Your dad probably isn’t going to complain about any gift you give him. For better or worse, social norms that have wide-ranging and more serious implications dictate that most modern dads don’t get hung up on presents. You know the meme of the older bearded gentleman with a goofy smile opening a shirt just like the one he has on? There’s a lot of truth to that. In fact, WIRED has gone a few years without even having a guide to gifts for dads. No one complained; it’s possible no one even noticed.
However, I am not only a dad and a gear reviewer but someone who has a very specific philosophy about what makes a good gift for middle-aged men like me. You’ll notice some threads running through this manifesto helpful guide: the best gifts for a dad are things that not only are relevant to his interests but which can be fairly described as “overkill.” Dads really tend to like things that are overbuilt but useful. I’m sure some dads like to be “pampered” but this is not me or the dads I know, who all physically cringed reading this sentence.
I’ve got lots of ideas below, but if you take away one idea I hope it’s that when it comes to a gift for a dad, you can rarely go wrong giving the best-but-spendy version of a thing we use anyway. We especially like things that win the admiration of our peers—nothing that makes a dad happier than having another dad-aged dude take note of his stupidly expensive tire pressure gauge and then saying “Oh yeah my kid got me that—they’re a little pricey but I gotta say, always works great.”
Check out the rest of our gift guides, including Gifts for Moms, Tech Gifts for Kids, and Gifts for Outdoorsy People.
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