The Material Review

Issue 179: Artemis II Custom Caps, Gas-Station Signs, Golf Watches, King of the Hammers, Those Green and Cream Hats, Art of Going Bald, Spotlight on: Made in SF and Q&A w/ Tim Marvin.

Apr 15, 2026

Stories worth reading. Stop indexing the internet.

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The Story Behind the Artemis II Crew’s Incredible Custom Caps

“To mark their successful mission to the moon, the returning astronauts were given handmade replicas of an Apollo-era design.” [GQ]

The Romance of the Gas-Station Sign

“A few glowing roadside numerals set the national mood.” [The Atlantic]

Golf Watches Are Back

“The mid-century golfer’s watch; how Arnold Palmer changed Rolex forever; Scottie Scheffler’s borrowed GMT-Master II.” [Unpolished Watches]

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‘Beer, Titties, Freedom’: Inside the World’s Toughest Off-Road Race

“Every winter, 80,000 people gather in the California desert for King of the Hammers, a popular racing series featuring high-speed relays and rock crawling with dirt bikes, stock VW Bugs, and million-dollar trophy trucks.” [Wired]

You’ve Seen This Hat. We Know Why.

“The green and cream cap appears on the heads of guys everywhere who want to dabble in a trend.” [NYT]

The Lost Art of Going Bald

“Men throughout history have grasped tightly to their youth by fussing over their hair. The world would be a better place if we did the opposite” [Esquire]

Welcome to Classifieds. A place to share what’s happening in and around our world. Shops, events, newsletters, projects, whatever you’re working on. If you’d like to place something, get in touch. $200 for four ads, 280 characters each.

🛒 Hanover Spring Collection Pop Up

April 16-18. 12pm - 6pm. Castle, 941 N Orange Dr. Los Angles, CA 90038

🛒 Patina Studies III

Saturday, April 18 • 1 PM - 6 PM. 1 Columbus Avenue. San Francisco, CA 94111

A shortlist of things we’ve got our eye on.

Battenwear Wet/Dry Bag

Atlantic Coast Supplies Mackerel Belt

Metropolitans: New York Baseball, Class Struggle, and the People’s Team

NEITHERS - ROASTER PANTS IN NAVY

William Ellery High Kick Shorts

Tim Marvin

Tim is a San Francisco–based brand consultant and co-founder of the menswear pop-up Patina Studies. He’s also an all around great dude, and someone we’ve been wanting to catch up with.

Ahead of this weekend’s third installment, we spoke with Tim about how he got into menswear, the early influences that shaped his perspective, his go-to spots in San Francisco, and what’s next for Patina Studies.

You’ve had an unusual path into this world. Politics, consulting, now Patina Studies. When did clothes first start to matter to you? Was there a shop, brand, or person that opened that door?

I grew up in a deeply religious environment where church sat at the center of life. For a long time, I thought I was going to become a minister, so getting dressed for church, services, and church meetings became one of my earliest rituals around clothing. My kindergarten photo is me in a three-piece suit wearing a Trinity United Methodist lapel pin, which probably says a lot.

My grandfather had an equally lasting influence. He was a farmer and later a carpenter, and he had this daily ritual that stayed with me: green work clothes during the day, then a shower, trousers, and a collared shirt every evening. There was something dignified in that transition, a sense that how you dressed marked a shift in the day and in yourself.

Later, my rejection of that world- religion, the farm, the small town I grew up in- made me even more aware of style. Clothing became a way of understanding identity, distance, and what was cool.

Thinking back to the early blog era, were there any sites, shops, or people that helped shape the way you started looking at clothes?

I was completely fascinated by the internet in those years, mostly because it gave you access to entire worlds of knowledge that would have been impossible to find otherwise. I was a devoted reader of A Continuous Lean, spent a lot of time on Tumblr and was deeply inspired by all the cool style people trying to do their thing, and loved digging through threads on The Fedora Lounge, where people went deep on vintage hats, tailoring, and old workwear. Scott Schuman and early The Satorialist blog.... oh and I was obsessed with Copenhagen Chic. Stylish people riding bikes? Yes!

Traveling to New York City in the late ’90s was another turning point. It was my first real exposure to street style as a living thing. I loved the energy around magazines like The Fader and Wax Poetics, and stores like Triple Five Soul made a huge impression.

Later, after moving to San Francisco, stores like Unionmade shaped the way I thought about menswear in a more mature way. I lived around the corner from the alley where Standard & Strange first opened, and I got to watch that first store come together in real time. I was still traveling back and forth to New York for work, so places like the old Drake’s store (and their publication Common Threads!), Carson Street Clothiers, and even the J.Crew Liquor Store had a real impact on what style could mean.

Why did you launch Patina Studies? What has the response been like?

Part of it came from a little bit of envy, honestly. So much of the fun fashion and style culture seemed to happen in New York. I still remember going to the Pop Up Flea years ago and wishing something like that existed in San Francisco.

When my friend Daryn was equally excited about the idea, we decided to stop talking and just do it.

The response has been incredible. It felt like the Bay Area was ready for something like this. There has always been a healthy vintage scene here, and there are plenty of deeply stylish people, but unlike New York there never really seemed to be a central place for everyone to gather.

What makes Patina Studies work, I think, is that it isn’t strictly a vintage show. We’re interested in curating style and culture in whatever form feels exciting to us and to the people we invite to participate.

You’ve written about patina and the idea that things improve with age. What are a few pieces you’ve owned long enough to actually see that happen?

Denim is probably the clearest example. I have a pair of Kapital jeans that have worn in beautifully over time, and a few ball caps that are completely thrashed in the best possible way.

I also have a pair of cowboy boots I bought secondhand on a cross-country road trip about fifteen years ago. They’ve taken on the shape of a lot of miles and a lot of different versions of my life.

The most meaningful pieces, though, are some clothes that belonged to my grandfather. They’re unbelievably soft now, but more than that they carry memory. Sometimes they make me emotional just holding them.

Since San Francisco is central to Patina Studies, can you give us some essentials recommendations? Shops, markets, restaurants, what is worth knowing about?

San Francisco has so many gems, and lately I feel like I’m falling in love with the city all over again. I tend to lean toward the classics.

For food and drink: The Brazen Head, Bix, Verjus, Zuni Café, Harris’ Restaurant, and El Farolito.

For shopping: Presidio Post, Tailors’ Keep (full disclosure I am a brand and marketing consultant for TK but I was a client first), Standard & Strange, AB Fits, Evan Kinori, Cable Car Clothiers, Self Edge, and Soochie, which is technically a women’s store but always feels inspiring. Alden of San Francisco is another classic, and Brogue is well worth the trip south.

I also love bookstores, so William Stout Architectural Books, City Lights Booksellers & Publishers, Dog Eared Books, and Green Apple Books are all essential.

What does the future hold for PS?

I think it will continue to grow slowly, but in ways that feel fun and genuinely interesting. Daryn and I have been intentional about building a clear lens for the concept so it can stretch into different formats without losing its identity.

What excites me most is the idea of taking it into new places—different cities, different types of spaces, and eventually something broader than menswear alone. The real idea has always been culture through the lens of style, and that can go in a lot of directions.

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