In its astounding rise from nowheresville to the hottest and most vertically trending social media site in the known universe, Pinterest has garnered a bit of a reputation as being a network focused on frilly little pink things, lacy bonnets and cute baby booties. The primarily Midwestern female audience has skewed the content of the social site towards the quilt, knit and crochet set, so it was refreshing to read Laura Lee Walker’s recent blog on Mybeak Social Media entitled Manly Things Live Here – Pinterest For Men. The article is primarily an interview with Glen Stansberry, the co-founder of Gentlemint, a Pinterest site for (gasp) men! They crafted their site in a mere 12 hours and it is filling a niche market that just happens to represent half of the people on this planet.
Man vs. Wild Accessories
Glen and his partner Brian McKinney launched Gentlemint in a bit of a whim, and found that it immediately struck a chord. Rather than concentrating on crafty fashiony items so prevalent on Pinterest, they feature the Man vs. Wild type of accessories such as the M48 Ranger Hawk Axe and the Japanese Higo Blade. Not everything on Gentlemint is used to chop and slice, as they also examine the financially stratospheric market in checking out a Ferrari Italia and an IWC Siderale Scafusia Watch which costs more than twice as much as the Cavallino. On the purely testosterone fueled front, they also have images of a Huge Diesel Powered Hot Rod That Is Ready For The Apocalypse, and since you’re preparing for Dec. 21, 2012, you might as well gaze upon the Icon 1000’s Variant Battlescar Helmet. While you’re at it, you might want to check out the Vintage Cold War Radiation Warning Lights that will give you a heads up when those rads and rems start piling up in order to keep you from glowing in the dark.
Salivation-Inducing Images
Gentlemint also has images of some truly salivation-inducing café racers, and due to the fact that yours truly proudly claims 37 motorcycles in his past, it is not difficult to see the attraction of imbuing Pinterest with images that appeal to the moto-eccentrics (again like yours truly) who literally drool over the jewel-like cooling fins on a vintage Honda CB 350 Four, or how the ducktail on the original Kawasaki New York Steak Z1 900 seems to flow freely from the tank to emerge under the seat like a fighter jet afterburner. The recent photo essays covering the first ever gathering of Harlistas, the Cuban owners of American motorcycles purchased when Fulgencio Batista ruled the island nation, showed how these machines have evolved in the absence of spare parts from Milwaukee. The images of prehistoric Knucklehead engined motorcycles fitted with tractor wheels and Alfa Romeo pistons while being held together with baling wire and plumbing accessories would have made a superlative Pinterest board that would appeal to HOGs everywhere, whether they be men or women!
Do Women Really Like Pistols?
That is yet another interesting facet of Gentlemint: some of their best contributors are… hold the phone… women! It seems that gender is less of an issue than most people would think and that there are more than enough females who are just as interested in a Handpresso in-car coffee maker and a Double Tap Tactical Pocket Pistol as men! After all, the Dedon Yin-Yang Bronze Chaise Longue is built for two and men as well as women can wonder just exactly what the India National Fisheries Development Board was thinking when they built their Hyderabad headquarters in the shape of a huge four story metallic fish.
Now that Pinterest is evolving past its conventional girly girl roots and becoming a cross-gender phenomenon of shareology, sites like Gentlemint will lead the way to the Pinfuture. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go through my bookmarked photos of the luscious forward canted Norton 750 Commando cylinder heads and the delectable photos of the precise head rake required on an XLCH to keep the undercarriage perpendicular with six inch extended tubes… and I’ll go create my own Pinterest board!
