Vicarious Masculinity for Sale. And We’re Buying.

You can buy an axe. For $220. Or maybe less, on Gilt Group.

Made in USA, Best Made Co axes have artfully—some would say artsily—painted wooden handles. The luxury sales seller Gilt Group once blew through 100 in an hour. Would they have done as well at Fleet Farm or Menards? Next question..

In his appearance at the Walker Art Center in March, the designer sheepishly admitted he himself hadn’t actually USED one of the axes yet.

Authenticity™ is the new black.

Squint in Nolita and you might flashback to a feed store circa 1975. Beard, work boot, flannel, pocket knife, all washed down with a tallboy after muscling through a hard day’s work—as a digital art director.

Smart companies carefully make the most of this. Authenticity must be respected, like a wild animal or rickety ladder. See: Red Wing’s enviable partnering with J.Crew. The steadfast brand is even featured in the J.Crew Liquor Store, a watering hole revamped into the ultimate discerning mancave. Or PBR’s steady, stealthy, no-advertising ascent over the last decade—up 33% still in 2009-10.

Rugged MN company Duluth Pack is all over the man-spiration blogs and collaborating with quality-chic Inventory.

Attention: Gander Mountain, Bemidji Woolen Mills—it’s time we got in on this action.

Hipsters aside, Discovery Channel’s helping bros, suburban Harley riders (and their wives) get their blue collar on. Dirty Jobs, American Loggers, Verminators, fishermen and truckers. And off the clock, Man vs. Wild, et al. On TV, the men are still men.

In the discounter-and--digital age, we’re all craving a bit more substance. Tactility. Something well made, enduring, with a faint whiff of can-do and risk.

That's a smell like a man, man. So what if you can’t fix a leaky faucet. For all Dad didn't teach you, well, there's an app for that. And blogs, burgeoning media empires and an annual Esquire issue.

This isn’t wrapped only in denim crafted in authentic 1953 dungaree style in Japan. Don Draper is the dissection du jour and “the last John Wayne among a cultural landscape filled with Jon Gosselins” sums it up best.

It’s not just a guy thing. As women lead men in jobs, education, etc., etc., there emerges an equal, opposite reaction where we want our men to be like men, men.*

Who do you think bought all those fancy axes?

(*housekeeping, power balance, parenting, communication style not included)