With its inception in 1999, Outdoors Magic became one of the world’s first websites devoted to covering outdoor pursuits and to this day it serves information and inspiration to a global audience of hikers, trail runners, bikepackers and general outdoor enthusiasts.

We tend to talk about gear a lot on our pages – more specifically we do a lot of reviewing – and we pride ourselves on having a highly qualified team of testers with numerous thru-hikes, alpine ascents and Fastest Known Times between us.

Got a question about something we’ve reviewed or covered? Just drop us a message, we’d be happy to help.

The Team

Editor: Will Renwick
[email protected]
OM editor Will is somewhat obsessed with hiking and trail running, more specifically hiking and trail running in Wales. He’s explored just about every long distance trail within the country and in 2021 he even managed to climb all 189 of its mountains in one solo, unsupported and blister-plagued run. Will has over a decade of professional outdoor gear testing experience and has served on all of the major industry juries, including for the ISPO awards, the Outdoor Industry Association Awards and the Scandinavian Outdoor Award. 

Our Contributors

James Forrest
James has been a regular contributor to Outdoors Magic for almost five years now and he’s been responsible for many of our more niche group tests. Lightweight tent pegs, quilt systems, nutritious backpacking food – this guy loves anything that’s going to keep his pack weight as low as possible on his next FKT attempt. 

Jazz Noble
A regular contributor to Outdoors Magic for over two years now, Jazz is our expert on all things bikepacking – you might have read her account of cycling the King Alfred’s Way not so long ago. She’s currently gearing up to take on the komoot Women’s Rally in the Canary Islands. 

Matt Jones
Matt is another core member of our test team. He’s been reviewing gear for various outdoor magazines for almost ten years now and has a preference for durable, long-lasting items to suit the kind of hiking, scrambling and fishing he has on his doorstep in Snowdonia

Emily Woodhouse
A fun fact about Emily: she holds a Guinness World Record for climbing the most 3000m mountains in one week (that’s 13, in case you were wondering). She’s also a Mountain Leader and has been a Mountain Rescue volunteer since 2016. 

Affiliates

Many of the articles on this site, particularly the product reviews and round ups, will contain affiliate links and we’ll make a small commission for any items purchased via the stores we link to. These links do not affect our decision making when it comes to reviewing gear and we are not influenced by any of the stores.

How We Test

At Outdoors Magic, we have a firm policy that all gear needs to be reviewed with honesty and impartiality and we therefore will never shy away from criticising gear when we believe criticism is warranted.

In most cases, we will reach out directly to brands to request the opportunity to review specific products that we would like to assess.

We also ensure that ever item of gear that we review has been tested ‘in the field’ and in the environment that the product is made or marketed for. Our photography demonstrates this; every review we post will show our staff and contributors out using the gear.

Our ‘best budget…’ round ups are an exception. For these, some products will have been tested while others might be judged to be worthy of inclusion without any testing based on the knowledge and research conducted by our experienced teams.

Our Ethos

We’re a gear review site and people make purchases based on our recommendations, but that’s not to say we want people to buy more gear. Instead, we want to help people to buy less gear by making the right choices the first time round. If you like the stuff you have, you won’t find a need to replace it.

Here at Outdoors Magic we strongly endorse making every effort to repair what you have before seeking to buy a replacement. Check out our gear repair guide for more on that.

Double A Media

For all commercial enquiries contact [email protected]

Outdoors Magic is a Double A Media title. Our sister magazines include Active Traveller, Snow Magazine, Mpora, Whitelines.