Eastern Mountain Sports has a long history of awesome gear. Gear that’s not only stood up to the ferocious winds atop Mount Washington or April rains in the Adirondacks, but gear that’s crisscrossed the planet on expeditions big and small. It’s time we celebrated the gear that’s withstood all that, as well as the test of time. To celebrate those pieces of gear—the best of the best—we’re launching the EMS Gear Hall of Fame.

Once its completed, our Trophy Room will be full of absolute classics from across EMS’s 55-plus-year history. But you’ll only find the very best of the best, nominated, voted on, and approved by the real experts who have taken this gear to the corners of the earth and found out just how good it is—you. Not everything will make the cut.

What does it take to join the Gear Hall of Fame?

We’ve outlined four boxes each piece of gear in out Hall of Fame need to check to be worthy of joining the hallowed halls:

  1. The product needs to have functional and technical—not just stylistic—prowess. It needs to do more than just look good.
  2. The product needs to be proven capable in a variety of extreme environments. Each item needs to have a “resume”of places its users have taken it, trips its been on, mountains its climbed, weather conditions it’s taken the beating from, and more. It can’t just be “theoretically” good.
  3. Our customers—you—need to love and cherish these products. What’s the piece of gear you really wish you could still buy because you loved yours into the dirt?
  4. The products need to be comparable in performance and quality to the best products at their time. We’re not necessarily comparing a late-90s backpack with a modern one. But was that backpack at the top of its class at its time?

So how will this process work?

The gear making it into our Hall of Fame isn’t being hand-picked by studied gear experts in their ivory tower. It’s being chosen by you, the only people who really know how good any of it is. Here’s how the process will work:

  1. Submit your nominations using the form below! Nominate as many products as you think are worthy (just submit the form once per product). Provide as much detail as possible. The four best and most detailed nominations will each win a $100 EMS gift card. Nominations close at the end of the day on March 30th.
  2. Nominations will move to an independent internal committee tasked with narrowing down the list of products. The committee will put forward 10 products for the next phase based on the criteria laid out above.
  3. Those 10 products will go to ballot. You’ll be able to vote for the products that you think are most deserving to join the coveted EMS Gear Hall of Fame.
  4. Winning products will be inducted and join the hallowed 2023 class of products in the EMS Gear Hall of Fame.

By recognizing the gear that was truly top-notch, we’re not only celebrating EMS’s history and reminiscing over the adventures we’ve been able to share, but we’re focusing in on what it takes to make a really high quality piece of gear—information that we can hopefully use to steer future products. Want to help create that future? Nominate something from the past.

Nomination Form

[The Nomination Period Has Closed]