Men's Journal Gear Lab Magazine Summer 2013

We've entered a killer era for gear. Thanks to technological advances in design, prototyping, and materials, the stuff men use to make the most of their free time - from a shoe that helps them attack a tough trail to a new grill that gets that perfect char - is better than ever. But there's so much more out there also - how do you sort it out? That's where this great issue comes in. For this issue, the writers and editors took to the fields, roads, mountains, and oceans with advance models of the 300+ products you'll find here - not to mention hundreds of others that didn't make the cut. For the past year, the experts paddled, ran, swam, clicked shutters, shifted gears, and bagged peaks using these products. They suffered bruises, rolled a few ankles, and got a few speeding tickets along the way, but they also had a lot of fun making the "short list" of essential items found in the 115 pages here. So here's the season's best gear. Get out there and use it to do something great this summer!