Walker Loetscher

Just a quick note from InsideHook HQ: We try to get you news throughout the day, but for the next few hours we’re focusing on bigger things after a tragic accident. Our team is fine, if a little shaken up. “Of all the gin joints in all the towns in the world,” my father texted me 30 minutes ago, after I called him to let him know that a helicopter had crash-landed on the roof of a building in Midtown Manhattan, and that that building had been my building, 787 7th Avenue, where InsideHook HQ h…

If taking a vacation to a car factory does not sound sexy to you, there is a good chance you are not German. Because that’s exactly what two million Germans do every year in visiting the Autostadt (in English: car city), a customer experience center located on Volkswagen’s sprawling campus in Wolfsburg. Before your eyes gloss over with visions of homely tourists in hard hats and safety goggles pacing a factory floor, please hear me out: I, too, doubted the majesty of the Autostadt before arr…

Earlier this year, the city council of Venice, Italy, announced the imposition of an entry fee to combat a growing problem with tourists: namely, that there are just too damn many of them. Tourism is the city’s primary industry, and has been for decades. But the same things that make it a bucket-list stop for so many travelers — its centuries-old buildings and historical sites, along with the fabled canals that connect the 118 islands upon which it’s built — also make for very real geographic…

Roger Federer has come stumbling out of the blocks at the US Open this year, dropping the first set in both of his first two matches — first to qualifier Sumit Nagal in the first round on Monday, and then again to world no. 99 Damir Džumhur on Wednesday. Today he faces British journeyman Dan Evans, and if his pedestrian form continues, there’s honestly no telling who will come out on top. But there is one title that Federer tends to claim at every tournament, regardless of where he finishes i…

The last 16 years of the ATP Tour will be remembered, talent- and achievement-wise, as the single greatest stretch in the history of tennis. Three players — Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic — have claimed 54 of a possible 64 Grand Slams, thus propelling themselves into an echelon that did not exist before them, and likely will not exist again for a very long time. One of them — Nadal — consolidated that status at the U.S. Open on Sunday, besting 23-year-old Russian Daniil Medved…

Of all the phrases relating to the parting of a man and his money, few are more gratifying to use than “worth every penny.” Those three words communicate the idea that, “Yes, I spent — perhaps more than I had originally intended or am traditionally comfortable with. But in the end, I was smart enough to realize that the item I was purchasing would be worth it. And I was right.“It’s a good feeling, and one we’d all like to have more often. And thus we bring you “For What It’s Worth,” a content se…

That there is a direct correlation between a man’s age and how much he enjoys receiving socks as a gift is a scientifically proven fact. That said, too few people take the task of giving a pair of socks seriously. To be a great sock gifter, you must first know your socks: Fabrics. Patterns. Textures. Colors. And most importantly, you need to know your sock wearer: Is he freewheeling or conservative? An important businessperson or a work-from-home cozy guy? Does he prefer an all-purpose garmen…

This story is part of our Fall Refresh Guide, a weeklong series where we’ll be looking at the products that will help us make the most of yet another season stuck at home. Think of it like Back-to-School content for adults. Except, you know, during a pandemic. Until a few months ago, the “desk” you keep in your home was more likely to be ornamental than functional, a place to pile unread mail and to-do lists and a stack of New Yorkers that you’ll definitely, probably, maybe get around to one…

The assorted goods and chattel that NBA players conveyed with them into the NBA Bubble at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando have been a topic of great public interest in recent months. Some brought fishing poles, others elaborate gaming stations, still others sizable chunks of their wine cellars. Sneakerhead PJ Tucker brought 60 pairs of his beloved Air Jordans with him (a number that later swelled to 90, then 100, then 110). Jimmy Butler brought a very lucrative French press.…

With a massive network of user data and regular software updates, Eight Sleep is fast becoming the Tesla of Zs

Because what’s he into besides bitcoin, really?

The best thing about the One11, the first new hotel to open in New Orleans’s French Quarter since a city moratorium on new guesthouses was imposed in 1969, is that it’s just barely in the French Quarter. Set in an eight-story brick building adjacent to the Canal Place shopping center — and beyond it, the Central Business District and its modest outcrop of commercial towers and casinos — it’s easy to miss on the drive in, which my taxi did, circling back around the block a couple times before…

In the pantheon of contemporary American interior designers, Kelly Wearstler’s name is at or near the top. Identifiable for her singular brand of California maximalism, she’s been the subject of profiles in The New Yorker (“the presiding grande dame of West Coast interior design”), Architectural Digest (“among the most influential in the world”) and Vogue (”[she] boldly goes where few have dared to go before, and many now follow”) over her 25-plus-year career, and her production shows no signs o…

Matt Beisner shares some thoughts on socialization, crate training and the impending separation-anxiety epidemic

ModernHaus Soho is a stylish, artsy retreat with a superb restaurant and one of the best rooftop bars in the city

Greetings. I am in Miami Beach, where it is 78 degrees at the time of this writing, and the beach is 163 steps from my desk. I am here under the guise of “editorial research.” Miami, it seems, is quite hot right now, and I do not only mean in the literal. Real estate prices have hockey-sticked since the onset of the pandemic, with the worlds of tech and finance taking up quarters alongside more traditional local pursuits like “hiding beers from the lifeguard” and “cycling down the board…

From its inception, Komodo was the kind of restaurant to divide opinions. That’s to be expected when the restaurateur — Jeffrey Chodorow, of China Grill and Asia de Cuba fame — who trademarked the much-imitated Miami staple of restaurant-as-spectacle joins forces with Groot Hospitality’s David Grutman, the de facto king of South Beach nightlife. Whether they love it or hate it, though, there seems to be one thing critics can agree on: the Peking duck. (Per The Infatuation, though I could c…

Nothing is truly binary, but if you want to get as mathematically close as possible to a true 1’s and 0’s situation, try asking a man about his jeans preference. Unlike the variety of ways to get dressed up, wear shirt jackets and just generally exist in the universe, jeans (and the guys who wear them) fall into two distinct camps — the brutalists of stiff, influencer-coveted selvedge denim and their antithesis... fellas who search for the most comfortable jeans they can find. What Makes a…

The TSA announced this week that they expect to screen 20 million passengers this Thanksgiving — by some accounts, that’s as much as an 80% increase from 2020, when air travel was at a near standstill due to COVID-19. A month after that, they’ll buff their badges, don fresh nitrile gloves and do it all again. Which means ample opportunity for Americans to do one of the things they do best: act like a bunch of complete and total bozos at the airport. And so, in the midst of a veritable e…

“Adapt or perish.” H.G. Wells wasn’t referencing shaving when he wrote that, but it’s an imperative the industry has always abided nonetheless. For decades, the Schicks and Gillettes of the world have been adding bells and whistles to their products in an effort to improve something that was never really broken in the first place: the cartridge razor. Chief among these alleged innovations has been the addition of extra blades (Gillette thinks five is the magic number), even though studies…