Startup company says men deserve more than gift baskets, delivers goodies in crates with crowbars

Buying gifts for men … real men … is hard. With Father’s Day coming up in just a couple weeks, this reality is becoming as obvious as ever.

Women? They’ve got it easy. They can buy gift baskets for each other. They can drive down to Bath And Body Works, buy a couple lotions, throw them in a little bag with a flower pattern, toss in some ribbons and a card with a smiley face and call it good. For men, ribbons and fluff are hogwash, but aside from gadgets, power tools, and gift cards, it gets hard to find diversity in gifting options.

Man Crates is a company that wants to solve that problem and make gifting to men easier, and they’ve done it by essentially taking the gift basket concept and injecting it with 500 cc’s of testosterone. The Bay Area-based company delivers packages of goods in a wooden crate, and each delivery comes with a laser-etched crow bar that the recipient can use to pry off the lid and discover the goodness within. Crate prices range from $54.99 to $119.99, depending on what you want inside, and you also have the option of customizing crates for your own personal needs or for things like corporate events.

Most crates some with a variety of snacks and goodies such as candy, chips, or jerky (although some come with healthier varieties of snacks), as well as at least one centerpiece item in each crate (for example the Retro Gamer Crate comes with an ATARI plug-and-play system, and the Performance Sports Crate comes with a mix of fitness gear and health/fitness oriented snacks.)

So if you’re stumped on what to get dad this year, or you feel like ordering something for yourself and just want to use a crowbar to pry the lid off your stuff, rest assured that there is finally a product out there for you.