37 Father’s Day Gift Ideas That’ll Make You His Favorite Son

The sick-ass jacket Pedro Pascal wears in The Last of Us is back in stock. Sure, it’s culturally relevant now, but the coolest thing is that a Flint and Tinder trucker is a dad-wear staple. He’ll rock this one for a long, long time.

My dad takes one of these on his weekend kayak trips, but yours could use it for work, fishing, sitting in the park, road-tripping, or whatever.

The thing about getting older is you get increasingly interested in watching animals in your backyard. Given his age, I think he’s the perfect recipient of a smart camera bird feeder.

As far as I’m concerned, the Veterans Watchmaker Initiative is one of the coolest programs in the country. With a focus on disabled veterans, it teaches former service members watchmaking and preps them for real jobs they can hold down. Back in 2020, the VWI partnered with Bulova—one of the makers of the famous A11 Hack Watch issued during WWII—to remake the watch that won the war.

Surprisingly, there are still models sitting on the shelves for discount prices. Buy one for your old man, tell him the story, and within days he’ll tell you that he started rewatching Band of Brothers.

A Yeti cooler would do it for most dads. Add an invite to go fishing, watch the game, or whatever it is he’s into and you’ve got the best gift possible.

What I’ve discovered from my own father is that there’s a tech threshold for men of a certain age. Up to that threshold, they adore every upgrade. Beyond it? They enjoy setup, then never use it. Sonos speakers are the perfect example of this.

Setup is techy, with an app and a sound calibration for ideal acoustics. This makes him feel smart. But once it’s set up, it’s so easy to use that it becomes part of his everyday life. My advice is to buy two Sonos Era 100’s to be digital bookshelf speakers. Plug these into his record player. Later on, add a soundbar and outdoor speaker setup so he can seamlessly stream that Dire Straits record across the entire house.

Maybe hold off on a Kemo Sabe hat. That’s more of a holiday splurge. In the meantime, the brand makes surprisingly good drink ware. This needlepoint flask is obviously the most giftable.

This one speaks for itself.

If you’re here, I assume your old man is (or is close to) empty nesting. His coffee habits will change accordingly, but he might not be all in on the coffee-pod revolution. For my money, a Dutch-made Moccamaster is the best antidote to pod machines.

It’ll make the best drip coffee he’s ever had, and it can do a nice little half carafe. On top of that, it’ll last the rest of his life, and there are no fancy buttons or mechanisms to fiddle with. It’s as good as a coffee machine gets.

While I’m thinking about coffee, empty nesting has let my old man live his world-traveling desires, and that’s led to an interest in the way they do things across the Atlantic. A Moka Pot is an inexpensive and bulletproof little coffee maker for a man who wants to live with a bit more sprezzatura.

He’s always looking for the confidence to lean into his Connery-era Bond attire. Sure, his romantic partner can tell him to try out short trunks, but of course they’d tell him that. If it comes from you, his in-the-know son, that he can rock short trunks on vacation this year, he won’t hesitate to let the thighs breath.

The classically masculine fragrance is something of a lost art. However, Hermès does it to perfection. Its new expression of Terre d’Hermès has an ancient earth quality—fresh and spicy up top with bergamot and black pepper, but finishing with notes of volcanic rock and wood. Makes me think of a sightseeing road trip down the western coast of Italy, Pompeii, Paestum, down through Calabria and Sicily. It’s the perfect fragrance for a man of his age.

If the Hermès scent I recommended is too cerebral and European for your old man, Nashville perfumer Ranger Station is the best place to find riffs on America’s olfactory vernacular. Case in point: Hoss, a scent the brand did in partnership with the Waylon Jennings estate.

My grandpa had an ancient bottle of the original Stetson Legend aftershave, and it smelled incredibly close to what Ranger Station has here. Used to be that every guy between the coasts smelled like this combo of spicy anise that dries into smoke and finishes with a little sweetness. Now? It’s a throwback, a one-of-one fragrance for guys (like Dad) who have that outlaw spirit.

I’m a big fan of Lucchese boots, and chances are your old man is too. Only thing is that’s a steep purchase for Father’s Day. But here’s an insider tip: Lucchese makes these really incredible candles by hand in Texas, just like its top-of-the-line boots.

The cypress ones smell great, though a little Christmassy with absinthe and cinnamon notes. For a year-round option, I go for leather. It’s one-note, and it fucking nails it. Even if his man cave is in the garage or moldy basement, he can light one of these, close his eyes, and imagine it looks like a rich, wood-paneled reading room.

Remind the old man he’s not getting any younger and his back pain likely won’t go away forever. But the world’s best massage gun will certainly make him feel a lot more spry.

But if he just wants a speaker, this Marshall number will remind him of all the great shows he’s seen in his lifetime.

Replace that overstuffed bifold he’s had for 20 years with something sleek and optimized.

Level up his summer barbecuing with a steak that was made just for him. Literally: Get his name or a message engraved into the bone.