We’ve finally finished it… our first ever Outdoors Magic Green Gear Guide. It’s been a few months in the making – testing, photographing, writing – but it was worth all the effort, for sure. 

The outdoor industry has been in a funny place for a long time now. It exists because people want to get out and enjoy the outdoors, particularly our wild spaces, but all the while it’s been damaging those very places – in some cases quite irreparably.

“Our motivation with this guide is to help champion these efforts.”

These days, however, if you go to one of the outdoor tradeshows like ISPO or OTS, every brand, almost without fail, will have a green initiative to show off. You do get the sense the outdoor industry is really waking up to the responsibility it has now. Of course, some would argue this might only be in reaction to consumers becoming more conscious of their own impact, but still, it’s all positive. 

So things are moving in the right direction, but there’s a long, long way to go. Many of the 30 products we selected for this Green Gear Guide are damaging to the environment in some way, but each one demonstrates some sense of initiative and shows a brand taking a positive step with unique eco-friendly innovation. Our motivation with this guide is to help champion these efforts.

There’s a waterproof jacket that’s fully recyclable, a brand specialising in plastics that has switched to bioplastic, a vegan-friendly shoe, an expedition meal brand selling compostable packs (how did that take so long?), a backpack that uses gone off milk as an ingredient, and plenty more. It’s truly fascinating to see what’s going on.  

We’re also big fans of those brands that are building kit to last, and there’s a few of them here; brands like Fjällräven, and Eagle Creek. A big shout-out to the cleaning solutions products as well. We’ve made sure to include a couple of those, because by keeping kit functioning, they’re basically saving one, two, maybe even three products from entering the landfill.

This Green Gear Guide, if you haven’t been lured to it already by our links, is here. We’ve also posted a couple of videos over on the Outdoors Magic Youtube. We hope you find it all helpful, Let us know what you think about it over on our social channels: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.