Sharper Image Began With Copier Paper, and I Still Want Half the Catalog

The company behind Sharper Image started out selling copier paper. In 1977 a young San Francisco lawyer named Richard Thalheimer ran a small office-supply business on the side, and the name was a nod to the sharper image his copier toner promised. Then he found a waterproof chronograph watch for runners at a Las Vegas trade show, advertised it in running magazines, and the orders poured in. He put the profits into more gadgets, and in 1979 the first catalog went out with a cordless phone and an answering machine on its pages. He described the mission as picking out fun toys for grown ups, which is still the most honest description of this brand I have read. The stores followed, the first one in San Francisco in 1981, and there were 187 of them when the chain closed in 2008. The name came back online and now sits with ThreeSixty Group. I love that history because it explains what is in the grid below: practical, slightly playful things you can plug in or charge, built for a real body on a real Tuesday. Start here with the tools for the body, from a compact massage gun with heat and cold to a modular roller you can set up with one, two, four or eight rollers.

Sharper Image has always had a soft spot for the home, and grid two is where that shows. The company was known for the Ionic Breeze air purifier, so it makes sense that the Ionic Comfort Quadra is billed as the updated edition of a classic. It is the one appliance here I would leave running in a bedroom. The LED vanity mirror is smaller than you expect, eight inches, and it charges a phone on the base, which is the detail that keeps it on my counter instead of in a drawer. The foot massager sends T.E.N.S. pulses through the soles with optional far infrared heat, and I treat it like a footstool that happens to hum. The wrist wrap is my favorite of the four: cordless, four heat settings, soft stretch fleece, and it fits either wrist, which matters if you work at a keyboard all day. A practical tip: put the mirror by a window at first, then check it against the built-in lights, so you know what your makeup really looks like in both.

Grid three brings in makers with their own founder stories, and each one fits in a bag. Therabody grew out of a chiropractor's motorcycle accident and a prototype he built in 2008; the Theragun Mini is the pocket version, about a pound, three speeds, with a travel lock so it does not switch on in your carry-on. SolaWave launched in September 2020 and its Radiant Renewal wand combines red light therapy, galvanic current, vibration and warmth in a device with 14 LEDs. The Therabody depuffing wand alternates cold and heat settings on a contoured tip. Joanna Czech left Poland for the United States at 25 and built a name as a facialist for celebrity clients, and her rolling facial massager is a portable echo of her technique. What I would skip is using any of these too long in one spot. Three minutes per region is the pace the wand suggests, and the roller does its job with light, slow passes, so save the pressure for your hands. Wipe each tool clean after use and store it in its case.

I keep coming back to how odd it is that a paper-and-toner side business became the place people looked for the next thing. That curiosity is the whole brand, and it is why a Theragun and a wrist wrap can sit in the same conversation. My advice is to pick one tool, use it for two weeks, and see if it earns a spot in your routine. Then add another. The best gadget is the one you reach for without deciding to, and Thalheimer figured that out with a jogger's watch in 1977. If you are shopping for someone else, choose the small thing with a charging case, because it travels and gets used.