This Week’s New And Notable Outdoors Gear

New stuff, my thoughts, your guidance, free shit

Not every piece of new outdoors gear merits dedicated coverage, and you guys want to know about stuff before I’ve had time to thoroughly test it. So it makes sense to package news around products I think you should know about, along with my analysis, into a weekly roundup.

July’s been a hectic month on my end. After running myself ragged covering the whole public lands heist thing, I’m a little burned out and have been busy over here commuting back and forth between our house in Bozeman and the cabin in Glacier, hosting friends, and trying to actually spend some of summer outdoors with Virginia and the dogs. I also managed to catch a terrible stomach bug of some kind, but as of this morning it looks like I’ll survive that.

Absent overwhelming political threats to nature, I’d like to build some structure for this newsletter/blog/Substack thing you’re reading right now, both to ensure I’m getting words on the page five days a week, and to make the value proposition around subscribing really clear.

The TL;DR there is I’m trying to build a home for the type of journalism that can no longer exist in mainstream publications. Stuff that’s honest and centers you, the reader, rather than advertisers. So, I work for you now, something you can hopefully support. Subscriptions cost $15/month, and I knock a full month off that price if you pay for a year up front. That’s a little more expensive than the most popular Substacks simply because the worlds I cover are more niche than those written about by mainstream names like Paul Krugman or Matt Yglesias. But also because I try to deliver more personal value. I make myself available to subscribers in real time, applying my two decades of experience writing about this stuff to help you save money by purchasing the right outdoors gear, planning more exciting trips, or just getting more out of the time you spend outdoors. You guys can reach me via the chat feature at the top of this website (DM if you prefer privacy or use the public chat to include other subscribers) or via email at [my first name]@wessiler.com. More deets on all that at this link.

Anyways, outdoors gear. I’m going to put these behind a paywall both so that the important journalism can remain free, and so I can deliver you my unvarnished thoughts. I’ll be doing a similar thing to close out the week around relevant outdoor news covering policy, the environment, hot industry tea, and other fun stuff. Below you’ll find some stuff I think we should all be excited about, and some freewheeling thoughts on it. As always, feel free to run purchase decisions by me before you make them, or just ask anything you’re curious about.

Oh, and I’m going to start giving away gear to subscribers. Let’s start there.