Gear reviews and comparisons’ online websites

[Anonymous]

Which ones are reliable websites for gear reviews and comparisons (a part from this one), please?

[Ian]

Hi Alexandra,

Here's my not so sophisticated process.

For gear from the cottage industry, I rely heavily on BPL and YouTube. For hammock related stuff, I’ll occasionally check out Hammock Forums but I stay here for ground dwelling stuff.

For more mainstream gear, I typically will look at REI or Amazon and see how the products are rated by the consumers. If I'm lucky, http://www.outdoorgearlab.com/ will have done a review of the product. I'll then google the crap out of it looking for hikers/adventurers/bloggers who have reviewed the product.

Some of the reputable bloggers I'll take at face value but others will give raving reviews on gear that they obviously haven't spent much time with or have barely taken out of the box.

For example, I've owned my Hexamid Twin for a year and don't feel I'm yet qualified to give it a thorough review as I don't feel I've thoroughly used it yet. I certainly will offer my initial impressions of it when asked but with a declaration of all the questions about the item I haven't been able to answer for myself (eg don't know how the Twin will hold up in a windstorm as it hasn't happened to me yet). All this babbling aside, the point I'm making is that this can be the least reliable way to research gear so you'll want to read reviews from many many sources to get a general theme of how the gear performs.

If I still have unanswered questions and some of old threads on the topic don’t give me an answer or may be outdated, I’ll raise my question here on the Gear forum.

[Anonymous]

What about backpacker.com or outsideonline.com? Are they reliable?

[Bob Gross]

Backpacker.com seems to review lots of gear. Somehow, the companies that are the biggest commercial advertisers for Backpacker get their gear reviewed with the best scores. You can draw your own conclusions.

–B.G.–

[Anonymous]

That's why I wanted to know which websites YOU GUYS consider reliable for gear reviews and comparisons (or for outdoor gear winning awards).

Backpacker.com is soo confusing!
Outdoorgearlab seems to have pretty out of date reviews…

[Ian]

I read the occasional article from backpacker but in my opinion, they are too compromised from an advertising perspective to be considered reliable. While I'm sure they are passionate about what they do, they have a master to serve or face going hungry.

I'm not saying the magazine doesn't have value as you may be able to answer some questions regarding fit and sizing but I personally don't use them as a source.

[Anonymous]

Do you think this is not the case for OutdoorGearLab and outsideonline.com?

[Paul Magnanti]

I'm a bit biased as I do articles for them now as of the past couple of issues, but Trailgroove Magazine (trailgroove.com) will only review gear for items they bought with their own funds.

The magazine itself is quite good. Reminds me of what backpacker mag was a bit like in the earlier days. Real world gear reviews. With good writing and photography as well.

In any case, I tend to trust their reviews.

Another good site for long term gear views is
http://www.backpackgeartest.org/

No frills but informative and thorough reviews under "real world conditions".

[Anonymous]

You tend to trust which reviews? Any good sites for reviews and comparisons and top picks?

Also, is backpacker.com award winners' gear reliable?

[Stephen Barber]

"You tend to trust which reviews? Any good sites for reviews and comparisons and top picks?"

Generally,
bpl.com (here)

http://www.backpackgeartest.org/

About top picks: Always remember that a particular piece of gear may get a rave review because it exactly matches what a that reviewer thought was best, or it fit him/her better than his/her own skin. That does NOT mean it will be best for anyone else.

"Also, is backpacker.com award winners' gear reliable?"

It's usually at least decent for what Backpacker Mag thinks is "regular" backpacking. It's probably way too heavy from a backpacking light viewpoint, but will probably hold together until the original owner's grand kid uses it, cuz it's way overbuilt.

[Ian]

"Do you think this is not the case for OutdoorGearLab and outsideonline.com?"

I think Outdoor Gear Lab is fine. It's nice that they'll review cottage industry gear. I just use them as a single data point and wouldn't make a $600 purchase based on any single data point.

I've never looked at outsideonline.com for anything gear-wise so can't say. They have some nice articles on other stuff from time to time.

[Ian]

For what it's worth, I'm not on Ryan's payroll (BPL owner) and have nothing to gain by saying this… but…

BPL has been the best single resource for me. Little more than a year ago, my kit was mostly 15-25 years old and heavy as hell. I decided that I really wanted to return to backpacking but I didn't want to do it with a 50+ lb backpack. Dang near everything I carry now I've purchased in the past 12 months. I've made a few minor missteps with my purchases along the way but for the most part, BPL was by far the best sounding board for me as I pieced my kit together.

[Nick Gatel]

The Business of Backpacking

[Ken Thompson]

Nick. Stay clear of this one.

[spelt with a t]

What are you looking for here, Alexandra (i.e. why do you keep returning to asking about certain sites?) For me:

– BPL
– From BPL, names of people whose comment history or long term blogging gives me confidence in their gear-related opinions: Dave C, Philip Werner, Forrest McCarthy, John Abela, Bob G, Richard Nisely, Paul M, a bunch of other people I can't remember off the top of my head.
– backcountry.com (read with a critical eye) and backpackgeartest.org
– sustained googling will often bring up detailed reviews by obscure or inactive bloggers

[Anonymous]

Am I offending or disrespecting anyone by asking these questions by any chance…?

I have asked wether outdoorgearlab.com, backpacker.com or outsideonline.com are reliable websites, because they are consistently mentioned on various others, including REI and I personally like classifications of the "best" products. It's a bit like having a little less homework to do on my own.

By trusting someone's opinion, presumably experienced and knowledged, who has already tested MOST of the best products on the market and picked the top ones, it's a little easier to get my head around backpacking gear.

I mean, I have no experience as a hiker (well, I used to hike a lot when I was a kid for athletic preparation of the competitive swimming season, but we had a camp base with a kitchen!), I only have experience as an indipendent traveller and I feel like preparing for my trip is taking more time than it should, so I don't think that reading every single review on the planet, although from reliable sources like you guys, would be very helpful at this point.

That's why I prefer ranks and scores, along with reviews, so my choices are narrowed down already and I can pick from say 3 or 4 items, rather than 3 or 4 hundreds.

So please, do come forward with reliable websites with ranks and scores that I can trust.

Cheers

[spelt with a t]

Not offensive at all! Just that BPL members tend towards niche products from smaller manufacturers, and those don't tend to make it into big review roundups and rankings. I don't know that you'll get many recommendations for best rankings sites b/c I doubt too many people here use them. That's all.

[Jeremy and Angela]

OutdoorGearLab started out as the gear review section of Supertopo, a California-oriented climbing forum. Chris McNamara (who runs both) gets plenty of time outdoors, and based on that and the review content I feel confident that their reviews reflect actual real-world experience. Unfortunately newer products may not be listed, although you can still get an idea of which brands are trusted for different product types.

REI and Amazon reviews are useful mostly for a quick idea of how well a product is liked. Unfortunately many of the reviewers have little expertise (e.g. they don't hike, but bought a gift for someone who does) or don't understand the product (e.g. using a 0 degree bag in 60 degree weather and complaining about overheating).

To my eye, backpacker.com or outsideonline.com appear to review largely on published specs rather than do thorough testing. They may have testers, but the reviews are often far too short and have very little useful content.

[Roger Caffin]

> By trusting someone's opinion, presumably experienced and knowledged, who has already
> tested MOST of the best products on the market and picked the top ones,

Trusting – that's where you WILL come to grief.
For a start, sites like Backpacker are not going to fulfill your assumptions. They are profit-driven and so are going to favour their advertisers, and they don't hire really experienced people either. They can't afford to, and can't attract them.

As for the idea that they have tested MOST of the available products – HA! By the time you could have tested half of them adequately, the vendors would have repaced them all with newer models.

Finally, there's the myth of 'the best'. Given that everyone has different requirements for their gear, there cannot be such a thing as 'best'. Meaningless, just not possible.

Cheers

[Anonymous]

I think I was mostly talking about outdoorgearlab, which is exactly what claims to be doing, testing the best and picking the tops amongst them.
Is outsideonline.com not reliable either?

[Anonymous]

What about gear patrol?

[David Chenault]

"…I personally like classifications of the "best" products. It's a bit like having a little less homework to do on my own."

To be blunt, shortcuts will always come up short somewhere.

Such is the nature of the internet; there's so much information out there that you have to cultivate a certain amount of expertise to find the good stuff. There is no way around this. The nice thing is that a fairly modest amount of research will reveal the real lemons, and the state of gear is decent enough that unless you're picky, the rest will do fine. If you are picky, better have some free time available..

I dismiss most of the big sites opinions on gear out of hand. They're writing to make money, and for an audience who too often want exactly what you expressed in the passage I quoted above. Thus they write, short, catchy blurbs which are more marketing than evaluation. Backpacker, Gear Junkie, Outside, and many others fall under this category. In the case of Outside, it's a pity: they have at least a few editors (their bike folks come to mind) who have serious expertise, but they make an editorial choice to not emphasize that side. Look at Gear Patrol, their content screams lifestyle appeal (ie style over substance): some flashy photo essays, booze reviews, and gear "reviews" which devote 150 words to each product and do not feature any photos not provided by the manufacturer.

There are an increasing number of review web-zines which embrace the more substantive side and appeal to people with consequential attention spans. OGLab is certainly one, as is Blister Gear (but they only do gravity sports). My assumption is that they work because they have a group of user/writers who are passionate athletes and work for free stuff and a modest stipend. It's unclear if that model will be sustainable for more than a few years.

The blogger/youtube world is a miasma, one in which you should tread carefully. There are exceptions, but the rule that a proper ratio of trip reports to gear stuff being equal to credibility holds true. Knowing anything useful about gear takes a lot of time in the field, and while some folks choose to rarely/never write about their real work, if you see gear talk without accompanying shots of stuff in a multitude of field settings the probability of BS is quite high.

[Jerry Adams]

I like gear reviews that identify characteristics

When I look at a prospective piece of gear, I can decide which charcteristics are important to me and whether that gear has those characteristics

What I hate, is like "Consumer Reports". They'll identify one model # of a manufacturer as good, and another model # bad, but I can't find either model # for sale and the ones they do sell, it's difficult to determine if it has the good or bad characteristics.

I don't want someone to tell me what to do, I want to learn more about it so I can make my own decision.

[David Moreno]

I look at reviews for each individual item from everywhere I can find them. Manufacturers website, BPL, vendors that sell the products like backcountry, etc… blogs and the like and then average out what I find. I take reviews on manufacturers websites with a grain of salt though.

I never read reviews in Backpacker magazine anymore for the reasons stated here by others. Plus, they usually advertise heavy / bulky gear. That magazine has gone so far downhill I even cancelled my subscription after 11 years. I've never heard of trailgroove so I'll have to pick up an issue and give it a look.

[Author]

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