It’s been a year and a half since we launched PackWizard.com and we wanted to give the community an update on where things are at and where things are going. As well as get feedback on the current state of the site and the direction it should go. 

For background, myself (Justin) and Thomas started the site to create the tools we wanted for researching gear and planning for trips. Obviously, lighterpack provided a lot of inspiration, as well as the site pcpartspicker.com. 

The three main areas of the site are:

1. Pack Builder - Similar to lighterpack. Some things I think PW does that differentiates it is the gear closet, autofill (from your gear closet or the PW gear database), and the create checklist from pack tool. You can also easily import packs/gear from lighterpack. 
2. Pack Browser - Where you can see packs other people have made public and sort/filter by trail, time of year, length of trip, etc.
3. Gear Explorer - Fancy spreadsheets for packs, pads, tents, bags/quilts, and jackets. You can sort, filter, and compare hundreds of different items in each category. Public reviews are also available (although there are only a few at this point).

Since the last update we made a year ago (link), we have done quite a bit of work:

• Made mobile a lot better.
• Streamlined the shared pack page (still work to do here, would love feedback).
• Added insulated jackets and sleeping bags/quilts to the Gear Explorer.
• Made the gear closet more user-friendly.
• Added the review system.
• Made it so you can view all of the packs someone has made via their PW profile.
• Made the “Report” tool better so any errors in specs/information can be fixed quickly.
• Added a deals page that finds the best sales on gear every day.
• Can copy other users packs.
• Added view/print pack as a checklist (with tick-able boxes).
• Tons of bug fixes and UI/UX tweaks.
• And much more. 

Things coming up next (let us know what you’d like to see prioritized or what else you think we should work on):

• Stoves database with testing results for things like boil time and fuel consumption
• More UI tweaks like being able to move items between categories.
• Be able to share a Gear Explorer page with all of the filters/sorting saved.
• Metric/imperial toggle for packs
• Revamp to make the gear closet the hub for organizing packs and gear.
• Commenting on packs and reviews.
• Price alerts for gear.

We want to make something as useful as possible to the community, so we look forward to comments and input. We are actively developing the site with no intentions of ever stopping. Part of the reason we are able to do that is the fact that the site uses affiliate links for product links. You can turn affiliate links off for your own packs in your account settings (i.e., if you’re someone with your own affiliate links), but it is what will allow the site to keep building without ads or subscriptions. 

If anyone wants to help with the gear databases, we have a public-facing spreadsheet that we can pull from. You’ll just need to request edit access. The majority of the data has been gathered manually and we’d love to include as many brands and products as possible.

Now with mod approval