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Whether you’re an active-duty service member or a veteran, a civilian at home or on the job, you face challenges in your everyday life. One thing is obvious: you need the right gear. Task & Purpose’s product review beat exists to help you assemble your daily gear loadout.

Our audience of active-duty service members, veterans, and adventure-seeking civilians are the kinds of people who don’t shy from challenges: from the glory of outdoorsmanship to building the perfect home, from core survival needs to deluxe splurges. But of course, shopping ain’t easy, and it can be difficult to know where to start or which reviews to trust.

That’s where Task & Purpose comes in. Our team of writers and editors are on guard to make sure our core readers — and anyone else who heeds our expert advice — are prepared for whatever comes their way, with the tools of the trade at the ready. In all areas of life, from work to home to recreation, we want our readers to come away equipped with the skills and know-how to make informed decisions.

Here’s what you should know about how we find, test, and evaluate the best gear and tech out there with you in mind.

Editorial independence

Like our colleagues in the Task & Purpose newsroom, our gear reviewers maintain strict editorial independence from the economic concerns of our parent company, Recurrent Ventures. That means we select our products, perform our testing, and render our judgements free from the influence of any corporate higher-ups — we do so only with you, the reader, in mind. If a piece of gear isn’t up to snuff, we’ll tell you why you should avoid it. Nothing is more vital to our success than your trust.

How we review products

Our methodology is simple: We try to provide unbiased reviews of the latest and greatest gear out there. 

To do this, we frequently obtain dozens of products at a time for testing either by purchasing them outright or requisitioning them from various companies. Each piece of gear is either returned to the manufacturer following testing or put in storage for later use; either way, we’ll always disclose the source of each item in our reviews so you know exactly where it came from.

Our specific testing protocols vary from product to product,  but our general hands-on testing principles are the same no matter what we’re working with: put them through the wringer in every way imaginable to determine whether they’ll stand up to the vile obscenity that is modern life. The majority of our writers are U.S. military veterans and they know exactly how to put a piece of gear through its paces. That means we’ll throw gear off our roofs, drag ‘em through the muck and the mud, and drive ‘em into the ground until we’ve pushed each item to its limits to yield a comprehensive and unvarnished review. 

Now, when we can’t get our mitts on a piece of gear for a hands-on review, we rely on the wisdom of crowds and expert input to guide our decisions. In those cases, we’ll sort through thousands of reviews of products from well-established and reputable brands — products that have at least 500 user reviews and a minimum rating of four out of five stars — so you can quickly and easily identify the cream of the crop. From there, we use our expertise and insights (and those of outside specialists) to sift through the best gear for your daily loadout. 

Beyond product reviews themselves, we’ll always endeavor to give you the context for making the best decisions possible. That means including information on the types of products on the market, their key features, and how we came to land on our suggestions. Our goal is to inform you, the reader, as transparently as possible — and when we don’t know the answer to something, we’ll send you to someone who does.

Affiliate disclosure

Task & Purpose is owned and operated by Recurrent Ventures and may contain advertisements, sponsored content, paid insertions, affiliate links, or other forms of monetization. Task & Purpose and its partners may earn a commission if you purchase a product through one of our affiliate links.

Designated advertising content, topics, or posts may be influenced by compensation received. That content, advertising space, or sponsored posts will always be clearly identified as paid or sponsored content.

Task & Purpose is also a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. Pages on this site may include affiliate links to Amazon and its affiliate sites on which the owner of this website will make a referral commission.

Contacting the Task & Purpose gear team

Do you have an issue with a review? A product you’d like us to look into? A suggestion for your fellow readers? We’re here to be expert operators in everything gear-related, so feel free to comment below, give us a shout at on Twitter or Instagram, or email the gear team here

In the meantime, happy hunting — and give us a shout if you need us!

Jared Keller, Executive Editor