Introducing: The Trails Magazine Editors' Lists

January 13, 2025

BY RYAN WICHELNS

I’ve always been a gear nerd. While, within our pages, we’re much more focused on telling exciting adventure stories, it’s impossible to ignore the fact that talking about gear is plain fun. But I don’t think most of us have been super happy with the way gear is covered in a lot of other places: sensationalist, consumerist, designed solely to get you to click on links and buy. Instead, how can we make gear writing more like the conversations we have with our hiking buddies? Figuring that out has been a goal since our very first issue. Issue 9 holds our biggest project to that end to date.

In February, we’re introducing the first annual Trails Magazine Editors’ Lists.

These three lists—each highlighting a specific place and time to go backpacking—replace the outdated and unhelpful “best of 2025” lists so prevalent elsewhere. We’re lending more weight to the lowly packing list, reintroducing critical context to editors' picks, and working hard to earn the trust of skeptical readers.

Used, not tested. If we included an item in this issue, it’s not because it scored well in some laboratory-style test. It’s because it passed the only test that really matters: actual trail miles.
Nothing to sell. There are no links, no promotional catchphrases, no discounts, and we’re not afraid to highlight failure points or call out problems. Nobody paid to be included in our coverage and we don’t make anything from affiliate programs.
No more meaningless “bests.” No product is ever the best for every person and every situation. We’re reintroducing context to gear reviews so you can make better informed decisions about what to pack for your specific trip.
Gear should last more than one year. We’re not interested in talking only about the stuff hitting shelves in 2025. If the greatest isn’t actually the latest, that's what you’re going to read about.
Earning your trust. Gear reviews have a trust problem. We’re hoping these reviews earn some of that back. We weren’t paid to say anything. We have no obligations to specific brands. And all our reviews were written by real backpackers with countless nights in the dirt.

We’ll be sharing more about the lists and how they work between now and Issue 9’s release in February.

Having written countless gear reviews for other publications, the editors and I understand their flaws. Since we began on Kickstarter, we’ve had hundreds of individual conversations with subscribers, readers, industry veterans, other journalists, and beyond to try and understand what we all want to get out of gear coverage. And we’ve been iterating on this and other ideas for months, trying to develop something truly revolutionary. This Editors’ List project has been almost a year in the making. The result is a product that we’re incredibly proud of and excited by. We’re confident that you’ll notice a difference and hopeful that this jumpstarts an entire gear reviewing industry that’s become stagnated by mediocrity.

Subscribe now to reserve your copy of this historic issue. We can’t wait to put it in your hands.