Author Profile
Alex Mercer
Review Editor
Alex Mercer is a Review Editor at ActiveGearDen with over a decade of experience testing outdoor gear across every category on this site. He has logged thousands of trail miles and tests gear in conditions ranging from desert heat to alpine winter.
Every product Alex reviews is purchased at full retail price. No free samples from manufacturers. No sponsored content. Ever.
How Alex tests gear
Gear gets tested by using it in the conditions it was designed for. Hiking boots get logged miles on real trails. Rain jackets get worn in actual rain. Running shoes accumulate real weekly mileage before a word gets written.
Minimum testing periods: 6–12 weeks for footwear, 2–3 seasons for outerwear, 3–5 field trips for camp and paddle gear. No review is published after a single use.
Categories covered
- Footwear — hiking boots, running shoes, trail runners, water shoes
- Apparel — rain jackets, base layers, down jackets, hiking pants, sun hats
- Camp — backpacking tents, stoves, chairs, pocket knives
- Snow — ski jackets, winter boots
- Paddle — inflatable kayaks, life jackets & PFDs, fishing rods
- Fitness — home gym equipment
- Travel — travel backpacks, hiking backpacks, polarized sunglasses
- Climb — climbing shoes
Why the buy-it-first policy matters
Most gear review sites accept free samples from the brands they cover — it's the industry norm, and it creates an obvious incentive problem. A reviewer who gets to keep the product they're testing, or who depends on a brand's continued goodwill for future samples, has a reason to go easy on flaws. Alex buys every product at full retail price specifically to remove that incentive.
It also means every product gets returned, resold, or kept based purely on whether it earned a place in Alex's own gear closet — not on whether a PR contact might be watching. When a review says something held up, that's because Alex is still using it months later, not because a sample needs to be sent back in pristine condition.