Essentials: Eric Yang of Gear Patrol

It’s hard not to look at HYPEBEAST’s Essentials and wonder why Eric has been asked to join this crucible of influencers, but after a long bout of deliberation here he is — humbly submitting his responses to what he considers the tools and treasures that make up his own Essentials. Maintaining a low profile these days is a full-time job, but the opaqueness of content creation is a powerful veil and it is here that Eric finds himself most at home: behind a camera, a piano, a blank document, or timeline — anything that provides a workable canvas. A propensity for the past and future with little regard for the present, Eric’s essentials reflect his gravitation towards juxtaposition: a love of the outdoors, but an instinctive draw towards the municipal; Asian, but profoundly a native of Tennessee; the asymmetry of nature, but an almost clinical hunt of simple design; and technology. McDonalds, Macallan 25.

Little more than a year has passed since Eric and his co-founder, Ben Bowers, left their careers to embark on Gear Patrol “as a job,” and despite a crackerjack 2012 under the belt there’s still a constant desire for further refinement and an unrelenting search for better storytelling. His credence: an insular, heads-down approach — hubris checked at the door — and never forgetting to have a self-effacing laugh of it all. Regardless, Eric’s essentials have endured. Trade typicalities aside, Eric’s brass tacks entail cameras, an heirloom attaché, wardrobe essentials (penchant towards the classics), and a handful of teeming passports. His few indulgences: a particularly rare Land Rover Defender, off-the-grid acreage in the Smoky Mountains, unwonted collectibles from his travels afar, and hard-to-find LPs — or his favorite extravagance (besides time): an afternoon buried in the pages of periodicals with piping hot coffee.