In the event you’ve ever puzzled how REI Co-op exams gear efficiency on new and up to date product, the reply is: rigorously.
On the heart of that work is the Magnusson Lab, an on-site facility established in 1971 and named for former Boeing engineer Cal Magnusson, who based the co-op’s high quality management division. Contained in the “Magazine Lab,” REI Co-op model gear and attire bear a battery of exams designed to simulate the repetitive stress and environmental situations that outside gear faces in actual use. “Cal and the lab have developed many firsts for the business, beginning with the ice axe deal with exams within the early ’70s during modern-day developments, like how we constantly measure the capability of baggage,” says REI historian Will Dunn.
That testing has taken many varieties over time. Early strategies included attaching tents to pickup truck beds and driving at excessive speeds to evaluate wind resistance. One other technique concerned utilizing a hand-built fiberglass “human” to judge sleeping bag temperature scores. By the Nineteen Eighties, REI Co-op Members might even request “a free transcript of insulation take a look at outcomes as they apply to particular clothes,” just by sending in a self-addressed, stamped envelope, an early instance of the co-op’s dedication to sharing product efficiency information instantly with prospects. This systematic method to testing changed many years of anecdotal proof and secondhand data from outdoors producers, and it shortly set a excessive customary for evaluating gear efficiency.
Right now, the Magazine Lab continues to assist product growth by way of managed, repeatable testing, although the tents don’t hit the freeway like they used to. As a substitute, Magazine Lab technicians might repeatedly expose poles to salt water for weeks to evaluate sturdiness in opposition to stress and corrosion. A backpacking chair endures fatigue testing by repeatedly dropping a weighted bag onto the seat; this helps technicians perceive how use over time impacts issues like meeting and material sturdiness, in addition to when and the way the product might fail. There’s additionally a thermal testing manikin, known as “Mani,” who trials down jackets and sleeping luggage like these within the Magma assortment in a climate-controlled chamber.
Moderately than merely being a final step earlier than merchandise hit REI cabinets, the Magazine Lab and product design groups are trusted collaborators. “Particularly if it’s a brand new concept, new design that we’re attempting, we really work actually carefully with [REI Co-op brand designers], to validate the efficiency,” says Diana Wyman, a senior take a look at engineer. “If it’s one thing that’s presupposed to be hotter, cooler, greater, higher than the final one, we’ll do comparisons. So, we do work carefully with each supplies design and product design for brand spanking new merchandise.”
In a latest vertical wicking evaluation of the Swiftland assortment, for instance, technicians place one finish of an extended strip of material in water, and monitor how far the moisture has traveled in the midst of 10 minutes. “We need to see the water transfer so far as potential as a result of that’s what’s going to occur with perspiration in use,” Wyman says. “We need to see it unfold so it will possibly dry shortly and supply extra cooling advantages and never be chilly or clammy.”
Wyman says “generally, you need to get actually inventive” when designing exams in-house, although some items and supplies are despatched out for third-party evaluation. “We actually don’t know till we get right into a venture how a lot testing it’s going to contain.”
In 2025 alone, the Magazine Lab ran greater than 250 evaluations, Wyman says. “We’re usually doing a minimum of two or three trials of the whole lot to ensure we’re seeing an correct quantity.” Which means you may really feel assured concerning the specs you see on each REI Co-op product, from waterproof jackets to inflatable sleeping pads to your favourite camp chair, and past.
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