Outdoor deals for the damn off-season shopper

The single most reliable saving in this category costs you nothing but patience. Camping and hiking equipment is cheapest in autumn and winter, when demand collapses and retailers clear seasonal inventory ahead of the following spring. Buying a tent in November feels ridiculous and saves a damn fortune. Buying one in May, when you actually want it, means paying peak. We score with the calendar in mind, so a summer discount has to work considerably harder to impress us than a February one.

How we score outdoors

Because outdoor gear discounting is strongly seasonal, we weight the timing of a discount as heavily as its depth. A 35% drop in October is normal and scores modestly. The same drop in April is unusual and scores high. Technical gear gets rank weighted hard, since the outdoor category contains a large volume of low-ranked listings duplicating the specifications of established brands — and a sleeping bag's comfort rating is a claim, not a damn measurement, unless somebody credible is standing behind it.

How the Damn Good Score works →