Editor's Letter
Welcome to our 2025 Summer Gear Guide! Below you’ll find dozens of reviews packed with the most impressive gear we tested this past year. Whether it’s hiking, camping, biking, running, working out, or traveling, we have it all right here. We also highlighted some of our favorite picks聽 in 国产吃瓜黑料 magazine鈥檚 May/June issue, which you can pick up at newsstands or read digitally with your 国产吃瓜黑料+ subscription.
To make these picks, we enlisted the help of nine editors, four dozen product category managers, and hundreds of testers who collectively spent months testing 800-plus products. Staff from 国产吃瓜黑料, Backpacker, Climbing, Run, Yoga Journal, Pinkbike, and Velo all contributed to the effort. We hope this guide helps make your journey on-trail and off that much easier.
Hiking and Camping
These roomy and sturdy shelters have enough room for the whole gang
Car camping is all about embracing the kind of luxury you can鈥檛 afford on backpacking trips. These sleeping bags fit the bill.
Portable camp chairs that offer more than just the bare minimum
Bags, tools, and little extras to make camp feel like your home away from home
Our favorite knives, coffee presses, coolers, and cook sets for outdoor meal prep
Live like royalty miles from pavement with these kitted-out rigs
Running and Fitness
We tested over 80 trail shoes across hundreds of miles of rocky singletrack, muddy forests, and sandy paths. These 14 stood out as the top performers.
We put 102 shoes through thousands of miles of long runs, speed workouts, races, and recovery days. These 14 emerged as the best.
The right marathon shoe can boost your performance and make the race more enjoyable
These 12 innovative running shoes will keep you stable without sacrificing comfort or holding you back
Supercharge your recovery and ease inflamed joints with these ultra-cushy kicks
Travel & Tech
Pocket-sized cameras designed to go wherever adventure takes you
We put this season鈥檚 portable Bluetooth speakers through their paces indoors and out, on wet days and dry days, on Fridays and Sundays (that鈥檚 our fun day). These seven emerged as our favorites.
Nail the shot every time with these fully featured cameras
We tested 23 models on trails, treadmills, and trains to find the best earbuds for every listener and budget
Rugged bags designed to go wherever adventure takes you
We tested a dozen smartwatches for months, over thousands of miles and hundreds of workouts, to find the best for tracking your activities