I'm going to tell you a secret.
The sun's crawling through the windows and I'm moving and grooving through the kitchen. I've just made what I hope will be a fantastic sausage, egg, and cheese. As I'm heading over to the table, I get an idea. There's been this one video at the top of my "watch later" queue on Youtube for... too long. I'm not sure what even made me think of it, but today's the day. I'm watching it.
While I'm opening my laptop, I do some thinking about my thinking and land on a reason for why this video might've come to mind: restlessness.
I'm itchy—the kind that's craving some change, some adventure.
That's not the secret, though.
A few minutes into the video, I've only managed a few bites of my sausage, egg, and cheese. It's good; I'm just hooked on what I'm watching. I mean, it's really incredible! This is a behind-the-scenes of how Huckberry went and just casually made the best travel show on Youtube. The show's called DIRT and it's actually been around since 2022. That's not the secret, either. But, before I get to that, have you heard of Huckberry?
They began as sort of a boutique, online marketplace for men's clothing in 2010. Yet, DIRT, feels like the reincarnation of Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown—but for washed-up mountain athlete hipsters with expendable income and a travel bug.
Elbows on the table now, I'm leaning over my empty plate and staring at the screen in front of me like a kid at Disney World. What this company's doing is brilliant. They're documenting the lives, adventures, and stories that their products enable, but without directly "selling" anything in the show. It's just pure entertainment and adventure.
Right there in my kitchen, I feel like slow clapping for whichever person in their marketing department signed off on the original pitch for this. The production crew is just sort of... galavanting across the globe—Alaska, Maine, Switzerland, New Zealand, Japan—to meet up with locals in a sort of eat, play, love quest for the freshest cuisine.
The video's over, and with one hand on my coffee mug I'm digesting what I watched. The other is spinning my ring in a relentless circle while I'm thinking through an idea... Huckberry's an online retailer, who's clearly expanding to a media-first marketing model. So, what if they created a print publication that shared behind-the-scenes stories from DIRT episodes?
Pulling my laptop closer, I find myself googling whether or not Huckberry already has a print publication. Turns out, they were creating catalogs from 2017 - 2019.
But that was before DIRT...
Those, it seems, were an amalgam of travel guides and product features. What if they created a new print publication? Something similar to The Mountain Gazette, but with a smidge of The Atlantic and a dash of the old SNOWBOARDER Mag thrown in.
Leaning back in my chair, I'm smiling and nodding to myself. My head dips left and then right. I think about that restless itch I've been feeling.
Yup, this could work...
So, that secret I wanted to tell you?
I want to bring this to life. And if Huckberry won't, I will.
Have you ever felt called to an idea before it was even fully formed?
onward.
For more on this daily column and The MAP Year Project, read the backstory here. And if you know someone who'd appreciate this, pass it along.