It's YOUR turn to rate your own gear - and you may even win a Petzl Tikka for the pleasure!
Oooooooo what's that new Reviews button on the navigation bar?
It's our brand new and shiny product review system, brought to you in partnership with Cotswold-Outdoor. It’s worth a look – you could even win yourself a Petzl Tikka
head torch if you write a good review.
What's it for?
The idea is to pool as much product information in one place as possible, including editorial reviews, consumer reviews and the occasional manufacturer's opinion.
Currently there is no single place where you can look for info on UK outdoor products, so doing product research is time consuming. Our product review system aims to be a permanent resource of opinions from everyone and anyone who has ever used a product.
What's the benefit of having consumer reviews?
Apart from the obvious fact that the people who use the gear are the ones who know what they’re on about, consumer reviews are vital for building up a picture of how a product performs over time.
Gear testers have the advantage of seeing the whole spectrum of products on the market and being able to judge each product in context, but ultimately a gear tester can not use any product for long enough to find out how durable it is. Even Richard Gear only needs to wear one pair of walking boots when he's out in the hills and with only 52 weekends each year he finds it hard to wear any pair till they drop.
What if none of my gear is in your review system?
Easy. Just add it in, we’ll check the product details with the manufacturer, add in a picture and put it live as soon as we can.
What if the product I add is 100 years old?
100 years old walking boots would be quite spectacular, but it wouldn’t stop us adding them to the system. We want to hear about any products you’ve used and think others would like to know about, regardless of whether or not they are current. All too often products get changed year by year, when in fact everyone preferred the first edition and ‘if it’s not broke…’
But you can hardly buy 100 year old boots online, so what’s the point of adding them in?
The review system serves two purposes: providing information and providing links to online retailers, but these exist independently of one another. The most important aspect is to provide information to consumers and hopefully to let manufacturers know what we really think of their stuff. However, if some of the products in our database are current and stocked by Cotswold-Outdoor then we will link straight to that product on their site to make it easy for you to order the product if you wish.
So what’s in it for me?
Apart from that tingling feeling of altruism you’ll get when you’ve just spent 2 minutes typing your product experiences for the benefit of future consumers, you may even win yourself a Petzl Tikka head torch. We are giving one away each month for the next 5 months the person that we think wrote the best and most helpful review. This doesn’t mean longest, just most useful and informative. So go on, try your luck.
I’ve got a thing or two to say about some products, so take me right there now.
