5 Facts You Should Know About Treeline Review
Treeline Review co-founders Liz Thomas and Naomi Hudetz are hiking partners who had a vision for better gear reviews.
WE HAVE A MISSIOn
Everything we do is around this goal:
Buy less stuff.
As outdoor enthusiasts, we love nature and this planet. This inspires us to get more people outdoors and for them to need fewer things to do it.
2. we follow three principles
Principle #1: More people Outdoors
Our goal is to create welcoming and inclusive gear reviews. We want everyone to feel comfortable and empowered in the outdoors. Engaging in the outdoors is how we learned to care for the earth—and the more people who get to see the beauty of the outdoors firsthand, the better informed we all can be about how to make the right decisions for the earth.
Principle #2: Buy right the first time
When you buy right the first time, you don’t need to buy that much gear. If you love the gear you have, you won’t find a need to replace it. Less stuff, less stuff in the landfill.
Principle #3: Better for the planet
Scientific studies show that folks who spend time outdoors are more likely to care for the planet in the future. We want you to be that person— to feel safe, comfortable, and at home when you’re outdoors. If you buy right the first time, you save time and money while doing a solid for the planet.
More people outdoors + Buy right the first time = Better for the Planet
3. We ARE Reader-Supported
We exist because of our community.
We don’t have pop-up ads or sidebar ads or banner ads.
Those are annoying and take away from your trust.
Instead, if you read a story and take our gear recommendation seriously enough to buy something through one of our links, some (but not all) retailers will give us a small commission. For example, as an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. However, this is at no additional cost to you. It’s literally the same price to you.
Our tenet is never to push you towards gear. We always recommend the best gear, even if there isn’t a commission.
If you return a gear item because you hate it, we get nothing (and actually it costs us money).
So our incentives are aligned: to buy right the first time.
We’ll tell you the good and bad of all the items we recommend and only award gear that is worthy of your time and money.
Our goal is first and foremost to have you trust our recommendations.
4. Multiple Data Points Yield Better Results
Outdoor Media Reviews + Everyday User Opinions + Our Field Testing & Experience =
The Most Reliable Gear Recommendations
We analyze and aggregate outdoor reviews to bring you the information you need to make informed gear decisions.
Other gear websites are expert-driven (and our writers are certainly experts). But to create a more inclusive outdoor learning environment, we knew it’d take more.
Anyone who has ever gone on a gear-research binge knows accumulating, reading, and making decisions based on gear reviews can take hours.
Treeline Review saves readers time by writing our guide and basing our findings on the aggregated review process.
Read more about why you can trust Treeline Review
5. we were started by two friends (& hiking partners!)
Treeline Review was founded by Liz “Snorkel” Thomas and Naomi “The Punisher” Hudetz.
We couldn’t find what we were looking for, so we built it ourselves.
On our thru-hikes together of the Great Divide Trail, Low to High Route, Pacific Northwest Trail, and Trans San Diego Trail, we’ve had a lot of time to discuss what we wish gear reviews would look like.
For example, we couldn’t find gear reviews for people who look like us.
We couldn’t find gear reviews written for a whole lot of different kinds of people.
And worse—gear review websites are typically there to, well, sell gear. We kept wishing there was a gear review website that cared more about the planet and empowering all kinds of people to get outdoors.
So we built Treeline Review—so that no one ever has to say “I wish this existed.”
We’re always look for feedback on our stories and website and ideas for new stories you’d like to see.
Connect with us on this adventure by:
Follow us on Instagram
Check out my videos on YouTube
Find me on Facebook
Ask us questions to answer on upcoming Facebook Live or Instagram Live events.
