TrueHoop’s 2024 Eclectic Gift Guide

No one paid us, we just love this stuff

BY HENRY ABBOTT and DAVID THORPE

I suspect we’re never going to top last year’s gift guide, where Jarod ignited a run on Pillow Cubes and Travis carried the day with the line “Do you like coffee? Are you poor? Café Bustelo.”

But we’re gamers and will give it a shot. Once again, we have no positions here; we get no cut. These are just things we love and think you might love, too:

SHOKZ OpenRun Pro

DAVID: It has been a battle, over decades, to find comfortable ways to be on the phone with hands free—which is how I spend many hours every day. Some years I have a doodad I love; other times those go defunct and I have to search. Most of the products on the market I find terrible. For the last 18 months or so, the Shokz Bluetooth OpenRun Pro has been the choice, and so far so good. They don’t go in your ear, they go over them, and transmit somehow through your skull (“bone conduction,” they say). That means my earholes are free to hear my loved ones, or passing cars, which is nice. They’re advertised as “sweat resistant.” I have field-tested them and found they can handle tropical storms, too.

Otter

HENRY: Now that I’m close to being officially an author, people are telling me about their writing dreams. Almost everyone is 100 percent in love with some idea and 50 percent done with it, and a little stalled. Every time I have the same advice: Get a transcription app. At TrueHoop, we use Otter. The upshot is that I can “write” while I’m driving the car, walking the dog, or waiting for a train. Yes, I still need tons of time on the laptop to edit and rewrite ad infinitum. But I used to return from walking the dog with important ideas floating around my head. Now I come back with a first draft.

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

DAVID: Struggling to make sense of our crazy world? We all are! This helps. Don’t take my word for it! Listen to this guy:

The Race to be Myself by Caster Semenya

HENRY: This book has particular relevance to TrueHoop readers, because it’s about how we tell sports stories. Caster Semenya is one of the fastest runners in the history of track and field, unquestionably the fastest 800-meter runner of her era. In her version of her story, her career was a multi-front battle—in part against the clock, the competition, and injuries—but mostly against the governing body of the sport. She presents a convincing case that IAAF head Sebastian Coe made it his personal mission to end her career in its prime—and succeeded.

Her book is a dramatic opera with villains, strife, and even a childhood story of getting into a fistfight with a bully in which she removed his own belt and beat him with it. Semenya doesn’t like being bullied. But I watched her career in real time, on television, and only realize now she was bullied all along, in front of our eyes. I remember Semenya winning medals at world championships and Olympics, Coe holding press conferences, discussing testosterone levels, and looking official. Now that the backstory is told, the real-time version seems shallow to the point of meaninglessness.

I suggest there are versions of this dynamic on every sports broadcast you watch. True stories of dire struggle don’t fit the format, which is bad for those in struggle as well as the truth.

Skylight Calendar

DAVID: Chrisy and I raised active twins, with never-ending practices (dance, baseball, basketball), tests, team dinners, and competitions—not to mention all the running around Chrisy and I have to do. Chrisy tracked it all on a huge whiteboard in the kitchen. Now the kids are adults, and we finally got the digital wall calendar that would have changed everything. Chrisy can see at a glance which games I am watching this week and schedule dinner out without having to check with me. When she's at work, I feel free to schedule lunch or a doctor’s appointment. When our kids are around, we include all of their appointments, too, making things delightfully simple.

Alpacas of Montana hat

HENRY: This would be a bad gift for David, who lives in Florida and oddly doesn’t feel cold even when he’s in Minneapolis. But if you are human and live in a place it gets cold, this stuff is a tad warmer than most. Given the degree of wind-stopping insulation, I find it incredibly light and soft.

Hobonichi Techo Planner

DAVID: Yes, I also use a digital calendar. But this planner is the one that comes with me everywhere. It works during takeoff and landing; it’s slender and fits anywhere; it’s beautiful. Plus, I appreciate the daily words of wisdom. And unlike the digital calendar, it also works, in a pinch, to sketch a basketball play.

Zima Dental Pod

HENRY: I don’t honestly know what this thing is exactly, and I’ve never seen one nor have I used it. I just know that to my adult daughter, it’s the greatest goddamn thing ever. She thinks everyone should have one.

Bossman Charcoal Soap

DAVID: I am a lazy man, and wash my whole self—including my hair—with one amazing soap, and I love it.

Pie Footwear

HENRY: I’m one of those weirdos who orders zero-drop shoes on the internet. But there’s almost nowhere on Earth you can try on shoes by Altra, Vivo, Xero, Lems, Lenka, Merrell Barefoot, and the like all side by side. As I was in Portland visiting my parents a while back, the thought occurred to me: “I bet Portland is just weird enough to have a whole store dedicated to zero-drop shoes.” They totally do, and you can get a great burrito across the street, too. Going in person is the best, but I also take their online recommendations. Their Instagram account is 100 percent uncut zero-drop shoe porn.

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