When outdoor junkies Robert Wolfe and David Jaffe ditched their plans to become wilderness guides in 1992, the two friends diverted their attention to people with a similar, insatiable appetite for the outdoors and opened an outdoor retail store called Moosejaw. What started as a single, brick-and-mortar storefront in Keego Harbor, Michigan, Moosejaw is now an 11-storefront chain with locations across the United States and is also one of the leaders in the digital marketplace. Devoting itself to the outdoors and the mountain lifestyle, its customers and their individual needs and the enthusiasm that runs through everyone seeking experiences in nature, Moosejaw has catapulted to success over the past 17 years.
Part of what differentiates Moosejaw from other outdoor and online retailers is its unique approach to reviewing gear. In the company’s Test Lab, gear-junkies—like you—are invited to watch short videos of highly “scientific” assessments performed under “extreme” scrutiny. Keeping the atmosphere lighthearted, Moosejaw’s gear experts are able to simultaneously entertain and inform with these quirky, and sometimes ridiculous, experiments.
A great hiking or backcountry skiing backpack is light, ergonomic and well-balanced. To put the Osprey Eja pack to the ultimate test, Moosejaw’s gear experts subjected it to a series of outlandish experiments, which we’ve rounded-up below. From loading the pack with 25 pounds of delicious jelly beans to test it’s storage capacity to gauging just how light it actually is with a big blast of wind, Moosejaw’s testers leave no stone unturned in their “comprehensive” research. Explore the Moosejaw Test Lab videos, below, for an extensive–and comical–assessment of the Osprey Eja pack.
Jelly Bean Test
Jump Rope Test
Paperweight Test
