10 Funky, Last-Minute Father’s Day Gifts That Aren’t Socks, Ties, or Mugs

Ah, Father’s Day gifting. Mother’s Day commerce is notoriously driven by guerrilla marketing, the kind that hawks goods and services, from the saccharine to the prohibitively priced, intended to deliver a day of relaxation, recognition, and pampering. But Father’s Day gifting is harder to figure out. Whether you’re honoring your father or the father of your children, it’s good to have options beyond the proverbial, old-timey tie.

If you’re shopping for a dad like mine, he is an absolute pragmatist and feels there is nothing at all that he needs. If he is like my husband, he is an aesthete with a great style, which I sometimes cannot anticipate. The trick with both extremes is to find the thing he didn’t even know he needed/existed, one that appeals to his sense of style but also purpose. No one will be missing that coffee mug once they unbox one of these beauties:

9A Proper Knife

 

Whittler or not, everyone can use a good, sharp pocket knife. Before you order one of those multi-tool, red-cased jimmies, consider a knife so good-looking he’ll want to cut a steak with it, so functional he could. With it’s design unchanged since 1890, a handsome, wooden-handled Opinel pocket knife starts around $20.