Who'd be a gear reviewer? | Pinnacle Newsletter #62
#62 Who’d be a gear reviewer?
Many bloggers dream about being given outdoor gear to review, but it’s a lot more complicated than you might think.
At face value, the idea is simple: after contact with a brand (either direct or via a PR), you receive an item, with the understanding that you will create a review of this item for some public outlet (either your own platform or another publisher, such as an outdoor magazine). In most cases, you’ll get to keep the product afterwards, although some very expensive items are sent out on loan.
Inexperienced reviewers might think that this is a win-win situation. However, as I’ve discovered, that isn’t really the case…
1. If you’re doing this to get free stuff, you’re doing it for the wrong reasons.
Reviewers who just like getting gear tend to go too easy on the products they receive, because they want more stuff. The purpose of a review is to pour cold water on ridiculous manufacturer/PR hyperbole and put the gear through tough testing in order to educate readers and illuminate the truth. If you aren’t interested in this, forget about being a gear reviewer.
2. Regularly reviewing gear means that you often don’t get to use your own favourite or trusted items.
You have to set your old favourites aside to use something new, unproven and unfamiliar – something with flaws that may prove frustrating. And almost every product has flaws or compromises.
3. You’ll acquire a ton of stuff.
This is a first-world problem, but possessions are a burden, and for each item you receive you will eventually have to decide its fate. Continually refreshing all of your gear with new stuff is not something many people would be happy with (and, besides, such an approach is only likely to fuel consumerist impulses in other areas of your life). Sell it? Depends on where the gear is from, and who is publishing your review, but this is widely frowned upon. Throw it away? No. Give it away? A good option, but you still have to decide whom to give it to, and doing so takes up time and effort. Just keeping everything is ok up to a point, but I’ve found that while just enough choice is a good thing, too much can be paralysing.
4. Consumerism.
There’s also the knowledge that all this stuff has consumed precious resources in its manufacture and transit. And while many brands are cleaning up their acts, as a reviewer you undeniably play a more active role in the engine of global consumerism than the average person. (Reviewers can, of course, choose to help educate people to be more conscious consumers, so there are two sides to this coin.)
There are plenty of other little complications too, from the complexity of reviewing multiple jackets on the same trip to the fact that ultralight freaks often end up compromising more on weight than they might like. You aren’t always able to get the perfect item you might want for your own purposes – which is of course the point, because this isn’t about you.
Being a gear reviewer isn’t easy. It can take a huge amount of time and energy to do well. I have learned to be more canny and intentional about the products I agree to review, and I’ve come to be a lot warier about marketing claims made by brands (which are usually full of shit). But this is why honest, unbiased reviews from experienced testers are so vital in a world of hyper-targeted ads and advertorials – as a force standing up for objective truth, pointing out hidden flaws and praising innovations alike.
If you want to read my very first outdoor gear review, check out my review of the SteriPEN Adventurer published by UKC in 2008 here. I’m a lot more experienced now!
In other news…
Extra points to any readers who spotted the deliberate (ahem, honest) spelling mistake in last week’s newsletter.
Today I finished off the August 2019 issue of The Great Outdoors. My month at the TGO helm has been interesting, rewarding, and stressful; I now hand the job to the very capable hands of Carey Davies. Next week the whole team will be at the Outdoor Trade Show in Manchester, looking at the latest outdoor gear. It’s going to be a busy week.
Bothy Tales by John Burns, which I edited, is currently on special offer in Kindle format (and selling like hot cakes by all accounts).
Recently published
What I’ve been reading this week – this week’s quality online reads on the outdoors, environment, editing and writing.
My Pinnacle Newsletter now has over 400 members – 407, to be exact, and I’m incredibly grateful to each one of you!
Until next time,
Alex
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