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Two people at REI argued about gear reviews and I can't stop thinking about who was right
I was standing in the tent aisle at the REI in Boulder last Saturday when I heard two guys going back and forth about whether online gear reviews are even worth reading anymore. One guy said he trusts reviews from regular people way more than anything from a brand's own site, because at least a random person on a forum has no reason to lie. The other guy said the opposite, that most five star reviews come from people who used the thing once on a car camping trip and have no clue how it holds up. He said he only trusts reviews from people who post photos of wear and tear after a full season. I get both sides. I bought a stove two summers ago based on a glowing review and the igniter died after four trips, but I also found my current sleeping bag from a guy who wrote three paragraphs about how it held up in the Wind River Range. So now I read reviews looking for specific details like trips taken and conditions, and I skip anything that just says great product. Where do you all land on this? Do you trust the average reviewer or only the ones who clearly put real miles on the gear?
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