There are plenty of online retailers for outdoor gear, but none of them are quite like Garage Grown Gear (GGG). This e-commerce platform doesn’t just offer sweet deals on beloved ultralight brands like Gossamer Gear. The site also serves up unique gear made by independent designers, many of them literally working from their garages and selling handcrafted gear through the platform. Like Amazon, you can get free shipping on orders over $50, while supporting an independent platform and aspiring outdoor gear-makers.
Over the last few years, I’ve tapped Garage Grown Gear for plenty of packs, jackets, dehydrated food, and other camping gear. It has become my favorite place to buy gear because the products are well-made, interesting, and come with great customer service.
On a recent backpacking trip in Yosemite National Park, I mentioned it to a bunch of people, and to my surprise, no one had heard of GGG before. Although it’s been around since 2014, it clearly remains unknown to many outdoorsy folks. Here’s the lowdown on a fantastic retailer that’s a great choice for GearJunkies.
Why Shop at GGG
Shopping at GGG is convenient, easy, and affordable. You could shop from each cottage brand’s site individually, but shipping costs quickly add up that way. At GGG, if your order is over $50, it ships for free. I can pick and choose to create my perfect assortment of snacks and meals — and still get it delivered at no extra cost.
The site’s return and exchange policy is also better than many other retailers, which often charge you a shipping fee to return items. As long as the product is not used, GGG will take it back for free within 30 days. Backcountry charges me $8 whenever I want to return a pair of pants that didn’t fit, and that can add up over time.
There’s also the non-practical reason to choose GGG: It’s an easy way to support small businesses and up-and-coming entrepreneurs in the outdoor industry. Someone sewing a pack in their garage needs — and will appreciate — a sale far more than big-name brands like Osprey, The North Face, or Gregory.
Many consumers are also seeking alternatives to giant companies like Amazon or REI, and GGG offers a great way to buy gear without supporting companies embroiled in disputes with their own workers.
What GGG Offers
A Range of Brands
The variety of brands available on GGG covers a lot of ground. There are more established brands like Gossamer Gear and Zenbivy that have their own sites, but aren’t so big that you’d find them at REI or Backcountry. The perk of shopping those brands on GGG, instead of on their own sites, is that GGG will periodically offer sitewide discounts of 10-20%.
I love Gossamer Gear’s packs, but they are pricey, and I have never once seen its flagship pack, the Mariposa 60, go on sale. Getting 20% off a $315 pack is not too shabby.
The true hallmark of GGG, however, is the tiny niche brand. Some of these companies are literally just individual people operating out of their garages. You could try to find these brands independently, but GGG gathers them all together in one extremely convenient place. There are brands here I’d never heard of before: YAR.gear makes ultralight, frameless roll-top packs, and Shamma Sandals makes ultralight trail sandals.
The Products
GGG is home to some seriously weird (but cool) stuff. Here is where I first found out about the trend of backcountry bidets: small nozzles with holes that you screw onto your water bottle to cleanse yourself in the wild.
GGG offers models from three different brands: Who knew a tiny bidet could have so many different designs?
Fleece jackets seem like a pretty straightforward piece of gear, but GGG opened my eyes to how technical and varied this product category can be. Brands here offer fleeces in so many different fabrics: Alpha 90, Alpha 120, grid, micro-grid, and custom, proprietary ones. If you want to dig into the nitty-gritty and cross-compare products to make sure you’re getting exactly what you want, GGG is the place.
Ultra-lighters and ounce counters will find plenty to love at GGG. It seems like half the gear here is marked with the stamp of “UL.” There are featherweight versions of everything, including sleeping bags, quilts, packs, rain jackets, tents, headlamps, and more.
The Food
My personal favorite section of the site to browse is the food. As someone who backpacks frequently, I’m always looking for fun new snacks and freeze-dried meals to add to my rotation, and GGG has got them in spades. I’ve found some of my current favorite trail standbys on the site, including dehydrated Hiker’s Hummus from uBu Foods and a Biscoff cookie, chocolate, and espresso butter from Canyon Crack.
The freeze-dried meals here are a serious step-up from big-name brands like Mountain House and Backpacker’s Pantry. I tried a beef stroganoff with filet mignon from Luxefly Basecamp, and it earned a spot in my top five backcountry dinners of all time. The stir-fried beef noodle bowl from Trail Goods Co. kept me fueled on a taxing 26-mile day on a backpacking trip in Oregon.
If you’ve got dietary restrictions, there are plenty of vegetarian, vegan, dairy-free, and gluten-free options as well.
As a lactose-intolerant person, sometimes finding good backpacking food can be a struggle, but thanks to GGG, I discovered Farm to Summit. The brand’s apple buckwheat granola is one of the few dehydrated cereals on the market to use oat milk, instead of dairy milk, and it’s become my absolute go-to.
The Vibe
These niche cottage brands can sometimes cost a bit more, but they also offer more innovation, a personal touch, and creativity that makes me genuinely excited about the state of outdoor gear.
To me, GGG is like a virtual science fair, where everyone is showing off their cool inventions that make me want to tinker around as well. I’ve gotten ideas for recipes for new flavors of granola to make at home from brands on the site. Even if you don’t buy anything, GGG invites you to play around with your gear, mix things up, and try something new.
