 Logo from the cover of Gear | |
| Editor | Bob Guccione, Jr. |
|---|---|
| Categories | Men's |
| Publisher | Bob Guccione, Jr. |
| Total circulation (2001) | 500,000 [1] |
| Founded | 1998 |
| Final issue | 2003 |
| Company | Guccione Media |
| Country | United States, others |
| Based in | New York City |
| ISSN | 1099-6494 |
Gear was an American men's magazine published by Bob Guccione, Jr. devoted chiefly to revealing pictorials of popular singers, B-movie actresses, and models, along with articles on gadgets, cars, fashion, sex, and sports.
Gear debuted in September 1998, [2] with actress Peta Wilson on the cover. [3] The magazine established itself with several publishing stunts such as publishing a nude photo of women's football celebrity Brandi Chastain. [4] [5]
When Gear featured a pictorial of a scantily clad Jessica Biel in the March 2000 issue, who posed while appearing on the family drama 7th Heaven and was then 17 years old, actor Stephen Collins, who played her father on the show, described the pictures as "child pornography". Biel later cited it as one of her biggest regrets. [6] Esquire magazine described the photo shoot as "quasi-infamous". [7]
Guccione described his vision for the magazine as being a successor to the likes of Esquire and GQ and to produce a literate magazine that includes quality journalism alongside articles on celebrities and fashion. Advertisers viewed the magazine as being more like Maxim , Stuff , or FHM , forcing it into the category of lads mags. Efforts were made to change the magazine's perceived image by moving from covers featuring scantily clad female celebrities to different cover images, including notable actors such as Elijah Wood and Christian Slater. [1]
Gear closed in 2003 with the intention of relaunching at a later date, hoping to break out of the lads mag category as Details had done. [1] The magazine was described as similar to Spin also founded by Bob Guccione, Jr., and was praised for attempts to achieve the same kind of serious journalism. [3] Ann Gerhart of The Washington Post described the magazine derisively as "the frat boy's Esquire". [5]
Brandi Denise Chastain is an American retired soccer player, two-time FIFA Women's World Cup champion, two-time Olympic gold-medalist, coach, and sports broadcaster. She played for the United States national team from 1988 to 2004. In her 192 caps on the team, she scored 30 goals playing primarily in the defender and midfielder positions. She scored a World Cup-winning penalty shootout goal against China in the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup final.
Penthouse is a men's magazine founded by Bob Guccione and published by Los Angeles–based Penthouse World Media, LLC. It combines urban lifestyle articles and softcore pornographic pictures of women that, in the 1990s, evolved into hardcore pornographic pictures of women.
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Robert Charles Joseph Edward Sabatini Guccione was an American photographer and publisher. He founded the adult magazine Penthouse in 1965. This was aimed at competing with Hugh Hefner's Playboy, but with more explicit erotic content, a special style of soft-focus photography, and in-depth reporting of government corruption scandals and the art world. By 1982 Guccione was listed in the Forbes 400 wealth list, and owned one of the biggest mansions in Manhattan. However, he made some extravagant investments that failed, and the growth of free online pornography in the 1990s greatly diminished his market. In 2003, Guccione's publishers filed for bankruptcy and he resigned as chairman.
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"We're producing a magazine that's perhaps the most literate of them all, including GQ and Esquire," he claims.
Gear does, to its credit, take stabs at the kind of serious journalism that gave the old Spin its justified reputation for writing
Newsweek says Chastain had posed for "a lowbrow men's magazine"; the Post's Ann Gerhart calls it "the frat boy's Esquire."