We are not going to imply we lived with every product for a season, because we didn't, and you can tell when a site is pretending.
We research before we rank. That means owner reviews across the places that sell a product, the manufacturer's own specs and manuals, the repair threads and owner communities where this gear gets used hard, and the independent reviews worth the time. We do that work for every product in a guide, not just the one we end up recommending.
We weigh the consistent problem over the loudest one. A single furious review is noise. The same fault, showing up again and again across very different owners, is signal. That is the kind of pattern a single short test tends to miss and steady reading tends to catch.
We rank for a situation, not for best overall. Best overall is a category that does not really exist. The right pick for someone on a tight budget is rarely the right pick for someone outfitting once and forgetting it, so every guide says who it is for.
What we don't claim
We have not personally lived with everything we write about. We say that plainly, because the opposite, a site quietly implying it tested it all, is what makes most gear advice worthless. What we offer is careful synthesis of a lot of other people's real use, organized and ranked without a thumb on the scale.
Independence
We make money when you buy through our links. The commission does not decide the order of a ranking, and a higher payout never moves a product up. If a guide ever reads like it was arranged around the money, we have failed at the one thing this site is for.
Keeping guides current
Gear gets discontinued, prices move, and a good pick can age out. We revisit guides as the categories change rather than letting them sit, and the year in a guide's title is meant to reflect that, not just decorate it.
Affiliate disclosure
Sorted Gear is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program. We earn from qualifying purchases made through links on this site, at no additional cost to you. We only point you at gear we would tell a friend to buy. Prices and availability change, and we update guides when they do.
If we got something wrong, tell us. The people doing the actual using are the ones who make this better.