Our Story

The Gear Institute is a network of the best outdoor gear testers in America, dedicated to providing you the most professional, objective, and helpful advice you can get about what gear you should buy (and how you should use it).

Who we are

We are committed users of outdoor gear—professional guides, product engineers, specialty shop employees, athletes, writers, and everyday outdoor people. And we’re stoked about good gear.

What we do

Our goal is to professionalize outdoor gear testing. We conduct fair, thorough, head-to-head tests of comparable outdoor products, both under controlled conditions and in appropriate real-world field-testing scenarios. We publish our testing criteria and open our methodology to discussion.

How we do it

Above all, we strive to provide fair, objective, and credible product reviews to the buyers of outdoor gear. That means we cannot and will not be influenced in any way by advertisers, product representatives, or our own biases.

For an explanation of the Gear Institute Rating system, click here.

Join us

If you want to join our team as a lead product tester, technical advisor (experienced product writers or developers who help design our testing process), or field testing volunteer, email us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

If you have a suggestion for how we can improve, let us know at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it