Welcome to the GP100, our annual index of the best products of the year. Before you dive in, a short disclaimer: this is not a list designed for mass consumption. Our growing team of enthusiasts is committed to identifying gear that’s inclusive and intentional but also highly aspirational — which is just a fancy way of saying we like stuff that solves, inspires and serves.
Of course, no list is without its flaws. There will be detractors and valid arguments against our selections, while some products need only time to prove their true value. But a year is a year and we want to get back to our families, so with that, it’s time to put our pencils down and humbly submit to you the 100 best products of 2018.
True revolutions in the automotive or motorcycle industries are rare. Even trendy technologies like electric power and all-wheel-drive have been around for well over a century. Interesting shifts, then, are typically introduced not as massive sweeping disruptions but instead challenges to the boundaries of safety, speed and design. The best motorcycles and cars of 2018 were chosen because they made an existing vehicle or category better — that is, more beautiful, more accessible, more capable, more fun.
Fashion people used to talk about clothes in terms of how trendy they were. But these days, menswear is less about chasing an ever-changing aesthetic and more about expressing your identity with a unique sensibility. That respect for individuality is why everything from inexpensive workwear (like the pieces in Filson’s C.C.F. line) to brightly patterned takes on classic menswear pieces (see: the four-pocket jacket from the new brand 18 East) feels equally appealing. And just as important is how it’s all made — which is precisely why sustainable alternatives to wardrobe staples, such as Arvin Goods Econyl Boxers and Outerknown’s S.E.A jeans, also made our list this year.
For much of the history of the wristwatch, it was possible to measure progress in decades. This year, however, we saw some truly game-changing timepieces. Some, like Ressence’s e-Crown Concept, were technologically ground-breaking while others simply made inroads with respect to design and value — such as the Baume & Mercier Clifton Baumatic and Tudor Black Bay 58. Altogether, these watches are a refreshing testament to the fact that there are brands committed to pushing the envelope.
Technology doesn’t slow down for anything, and this year proved that more than most. We’ve seen big camera manufacturers like Nikon, Canon and Panasonic flood the zone with full-frame mirrorless cameras in an attempt to compete with Sony. A $20 smart home security camera proved that it could do the same job as something 10 times more expensive. And the battle between Google, Amazon and Apple for smart home domination only continued to heat up. Now, in the lull between the big fall releases and the feeding frenzy that will be early 2019 tech announcements, it is prime time to look back at the coolest, most impactful electronic gadgets of the year.
Fitness is a trend-driven industry and 2018 was par for the course. VR workouts, sleep tracking to boost performance and marijuana-derived supplements all generated buzz this year. But there were some truly head-turning innovations, too, such as a radical new approach to in-race nutrition and a GPS watch with a battery that far outlasts the competition. Whether you’re in search of serious performance gains or simply an upgrade to your home gym, our picks for the year’s best fitness products stood above the fluff by tackling their respective categories with notable advancements — even if a few of them did follow the trends.
It’s rare that innovations in the outdoor industry correlate to major improvements on the consumer end. Fact is, many brands use “innovation” as a way to create marketing materials and sell more product, rather than equip outdoor enthusiasts with the best products possible. But this year feels different. This year is full of twofers: products that eliminate the need for a quiver. From a ski binding designed to go downhill as well as it goes uphill to a single goggle ski lens that’s really three-in-one to a rooftop tent that doubles as a cargo box, outdoor companies are finally giving buyers what they need.
Apple showed off its HomePod for the first time back in June 2017 — yes, it feels like forever ago — but it’s included here because most people didn’t get one until early 2018. Audio went way beyond buzzy smart speakers, though. This year brought about a new standard of active noise-canceling headphones (thanks, Sony). Fender finally made a dedicated line of all-original effects pedals. And Sonos introduced its first intelligent soundbar. Overall, it’s been a year chock-full of exciting audiophile launches, updates and more.
Eating, sleeping, sitting and cleaning might seem monotonous in the doldrums of day-to-day life. But driving these quotidian functions are breakthroughs no less remarkable than a powerful smartphone or shiny new car. Enter the first truly affordable sous-vide cooker, direct-to-consumer bedding catering to the general public (instead of just people born between 1981 and 1996), the most responsive office chair ever built and a powerful Dyson vac engineered to kill the category of cordless uprights. Our picks for the best home goods of 2018 didn’t prompt keynotes or unboxing videos, they just made life that much better.
For all the fun attributed to alcohol, covering the category of booze is woefully boring, a fact tempered only slightly by silly trends and insignificant product releases. So curating any best-of list around the stuff that gets you buzzed is fraught with identifying if something is simply novel or actually moving. From a bottle series industrializing one of the whiskey world’s biggest DIY trends to a Danish distillery turning the entire distillation process on its head, our picks for the best drink releases of the year are all but stale — they’re curious, refreshing and wholly unexpected.
