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One of Better Trail's missions is to create the best and most modern outdoor gear content on the internet, far and away. We never collect payment from companies to review their gear, and are under no obligation to share anything but our honest, 100% unfiltered opinions. Let’s dive into what makes that all possible.
First-Hand Experience
Starting with the foundation, all of our outdoor gear content is based on first-hand, real-world experience and our opinions are our own. Nobody wants to read an aggregated list that simply summarizes retailer specs and other people’s reviews, and nobody wants to read a puff piece telling you how great every product is. We strive to provide honest, authentic, and opinionated content—we cover the good and the bad. Last but not least, our content is created by people who have deep knowledge of the topics they are writing about. They speak the language, know the categories inside and out, and practice what they preach.
Step 1: Independent Category Analysis
When creating a gear guide, our first step is to undergo a very detailed and independent analysis of all of the relevant products in a particular category. There are no boundaries or limitations: we look at all the top performers, products that excel at certain uses (resort or backcountry-focused ski jackets, for example), leading budget items, ultralight products, cottage brands, and more. New is nice, but if the best product is a few years old, that’s exactly how we’ll present it. Our writers have many years of experience with these categories going in, which is super helpful. From this research process, we choose a full list of products to exhaustively test and photograph.
Step 2: Getting the Gear
We buy tens of thousands of dollars of gear from our favorite outdoor stores just like you. We also receive some product samples before they come to market, which allow us to thoroughly test, photograph, and create/publish our content when you want to read it, not when the season is winding down. We never accept a fee for testing products, nor do we allow brands to influence what we test or our opinions. Every product is chosen independently from our research and selection process detailed above, and written in the same manner.
We’ve seen some sites make statements like, “We buy all of the gear we test,” but that doesn’t mean their content is any more objective. If a site were to treat samples differently than purchased products, that would be an internal editorial issue, not a sample issue. Receiving a product directly from a manufacturer has zero impact on our editorial process, and we treat all products the exact same no matter how they are received (we don’t even make this distinction for our testers). And again, samples allow us to conduct rigorous real-world testing and get you the information you need, when you need it.
We’ve seen some sites make statements like, “We buy all of the gear we test,” but that doesn’t mean their content is any more objective. If a site were to treat samples differently than purchased products, that would be an internal editorial issue, not a sample issue. Receiving a product directly from a manufacturer has zero impact on our editorial process, and we treat all products the exact same no matter how they are received (we don’t even make this distinction for our testers). And again, samples allow us to conduct rigorous real-world testing and get you the information you need, when you need it.
Step 3: Putting It Through the Wringer
Nothing beats getting out with the gear—it’s what we love most. What you will find in our content is that we are truly putting the gear to the test. We often try to find some of the most beautiful and remote alpine or desert environments for product testing, and if anything go overboard in putting the gear through conditions that most people probably won’t experience (sometimes to our own detriment, but those experiences make for good stories). This means no staged photo shoots by the car (unless it’s car camping) or shooting everything in the same, uninspired spot. You can see from our product photos (we are very excited to feature the full galleries within the gear guides for your viewing pleasure) that we are out there really using the gear.
Step 4: Content Creation
As much as we’d like to spend all of our time outdoors, content creation is a massive part of our jobs. As product testing winds down we end up with piles of notes on each product, including both detailed questionnaires from our testers and supplemental notes from our staff, who have been writing about outdoor gear for combined decades. Our editors then take the time to carefully distill that information into a clear and thorough gear guide or individual product review, including a sustainability analysis at both the product and brand level. Throughout this process, we place a premium on honesty, authenticity, and subjectivity. In the end, we create content for humans, that we ourselves would be stoked to read, and that we are proud to send to a close friend or family member.
What Happens to the Gear in the End?
When we are finished testing our gear, there are different options for what to do with it. Given how active our staff and freelancers are, often we’ll keep wearing it past the date of publication to perform a truly extended test. Often we’ll add more tidbits about durability or other insights into the article months later. Sometimes we’ll keep products in our gear rooms to compare to competing items and future generations of that product. And whenever possible, when we are finished with gear and it’s still usable, we will donate it to a local shelter, outdoor organization, or consignment shop to extend its life.
Earning Revenue
On our “About Us” page we talk about how the site has no display ads, no video, and no paywalls or subscriptions. We earn revenue through affiliate links—if you buy gear through the links on our site, we may earn a small commission. It’s important to note that our editorial process (product selection, writing, and editing) is wholly separate from our product-linking process, which happens at the very end right before publication. We frequently cover unaffiliated gear even though it brings in no revenue, and we love highlighting whichever product is best for you regardless of the outcome for us.
More About Better Trail
Education
How We Actually Are Minimalists
Sustainability
About Our Sustainability Ratings
Public Lands
Letter from the Editor