Overconsumption is a huge problem for the outdoor gear industry. People buy unnecessary equipment and, because good information is difficult to find, many people end up with low-quality gear, that quickly becomes unusable.

This does not only result in financial waste for consumers; the production and disposal of outdoor gear also leaves behind a heavy carbon footprint. This has major consequences for the environment

The solution

Gearchecker lets you search for specific activities or trips and see simple and visual gear lists from people with experience. We offer user-to-user reviews of the products, show an overview of which gear is similar, and guide you to where you can find the cheapest price for it.

We have asked the market about which information they need and gathered all the best and most relevant of it on one, single platform. Our mission is to reduce consumption by making it simpler to find the right outdoor gear – the first time.

Current product-testing by outdoor schools in Norway

8 Why is this important?

Current solution of finding right outdoor gear is confusing and time consuming:

70% of Norwegian outdoor school students think that it is difficult to figure out which outdoor gear to buy for their studies.

85% report that they regret a piece of gear that they have bought.

Why Gearchecker?

For a platform like this to succeed, it needs credibility among the outdoor community. Founder Marcus Andersen has multiple years of expedition experience and his personal brand adds credibility to the case.

We’re building the platform in Tromsø, where the local skiing and climbing community is proving to be valuable early-adopters.

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Uncover our red flags.

Our platform is innovative, but we admit that our team doesn’t have enough experience to make our marketing grow bigger. If an investor with the right connections and marketing knowledge helps us, we can overcome this problem effectively.

Uncover our green flags.

The affiliate marketing business model is simple and potentially very lucrative. We do not have the risk of inventory, but will only see our margins improve as our userbase grows.
Our CTO has established an international development team, that allows us to develop, test and iterate on a weekly basis. This gives us incredible flexibility at a low-cost.

Background

In 2018, founder Marcus Andersen did a mountaineering course in Canada. As a beginner, he had spent hours and hours researching what gear he would need and a lot of money buying it. The first time he went ice climbing, the instructor told him, “Those gloves aren’t suitable for this. You should have bought the ones I’m using”.

How was he supposed to know this?

We want more people to experience the joys of outdoor adventures, but we want to make it easier to find the right gear and avoid overconsumption.