About The Gear Post

Who runs The Gear Post

Stef Zeps is the Publisher & Editor of The Gear Post. He is responsible for what gets published here: which products are shortlisted, how they are compared, and every verdict on the site.

Editorial questions, corrections and complaints go straight to him through the contact form or by email at hello@notify.futureshop.app. Corrections are prioritised over new work.

How we score

We do not publish an overall numeric score out of five, and we no longer display one anywhere on the site. A single number implies a repeatable measurement we have not made across every product, so publishing one would be misleading.

What we do publish is a ranked shortlist per category, and the ranking is built only from information we hold and can point at: published manufacturer specifications and certification levels, the price history we have recorded across the retailers we track, availability at North American retailers, and the independent expert reviews, creator video reviews and verified owner feedback we link to on each page. Where the ordering comes down to a judgement call between close options, we say so in the write-up rather than hiding it behind a figure.

Every product page is labelled either Hands-on tested — we physically used it, with a note on how long and in what conditions — or Researched pick, which is the majority of the site. We never describe research as testing. The full process is in our editorial methodology.

How we review products

We are transparent about the difference between gear we have used and gear we have researched, because most gear sites are not.

• Hands-on tested. Items we have physically used are labelled as such, with a note on how long and in what conditions. If a page does not carry that label, we have not ridden in it.
• Researched picks. The majority of our recommendations are selected from published specifications and certification levels, manufacturer information, verified owner feedback, independent expert reviews and creator video reviews we link to directly, plus price history across the retailers we track.

Shortlists start from the category requirements — certification, fit, waterproofing, battery life, warranty — and we drop anything that fails them regardless of price or commission. Where a cheaper option genuinely wins, it wins. Where the honest answer is “wait”, we say wait.

We never invent testing experience, fabricate prices or publish a discount we could not verify against a live retailer listing. The full process is written up in our editorial methodology.

Editorial independence and how we make money

The site is funded by affiliate commissions. When you buy through some of our links, the retailer pays us a small commission at no extra cost to you. The Amazon Associates programme in the United States and the Insta360 affiliate programme are currently our only active affiliate relationships; with Insta360 this applies only to the direct Insta360 store links on a handful of camera pages, not to every mention of the brand. We also link to other retailers, including RevZilla and other gear shops, purely so you can compare prices; those links earn us nothing. Gear Post Insider is free — it costs nothing to join and we make no money from it.

Commission rates play no part in ranking, scoring or verdicts, and no brand can pay to appear, to be ranked higher, or to have criticism removed.

Found something wrong? Tell us through the contact page and we will correct it — corrections are prioritised over everything else.