From the makers of Maxim, the boorish British men's magazine that launched an American edition this past year, comes Gear: Stuff For Men, presumably aimed toward the Maxim readers whose desire for a magazine featuring ridiculously expensive gizmos has not been sated by anything else on the market. Maxim may be monumentally shitty, but it is fascinating in its ability to simultaneously flatter and condescend to its audience: Unlike more upscale magazines, it seems designed to appeal to the most regressive instincts of its loutish, working-class readers. But like any men's magazine worth its salt, Maxim is also always sure to pretend that its readers are suave, affluent men of the world, men just as interested in reading about the latest luxury cars as they are in enjoying leering profiles of the latest busty starlet. Gear takes this idea one step further, basing its entire existence around the fanciful notion that the guys who pick up the magazine for its pictures of scantily clad celebrities will also be interested in the latest high-end consumer products. It's blatant consumer porn, but it also hedges its bets by including plenty of cheesecake for good measure. In a way, Gear represents capitalism in its purist form; its content is almost indistinguishable from its advertisements. If anything, advertisers are getting a raw deal, paying for space while makers of the consumer goods profiled in Gear get theirs for free. To its credit, Gear is slightly less smarmy than Maxim, but that's faint praise, given how repellent both magazines ultimately are.