The shoes my parents wore when they met – #107

My dad turned 70 this week.

At the party, there was a quiz for the guests.

One question was: What shoes were my parents both wearing when they first met at university?

(Hint: Not Jordans. It was around 1980.)

Correct answer: the negative heel Kalsø Earth Shoes (basically footwear equivalent of homemade muesli ;)

What I liked about the shoe story was that it had stuck around for more than 40 years.

The older my parents get, the more their taste seems to live in small things: what they kept, what they never replaced, the habits that somehow survived every new trend.

None of it was planned as a personal style, it just became one.

That’s roughly the bar for this newsletter: things worth keeping long enough to become part of the story.

105 weeks in, every product still passes through the same highly scientific filter: me.

I asked AI to choose them once, on a tired night. The suggestions weren’t bad.

They were just wrong.

I couldn’t have told you exactly why. I just knew I wouldn’t send them.

That’s probably the taste.

I use AI plenty. Claude Code built the map and my current websites. AI builds the shelves.

But it doesn’t decide what belongs on them.

The internet has enough lists nobody really chose. What’s rarer is someone saying this one, not that one, and putting their name to it.

So: five things picked by hand.

—

If you’re new around here: Every week, I share 5 of the nicest products from Europe I’ve discovered in the past 7 days.

I scout, you explore.

With love 🌞
Jakob

P.S.: Missed the last edition? The Origami foldable bottle made by Difold that lets you pedal to support the battery was the most-clicked item.

Tentsile’s Safari Trillium XL stretches between three trees and holds six adults, ten kids or 550 kg of people who trust ratchets more than I do. Made from heavy-duty Dacron with a hatch in the middle. Basically a treehouse floor without the house.

Designed by Fumie Shibata for Flexform, the Eri armchair borrows its curves from a tailored jacket lapel. A very well-dressed place to sit.

Mustard Made’s The Collector is a 170 cm olive cabinet with fluted glass and four adjustable shelves. Enough blur to make even the shelf of mystery cables look curated.

Designed by Johan Lindstén and Markus Johansson for Swedish lighting brand Oblure, Arch Straight hangs seven bulbs beneath a row of steel arches. A Roman aqueduct for the dining table, minus the plumbing.

Copenhagen studio 91-92 made Just in Case for exactly two cigarettes, plus a tiny pocket for gum. Part of their outdoor life ideas for summer 2026.