Exploration
8 Subscription Boxes to Inspire Your Next Adventure
Get a box of outdoor gear and accessories delivered to your doorstep.
When it comes to outdoor gear, it can be hard to keep up. There’s always new technologies, innovative fabrics and creative gadgets to use on your next road trip or camping getaway. But how do you find the cool new stuff? Thankfully, a growing number of monthly adventure subscription boxes are taking the guesswork out of keeping up to date.
With these subscriptions, you’ll get a handy box of perfectly-timed, seasonal tools and gear delivered right to your door — just in time for that trip you were planning.
Cairn
Best for: Multi-sport and endurance athletes
What you get: Cairn’s standard box drops a monthly delivery of three to six outdoor products, mainly small but essential items like socks, blister-repair kits, headlamps or trail snacks. Their premium Obsidian Box, which costs $249.95 for quarterly deliveries, gets you five to 10 bigger or more valuable things like camp chairs, multi-tools, backpacks, jackets or solar chargers.
The cost: From $27.45 per month
Cairn
© Courtesy Cairn
Isle Box
Best for: Newbies to the outdoors
What you get: With Isle Box, you get a package delivered every season, containing things like camping pillows, water bottles, solar showers and towel-sized wet wipes. They also have one-time boxes: The Starter Box ($199) with essentials for your first-ever camping trip (picture a backpacking stove, sleeping pad and headlamp) and their National Parks Box ($120), which has items like a day pack and road atlas for planning a trip to one of the country’s national parks.
The cost: From $44.99 per season
Isle Box
© Courtesy Isle Box
Nomadik
Best for: Road trippers and campers
What you get: Nomadik sends you a box of three to five highly-curated products each month, things like multi-tools, first-aid supplies, solar lanterns, bamboo utensils or hammocks. Each month has a theme — like items for making your campsite more comfortable or things that are both lightweight and multi-functional. You’ll also get savvy tips, bucket-list ideas and hacks to make your next road trip go smoother.
The cost: From $29.99 per month
Nomadik
© Courtesy Nomadik
Hiker Crate
Best for: Hikers of every level
What you get: Hiker Crate boxes include five to eight items each month, focusing on accessories and gear that hikers actually need, like beef jerky, dehydrated meals for backpacking, headlamps, water filters and cleaning products to wash your sleeping bag. Whether you’re a day hiker out for a few miles or a thru-hiker planning to trek the Pacific Crest Trail, you’ll find something you can use while you’re out there.
The cost: From $30 per month
Hiker Crate
© Courtesy Hiker Crate
Adventure Standard
Best for: Badass women who love spending time outdoors
What you get: Adventure Standard was started in Colorado by Leann Pickard, who was fed up with the limited offerings at outdoor stores of cool, locally-made products for women. So, in 2017, she started a subscription box company that sends monthly deliveries of three to six goods — all made in America, and made by women-run businesses. Picture T-shirts, coffee mugs, tea, lip balm and sunglasses. You’ll also get the story behind the company that makes the items.
The cost: From $31.58 per month
Adventure Standard
© Courtesy Adventure Standard
KinderBox
Best for: Men who enjoy the finer things in life
What you get: Five products to help men be men, from camping and survival gear to beard lube and socks. You’ll get $50 worth of gear — knives, bottle openers, flashlights, aftershave, jerky, toothpaste — packaged in a tidy cardboard box, plus tips like how to build a water pit if you’re stuck in the desert. It’s not exclusively adventure gear, but plenty of the stuff will come in handy on your next climbing excursion or backpacking trip.
The cost: From $30 per month
Little Hiker
Best for: Kids with outdoorsy parents
What you get: It can be tough to get kids to go for a hike. But with the Little Hiker box — by the makers of IsleBox — your little ones get a monthly reminder of how fun it can be to walk in the woods. They’ll get healthy trail snacks to power them for miles, activity sheets, journals and stickers, plus goodies like magnifying glasses, twig pencils and water bottles. Plus, each box comes with something for Mom and Dad, too.
The cost: From $19.91 per month
BivySak
Best for: Hardy mountain-town dwellers
What you get: Every product that arrives in a BivySak box has been tested and proven by the company’s team. Which means when a French press coffee maker for camping or a long-sleeved Patagonia shirt for running or an all-weather notebook for rainy-day journaling shows up, you can rest assured it’ll function at a high level. BivySak boxes arrive four times a year, at the beginning of each new season.
The cost: $74.97 quarterly
Bivy Sak
© Courtesy Bivy Sak
And yes, all of these have just one-month options — so you can buy just one box or commit to a longer-term subscription (for a lower rate) of three months, six months or a year.
