Kit, Tested · Shoes · Gear · Nutrition
Kilometres on it, not press releases
Honest, long-form reviews of trail shoes, vests, watches and race fuel, all bought and run over hundreds of kilometres on the coast and the crest. Independent, we buy what we test.
Editor’s Choice 2026
Long-term review · Earbuds
Bose Ultra Open, the earbud that finally gets running
Twelve weeks of dawn breakwall starts and coast-road kilometres with the open-ear clip that leaves your ears free. You hear the traffic, the surf and the footfall behind you, the fit never budges on a sweaty climb, and the sound is far bigger than a bud this size has any right to be.
Everything we’ve tested
Trail Shoe
Hoka Mafate Speed 5
$299Big-stack cushioning and deep Vibram lugs that bite on wet rock. All that foam dulls ground feel on tight, technical singletrack.
Nutrition
Neversecond C30 & C30+
$7 eaA clean tasting 30g carb gel that never turned my stomach on a long effort. The C30+ adds 75mg of caffeine. Not the cheapest, and you go through them fast.
Hydration Vest
Best vest
Salomon ADV Skin 12
$270The benchmark race vest, dead-still on rough descents with soft flasks up front. Pockets are fiddly with cold hands.
Nutrition
Maurten Gel 100
$5.50 eaGenuinely neutral hydrogel that sits easy deep in a long effort. Pricey, and the texture divides people.
Running Belt
Satisfy Space-O Running Belt
$190A minimalist belt that holds a phone, gels and a soft flask against your back with zero bounce. Generous on space, but this one is more form over function.
Nutrition
Pillar Performance RTD Electrolyte
$66 / 12A crisp, zero-sugar sparkling can with 400mg sodium and a hypotonic mix that rehydrates fast pre- or post-run. The fizz rules it out mid-effort.
Apparel
Lululemon Swift Speed Tight
$149A no-dig high-rise waistband that stays put on the long stuff, with pockets that swallow a phone and gels without bounce. Runs warm in a humid summer.
Hydration Vest
TNF Summit Series Run Vest 10
$270A 10-litre race vest that swallows a full mountain kit and still breathes, with a hug that holds steady on technical descents. You pay for the pedigree.
Apparel
Satisfy MothTech T-Shirt
$250Featherweight organic cotton with body-mapped, laser-cut perforations that dump heat exactly where you make it. Proof it’s OK to run in cotton, at a price.
Bought with our own money, run into the ground
Nothing here is a press sample we’re scared to be honest about. We buy retail, run it for months across real NSW terrain, and only publish once we’d genuinely re-buy it, or tell you why we wouldn’t.
Retail, full price, anonymously where we can. No samples we feel we owe a kind word.
Real kilometres across sand, fire trail and sandstone, not a lap of the car park.
Fit, grip, durability, value, weighted for how it actually held up, not the spec sheet.
The good and the genuinely annoying, with a link straight to the maker and nothing taken for it.