Every month, Gear Patrol reaches millions of readers seeking insights and knowledge to make the right purchasing decisions. Driving our content — and our mission — is the belief that information and insights about products can positively impact lives.
While the challenges we face from the Covid-19 pandemic and its fallout catalyzed a renewed purpose and focus for our work, it is clear that beyond our product journalism, our company’s actions must also contribute toward a society that rejects social injustice and racial discrimination. We stand in solidarity with the Black community and the Black Lives Matter movement.
As a 13-year-old company, Gear Patrol is not without its mistakes. Our company’s focus is squarely on how to impact people’s lives through products and our approach has been to question the need for our contributions to social questions. But the problems we face affect the world our team and its 44 employees live in. So we must take action, and to start, our team will work on identifying and addressing gaps in our coverage of products and culture. While we look forward to sharing those ideas with you soon, Gear Patrol is also taking immediate action. Here is an overview of that plan:
Go Dark in Solidarity
Gear Patrol will cease normal publishing across all channels for the next 24 hours to stand in solidarity against racism. We will resume our normal schedule on Wednesday, June 3rd.
Be a Resource
Our team has already published two resources about current events: one that surfaces ways Gear Patrol readers can support anti-racist causes and another that highlights brands and retailers taking a stand against racism.
Donate to the ACLU
We are donating 5 percent of commerce sales during this past month of May to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 “to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.”
Amplify Helpful Voices and Causes
Gear Patrol will provide $50,000 in advertising space for causes and brands that support social justice and promote awareness and action. Additionally, Gear Patrol Studios, our branded content arm, will be available for causes and brands without resources to help create materials. Qualified brands must commit to donating a portion of proceeds to causes that directly support awareness and social justice. If you’re interested or know of a brand we should surface, reach out to aware@gearpatrol.com.
Match Employee Donations
Gear Patrol will match its employees donations to causes and organizations they support.
Participate and Reflect
Gear Patrol will treat Wednesday, June 3rd, as Day of Awareness and pause normal operations to provide our team the time to actively participate or improve their individual awareness of social injustices and racism.
If you have any ideas, thoughts or comments, we want to hear from you. Please reach out to aware@gearpatrol.com and we’ll get you in touch with the right people on our team.
— Eric Yang, Founder and CEO
