Affiliate Disclosure

How We Earn Revenue

Ruck Authority is an independently operated rucking resource. Some of the links on our site are affiliate links, which means we may earn a small commission when you click through and make a purchase. This comes at no additional cost to you - the price you pay is exactly the same whether you use our link or go directly to the retailer.

What Are Affiliate Links?

Affiliate links are specially tracked URLs that tell a retailer (like Amazon, REI, or GORUCK) that a customer arrived via our website. If you purchase a product after clicking one of these links, the retailer pays us a small referral fee - typically between 2% and 8% of the purchase price.

Our Editorial Independence

Affiliate partnerships never influence our editorial content, ratings, or recommendations. We frequently recommend products we have no affiliate relationship with, and we will always tell you when a cheaper or free alternative exists.

How We Test

Most of our reviews are research-based: verified manufacturer specs, published owner reports, and the lived experience of the rucking community. Each product card says so with a “Research-based” label.

Where we have the product in hand, the review says so at the top: who tested it, for how long, and under what load. Those products carry a “Hands-on tested” label, and the rating comes from the same scoring formula as every other product, not from how the gear reached us.

Some brands, GORUCK among them, send us gear at no cost so we can test it. When that is the case the article discloses it in the first screen, in these words: “[Brand] provided this product for review. Our conclusions are independent and [Brand] had no input on them.” Provided gear does not earn a better score, and we will publish a provided product losing a comparison.

We believe that giving you honest, accurate gear recommendations is more valuable in the long run than pushing products for a commission. If a product is bad, we'll tell you - regardless of whether we earn money from it.

How This Supports Free Content

The small commissions we earn help us cover the costs of running Ruck Authority - hosting, research, writing, and tool development. This allows us to keep all of our guides, calculators, and training programs completely free for the rucking community.

FTC Compliance

In accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's guidelines on endorsements and testimonials (16 CFR Part 255), we disclose our affiliate relationships wherever product recommendations appear. You'll see a disclosure notice at the top of our gear review articles.

Amazon Associates Program

Ruck Authority is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Amazon prices and availability. Prices and stock shown for Amazon listings come from Amazon's Creators API and carry the date and time they were last checked. Where no checked price is available we show a price range instead. Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon.com at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.

Certain content that appears on this site comes from Amazon. This content is provided "as is" and is subject to change or removal at any time.

Some links on this site, including links to Amazon products and to Amazon services such as Amazon Prime, Audible, Amazon Music Unlimited, and Kindle Unlimited, are affiliate or Special Links. Clicking them and completing a qualifying action may earn this site a commission or a flat-fee bounty at no extra cost to you.

Questions?

If you have any questions about our affiliate relationships or editorial process, feel free to contact us.