Outside 'Gear of the Year'

In its latest issue, Outside magazine will announce the winners of its “Gear of the Year” awards, summer 2011 edition. For the issue — the Outside Spring/Summer Buyer’s Guide, on newsstands April 26th — the magazine covered 325 products in all, including “several months torture-testing the latest crop of sleeping bags, tents, shells, trail shoes, and packs.”

From the comprehensive test, which is a survey of a good share of all the worthy new gear the industry has to offer, the magazine and its contributing writers and reviewers picked just 14 products for its best-of-the-best “Gear of the Year” award. And the winners are. . .

> SLEEPING BAGS: Marmot Plasma 15
> SHELL JACKET: Columbia Peak 2 Peak
> HIKING BOOTS: Garmont Zenith Mid GTX
> TENTS: Big Agnes Copper Spur 4
> BACKPACKS: Deuter ACT Zero 50+15
> CAMERAS: Nikon D7000
> SUNGLASSES: Bollé Vortex
> ADVENTURE TECH: Apple iPad 2
> LUGGAGE: Thule TCRU-2 60-Liter Upright
> MOUNTAIN BIKES: Scott Genius LT 20
> ROAD BIKES: Fondriest TF3
> BOATS: Elie Strait 140 XE
> ROAD RUNNERS: New Balance 890
> TRAIL RUNNERS: The North Face Double Track

Congrats to all the winners! The full rundown on the award-winning products — as well as reviews of hundreds more pieces of gear — is in the new magazine, and it will also be online at OutsideMag.com soon.

—Stephen Regenold is editor of Gear Junkie. He is currently reviewing jackets for Outside magazine’s Winter Buyer’s Guide 2012.