Independent reviews
From everyday tech and home products to lifestyle and specialist gear, each review focuses on practical use, strengths, limitations, and who the product suits.
Wallets & EDC
A hand-stitched vegetable tan card sleeve with a clever tulip-inspired design, lifetime stitching warranty, and craftsmanship that punches well above its price.
Wallets
Full grain vegetable tan leather, hand stitching, and a lifetime warranty make this slim card holder a strong minimalist pick, with one design quirk to know about.
Travel Gear
A personal-item-only packing list for a week on the Costa Rican coast, from the GORUCK GR2 to a compressible towel and pocket binoculars.
Outdoor Gear
A colorful windbreaker, a 20-liter cinch backpack, cozy joggers, and sustainable sunglasses: four Cotopaxi pieces reviewed for athletic lifestyle use.
Running Shoes
Craft's tallest road shoe ever at 51 mm, plus two max-cushion alternatives from Puma and Nike, and how to choose between them.
Running Shoes
Craft's first max cushion shoe pairs a huge 51 mm stack with a surprisingly light 256 g build, but it asks for pace in return.
Running Shoes
A Swedish long-distance racer with an ultra-light mesh upper, EVA midsole, and carbon plate, but a firm ride and a premium price raise tough questions.
Running Shoes
A three-shoe lineup aimed at long-distance road and trail runners: a daily trainer, a carbon-plated long-run shoe, and a lightweight road racer.
Gravel Running Shoes
Craft's updated gravel shoe keeps the proven midsole and outsole from the original Explore Hybrid and finally fixes the upper, turning it into a true pavement-to-light-trail option.
Running Shoes
A cushioned hybrid road-trail shoe with a rugged outsole, peppy beaded foam, and a $135 price tag that undercuts the mainstream competition.
Running Shoes
Craft's latest gravel lineup covers the full road-to-trail spectrum, from a firmer performance shoe to a plush recovery-day cruiser. Here's what each model does best.
Running Shoes
Craft's new supercritical EVA foam makes the Nord Light Ultra a comfortable daily trainer with genuine trail versatility, as long as you keep expectations in check on technical ground.
Running Shoes
Craft's road running entry pairs a 40 mm PX foam stack with unusually thick outsole rubber. It is firmer than the marketing suggests, but big runners and pace-pushers may love it.
Trail Running Shoes
A squishy-but-responsive Craft trail shoe at $170 and a carbon-plated Hoka at $225, compared for racing and all-day trail running.
Running Shoes
A closer look at Craft's running collection, from the carbon-plated CTM Ultra Carbon 2 to the aggressive CTM Ultra Carbon Trail.
Running Shoes
A new trail shoe, a gravel racer built from a marathon super shoe, and a max-cushion daily trainer make up Craft's next lineup.
Running Shoes
Three new Craft running models for 2024, from a gravel-inspired road-to-trailer to an ultralight daily trainer and a refined race-ready update.
Running Shoes
Three firmer-riding carbon-plated racers with very different target runners: Craft's split-heeled Ship A Pro, Salomon's Phantasm 2, and Mizuno's Wave Rebellion Pro 2.
Running Shoes
A closer look at four new Craft running shoes, from the do-everything Nordlite Ultra to the carbon-plated Nordlite Speed, with what each one does best.
Art Supplies
A 12-day watercolor advent calendar curated by a professional artist, with 4.5 hours of tutorials and premium-quality tools. Here is whether the $200 price makes sense.
Craft Kits
We built a paper houseplant from the Anthropologie-exclusive Crafter's Box kit to see if a $75 craft box really justifies its price.
Survival & Outdoor Gear
A full look at the May 2026 Crate Club Major Box, from a WE Knives folder and a two-person hammock to a one-use pull-start grill.
Art Supplies
Crayola's new adult line includes alcohol markers and paint markers. We put them through full testing against Ohuhu, Olo, and Grabie to see if they are worth buying.
Art Supplies
Crayola's first adult-market alcohol-based markers cost $104, but side-by-side testing against Shuttle Art and Ohuhu raises hard questions about whether the premium is justified.
Art Supplies
Crayola brought back eight retired colors from as far back as 1903. We tested the limited edition crayon, marker, and colored pencil sets to see if the nostalgia lives up to the hype.
Art Supplies
We tested the full Crayola Signature adult range, from Blend and Shade pencils to the DIY Gallery Designer, to see whether the world's most famous crayon brand delivers for adult colorists.
Art Supplies
We put affordable Crayola pencils head to head with artist-grade Caran d'Ache Luminance to find out what actually makes the difference in the final artwork.
Craft Storage
A long-term look at the DreamBox 2 craft storage cabinet, covering customization, build quality, and the issues that appeared after years of use.
Art Supplies
A hands-on roundup of six art supplies created by independent artists, from a marker-safe elven sketchbook to character-themed paint sets and quirky pencils.
Apparel
A black denim jacket with zip-and-velcro swappable art panels, built around the idea of buying less and wearing it longer.