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Throughout history there have been men bound and determined to change the way everyone else experiences the world around them. Thomas Edison gave us the light bulb and the motion picture camera. Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot developed the first self-propelled mechanical vehicle. Alexander Graham Bell gave us the telephone. While that class of ground-breaking pioneers has graduated to the great beyond, their spirit of innovation lives on through other visionaries and their technological marvels. Revolutionizing the way we think about what’s possible with a product might be challenging, but these alpha males don’t just make it look easy – they make it look good.
Elon Musk – Tesla Roadster
At the age of 28, Elon Musk sold his first company Zip2 to Compaq for $307million. At 31, he sold Internet payment giant Paypal to eBay for $1.5billion. Then he founded SpaceX and got a $1.6billion contract from NASA. But what we remember Musk for the most is making green automobiles cool with Tesla’s Roadster. Somewhere between a Porsche and a Ferrari in terms of appearance, the 0-60 in 3.7 seconds Roadster is the first real proof that a need for speed doesn’t have to mean burning anything other than rubber.
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Sir Richard Branson – Virgin Galactic Spaceship
We defy you to find any young boy that didn’t dream of being an astronaut at one point in his life. When you’ve got more than $4 billion in the bank and a knighthood, you don’t just have to dream. One of Branson’s latest additions to the Virgin group is Virgin Galactic, otherwise known as “the company that you can give a buttload of money to to take a private, sub-orbital space flight.” Yeah, the full pale blue dot experience is going to cost an arm and a leg, but NASA doesn’t have shuttles anymore and kids (especially the ones still inside of all of us) need something to dream about.
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Carroll Shelby – Performance cars
The 1967 Shelby GT500, better known by most of you as “Eleanor” is one of the most beautiful things to grace a silver screen – even if Nic Cage was the one behind the wheel. But Shelby’s legacy is about more than just one car. His commitment to motoring excellence started in 1962 with the AC Cobra (the original precursor to the Mustang Cobra) and eventually led to his own performance parts division with more accessories than G.I. Joe and a design role at Ford. Even if you’re not a blue oval kind of guy, Shelby is partially responsible for your love of horsepowers, torques and cars that will take you for a ride.
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Antoine Norbert de Patek and Adrien Philippe – Patek Philippe Watches
We’re just going to come right out and say that the likelihood of us ever owning a Patek Philippe watch is somewhere between getting in bed with Scarlett Johansson and inventing rocket launcher arms in terms of improbability. Not being able to order doesn’t mean you can’t look at the menu though. Widely credited with creating the first wrist watch, Patek and Philippe forever changed the landscape of men’s style for the better.
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James Dyson – Dyson Vacuum Cleaner
At first, including the man most notably responsible for revolutionizing the vacuum cleaner might seem crazy. If Dyson never invented his dual cyclone bagless vacuum cleaner though, where would you be if you were fresh out of ideas for presents? All kidding aside, the man identified a need (to have a vacuum that just kept on sucking) and created a solution (cyclonic separation instead of those stupid bags). End result? He’s worth over $2billion, and you have a vacuum cleaner that doesn’t require expensive supplies. You might balk at the price of a Dyson initially, but if you own a printer you know how those supply costs add up.
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Calvin Klein – Underwear
It’s a well known fact that the only thing that even comes close to seeing a woman in nothing but your shirt is seeing her in a pair of your boxers. You have Calvin Klein to thank for that. Sure, there were racy advertisements featuring Marky Mark and a Polanski-aged Brooke Shields that propelled Klein’s product into the hearts and pants (not to mention pocket books) of people everywhere, but it was also about the freedom of having a little more air down there. He might have eventually gone off the deep end, but his “Calvins” have touched more behinds than the rest of us put together.
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Lester William Polsfuss – Gibson Les Paul Guitar
If you have ever listened to rock and roll, you’ve probably heard the work of Lester William Polsfuss. Polsfuss was an accomplished guitarist and songwriter, but will always be known primarily for what he gave to rock and roll – the Gibson Les Paul guitar. One of the pioneering inventors of the solid-body electric guitar, you can find Les Paul in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Grammy Hall of Fame, and in the hands of: Clapton, Slash, Frampton, Townshend, Page, Hendrix and, well, you get the idea. Even though his contributions to the guitar that bears his name have been called into question, we’ll always remember Les Paul for giving us a reason to turn it up to 11.
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Steve Wozniak – Apple I Computer / Universal Remote Control
“The Woz,” as he’s referred to affectionately, isn’t just the “Other Steve” at that techno-fruit company that put iEverything into your hands, pockets and desk drawers, he’s one of the men responsible for making personal computers a reality. It doesn’t matter if you’re a John Hodgman or a Justin Long guy, the fact you can write TPS reports, see thousands of people naked instantly and pirate music is due, in no small part, to Wozniak’s Apple I and Apple II computers. As if that isn’t enough, Wozniak’s company CL 9 invented the first programmable universal remote. Thanks to “iWoz,” you don’t even have to reach for more than one remote to have access to all the digital data you own.
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Martin Cooper – Cellphone
Startac. The gray and black football sized Dynatac. The indispensable Blackberry or Droid or iPhone. None of these devices would have existed without Martin Cooper. The Doc Brown of smart antenna technology, Cooper pioneered the idea that we should make phone calls to people and not to places. Originally inspired by Captain Kirk, Cooper turned Science Fiction into Science fact, and because of him we can now all send emails from the bathroom.
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Are there any other men whose products have impacted your life for the better? Let us know in the comments below.
