shaped like a pipe, something which we can actually have made quite easily, apparently. We’ll see how far we get before rhyme or reason can reign us in.
Our real priority though is, of course, delivering fresh pipes to happy pipe smokers. It’s our daily enterprise, something we aim to do best of all. Having said that, tonight you can expect to find new work from Paolo Becker, Kent Rasmussen, Claudio Cavicchi, Michael Linder, and Randy Wiley. We’re also featuring new works from the likes of Ashton, Peterson, Savinelli, L’Anatra, Nording, and Winslow. And once again, five dozen estate pipes have been added to the site. Happy Thursday!
Ted Swearingen: Vice President, General Manager
http://www.vintagetextile.com/new_page_472.htm
Now, I had never given thought to such adornment & your mention of such struck my fancy & in short order my novel fascination waned, in large part due to stratospheric pricing. I simply cannot allow myself to wear a cheap Hefner costume knockoff!!
= )
Another note of interest which cropped up during my short search was that apparently smoking jackets are currently fashionable again albeit sans pipe...yep, all the young lads are trotting about with velvet elbows & dashingly modern in that retro sort of way...
...also, via Wiki:
In the 1850s, the Gentlemen's Magazine of London defined the smoking jacket as a "kind of short robe de chambre, of velvet, cashmere, plush, merino or printed flannel, lined with bright colours, ornamented with brandenbourgs, olives or large buttons."
...perhaps the smoking jacket evolved from the British involvement in India? Similar to the traditional silk garb, rather like the Britty slangword "pukka"
-Pukka (Hindi पक्का, Urdu پكّا pakkā) is a word of Hindi and Urdu origin, literally meaning 'cooked, ripe' and figuratively 'fully formed', 'solid', 'permanent', 'for real', 'sure'.
In UK slang it means "genuine".
Ah yes,
no more rambling...I offer suggestions!
A proper Brit wool ascot (firm) replete w/ SPC livery discrete) & sporting a tamper built into the cap!
A scarf w/ pocket to hold pipecleaners!
Some sort of OldBoy holster/carrier/protector!
Replica of high-end Danish Modern pipe-stand!
Replica Jean Gillon pipe-rest!
http://home.comcast.net/~cwang1/images/ebay/gillon1.JPG
Get some of those Eltang Popeye pipes over here, they're forkin' awesome!!
http://www.thegoodstuffshop.dk/product.asp?product=27033
For the Scandiphile, Danish M84 camo pipe-pouches!
SPC energy drinks, Dunhill flavoured of course!
T-shirt for Burley lovers, featuring Tex Avery's Screwy Squirrel, cos we're the nuttiest!
Bumpersticker: SmokingPipes, Not Crack!
Do a mashup w/ Dutz Eyewear on some snazzy glasses, they make wick'd killer spex!
& while y'all are at it, implement a forum on the site, who knows? Would it get out of hand? Would it require constant moderation? Would everybody be whining that the pipe they were going to get was only online for like 3 hours before it was gone? Probably, but it might be fun, my suggestion for a moniker is thus:
LowCountry TinderPistol SmokeLounge!!!
Artful instruments for the modernist gentlemen, yes pipemen are rising & gently guarding the libertine spirit...
...do these political-type people not know? Are they totally unaware of the vital important role that tobacco played in the founding of this fine nation?!?!?
My GoodGod gents! The rates of taxation are utterly absurd!
ON SMOKING!
happydays & holysmokes!
everything is better w/ cartoons!
classic pipesmoking toon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hVxOEFM4oo
modern pipesmoking toon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIDtRYPVJZk
= )
my somewhat elderly mind has falter'd...
...after retiring from my online distractions, I took pipe with freshly arrived Esoterica Tilbury to sample this new-to-me blend & indeed it satisfies with an easysmoking mellowness, I diggit.
While puffing, I return'd to reading the also freshly arrived book "Confessions of a Pipeman" which is written with pure aplomb poise...I'm only at pg. 48 & do not hesitate recommendation for any enthused pipeman, his bowl burns deep with a warm sincerity match'd witha guttural rumble of laughter -- not only will the writing instigate wry smiles, but the gagpanel cartoons he's chosen to supplement the text are spot on classics!
Yup, friday night.
I'm afraid I've lost much of my abtruse radicality & content myself with small pleasures...another admirable feature of "Confessions..." is that Mr. Schrier places great merit toward the value of books & I wholeheartedly agree with him about the importance of deep reading, like a slow pipe, it is only fitting involving the aura of pipes that the pipeman should be erudite.
Which finally brings me to the suggestion I had forgotten to add earlier:
a series of reference books, SPC PipePress if you will, on various topic of pipery. There is a demand, I contend, for such short guides & the start-up costs may be relatively small due to the availability of print-on-demand bookpublishing, LuLu et al, & a reference books are straight-forward affairs, not so wrackingly painful as "It was a dark & stormy night..." Bulwer-Lytton kinda prose heavy stuff akin to the 2010 contest winner Molly Ringle:
"For the first month of Ricardo and Felicity's affair, they greeted one another at every stolen rendezvous with a kiss--a lengthy, ravenous kiss, Ricardo lapping and sucking at Felicity's mouth as if she were a giant cage-mounted water bottle and he were the world's thirstiest gerbil."
= )
No, rather, a good reference book is a simple gathering of facts, nomenclature, history & etc, compiled for the hearty reader to know what's what...
...I mean, I'd surely buy a copy of "A Nearly Comprehensive Reference Guide to Military Mount Stanwell Pipes", seriously I would!
The range of topics are immense enough to entail a subscription service as the series could most likely continue at length...of course, there's alotta info to be had online, but the factual quality is iffy & the page mortality is ephemeral -- as Mr. Schrier acutely notes, pipemen are tactile beings, it should be de rigueur to caretake of a well-stack'd library.
How did I.M. Corona become the topdog of midrange lighters? Did they swipe the Dunhill design wholesale? A good reference book would easily address these questions...
A Short History of American Pipemakers
A Primer of Tobacco Blends & How They Came to be That Way
Full Fathom Further into the Avant Garde Carvings of Wallenstein
What's the Deal with Filter Pipes?
Yes Virginia, There is a Virginia: A Smogography
Corny Cobberies & PopEyed Puffery
How to Exorcise & Expel Those Evil AroGhosts From Your Estate Pipe
The SmokingPipes Anthology of PipoPoetry
Various Techniques for Dashing the Dots from the Sod
Know Your Stannies Well: Who Designed What
An Enchanting Autograph: Savinelli Molto Amore
Briar Guide From Root to Harvest of Heath: Erica Arborea Evermore
The Little Big Book of Giant Pipes
Deconstructing Derrida's Pipe
...hmm, I digress with these amusements, but seriously folks, it could be a winner!
Simple just-the-facts-ma'am reference guides, quickly recognized as SmokingPipesPress books by the universalized cover art, like Penguin or City Lights - the series would be a valuable resource for years to come, exploited by rare booksellers in the future, as many pipe books have become...the 5,000 copies of "The Dunhill Petrol Lighter: A 'Unique' Story" has found an audience, so can y'all!!!
And thanks for the link about the popeye pipes. I wonder if I could find one.
Now thatsa SMOKIN' jacket!
You have impeccable taste sir.
The black cuffs are de rigueur.
As for the PopEye pipe, it'd be a great burley flake pipe methinks...perfect for some "strong til the finish" twice-toasted burley (spinach green tint optional)
I've seen that pipe at Frank's page, the German famous for his packing method, listed under "Eltang,Tom"
http://www.pfeifenstudio-frank.de/
& I've seen it listed under "ship ahoy" at
http://www.bisgaard-pipes.com
I've also seen it listed somewhere as BigBen, but I forget where...
...the fact that the Euro has so slapped down our Dollar is depressing & even if the pipes one finds on Continental sites seem reasonable, the shipping rates are often thru the roof!
Yet another reason for us all to celebrate SMOKINGPIPES.COM,
without doubt the premier online retailer in all of pipe-world - a seemingly constant flow of fresh pipes & the lowest prices for quality tobaccos anywhere.
We're lucky to have such a great team keepin' the flame of the faith afire!
LONG LIVE THE SMOKING PIPES!
