The GearLab mission is simple: to create world’s best outdoor gear reviews. Our secret sauce is side-by-side comparative reviews. Here’s how it works: 1) We select the top products in each category. 2) Our Gear Testers put the products through detailed side-by-side tests, both in the lab and in the field, and score each product across a range of weighted categories. 3) We rank the products, explain why, and give awards to the best. Our review process starts with selection: we look at hundreds of products to determine the top contenders in each category. We then buy the top contenders for detailed hands-on testing. To provide a fair basis for scoring, we develop a set of objective lab tests for each category that will help us quantify important differences between competing products.