Watches, Stories, & Gear: Robotic Pants that Help You Climb, Tactile Turn Goes Synthwave, and Doctor Doom’s Comic Legacy

“Watches, Stories, and Gear” is a roundup of our favorite content, watch or otherwise, from around the internet. Here, we support other creators, explore interesting content that inspires us, and put a spotlight on causes we believe in. Oh, and any gear we happen to be digging on this week. We love gear.

Share your story ideas or interesting finds with us by emailing [email protected].

Tactile Turn’s Latest Seasonal Release 

If you read this column regularly, you know that we’re huge fans of Tactile Turn’s regular seasonal releases. There are special runs of their pens, often in whimsical colorways with fun themes, that aren’t limited, per se, but have open order windows for a given period of time, allowing anyone to get in on a pen that feels special. The newest release is actually a pair of pens under their side click platform, “Day” and “Night” versions of “Vice.” According to the brand, the inspiration here comes from the synthwave aesthetic often associated with Miami Vice (both the classic TV show and the underrated Michael Mann film starring Jamie Foxx and Colin Farrel). These pens have a ton of personality and they’re available now via the Tactile Turn website. 

Motorized Pants to Help You Up (and Down) a Mountain 

Gear Patrol had a story recently that you might think was meant to be posted on April 1, but it’s actually very, very real. Outerwear brand Arc’teryx and Skip, a startup out of the Google ecosystem, have introduced a product called Mo/Go. At a glance, these are typical hiking pants. But look closer. They are equipped with an exoskeleton meant to activate muscles around the knee, and designed to help propel hikers up a mountain and ease the workload of the human body on the descent. The idea of augmenting the body with a mechanical exoskeleton is not a new one, but unlike other highly specialized and often theoretical projects and products aimed at people with disabilities or injuries, the Mo/Go pants are being targeted toward the general public. Of course, these pants come at a price: they’ll start at a cool $5,000.

Doctor Doom Enters the MCU

After a great deal of speculation and a lot of fanfare at last week’s San Diego Comic-Con, it was revealed that Doctor Doom would soon be making his debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Unless you live a life completely away from the internet, you probably already know that Robert Downey Jr. has been tapped to play the supervillain in the next two Avengers films where he’ll almost certainly be the Big Bad. RDJ’s casting has, as you’d expect, gotten a ton of press, but for comic fans it’s worth taking a moment and considering the larger impact of the Doom character. He is, after all, one of the key villains in the world of Marvel (most would agree he’s a lot more significant than Thanos, for example) and his introduction into the movies could tell us a lot about where the MCU is going. The Verge has a great piece looking at Doom’s comic book legacy, and it’s essential reading for anyone interested in the new slate of Marvel films to come. 

A First Look at Common Side Effects

Common Side Effects, a new animated series on Adult Swim, is on its way to your screen of choice next year. The new project from Greg Daniels and Mike Judge has some significant comedy pedigree behind it, and based on the first look seen here courtesy of the Adult Swim YouTube channel, the show has a lot of promise. It would appear that the target of its satire is the pharmaceutical industry writ large, which feels eminently relatable and of the moment. 

Pulp Fiction on The Rewatchables 

Ever since the debut of the Rewatchables podcast, Pulp Fiction has been looming. The popular podcast, hosted by Bill Simmons, breaks down hit movies in detail through a series of categories like “Apex Mountain” (the meaning of which is a running joke and hard to define) and “Most Rewatchable Scene” (a little more self-explanatory). Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 breakthrough seems like an obvious choice, but for whatever reason, it was never covered. Until this week, that is, when The Ringer dropped the two part episode (over four hours total) across two mornings. It’s long been threatened that the podcast ends with Pulp, but we don’t think they’ll stick to that. That said, if this is it, they went out on a high note.