2024 Gear of the Year
2024 has been a very good year for gear. Lots of blog-favorite brands have released new stuff. TRM dropped the successor to the Shadow. Reylight updated the Mini Pineapple. Frelux made a more compact Gen 3 Synergy. Tactile collaborated with CWF for a flashlight. Giant Mouse updated the Riv. There is even a waxed canvas GoRuck GR1. 2024 was a banner year for a thriving EDC market. Choosing winners was picking amongst an embarrassment of riches. I have been working on this article for more than two months—adding new stuff, moving products around, and dropping stuff as new things are released or brought to my attention. During this period of time, I have become thoroughly convinced that this is the best year in gear since the site began in 2010. We have been incredibly lucky this year.
Additionally, years of cranking out tons of stuff means that even if nothing was released this year that you liked, there is probably something from 2022 or 2023 that you missed that turns out to be a stellar bit of kit. As luck would have it, last year I included a winner for “stuff I previously missed” and this year that item has turned out to be one of my two most often carried items. But it is not the only item on this list. There is a really strong market for all sorts of EDC gear.
As always, I want to highlight as much stuff as possible, so there are two rules. First, I am looking at only new stuff that was released this year. “New” however has as loose a definition as possible. If it came with a new emitter or steel, that’s good enough for me. Second, once something wins in a major category, it can’t win again. This prevents, for example, a knife that wins Overall Gear of the Year from repeating as winner of another category.
Because this year has been so incredibly stacked, I have decided to do a comment about each item, so if something is an Honorable Mention, I have included a comment about it in that section. This way, everything gets a little bit of a spotlight.
Before I get to my list, here are a few other end-of-the-year round ups that I liked:
Adam Savage’s List (tools in general)
Metal Complex (knives only)
Taylor Martin (gift guide style round up)
Jon Gadget (British AND a bit more technological)
Outdoor Life (knife only, mostly mainstream stuff)
Overall Gear of the Year: Reylight Mini Pineapple v.3
This is the banner year in the 15 years I have been writing the blog. Which means that there are probably ten items on this list that would have won in other years. That includes all of the Honorable Mentions here. In the end, the Mini Pineapple won because 1) its cheap; 2) is easy to carry; and 3) to find its equal requires huge increases in budget. This is the best light under $250. Its tint, size, UI, fit and finish, battery format, and clip are all just right.
In some ways this is a boring pick. It is a simple 1xAAA light. Its not a custom. It doesn’t break lumens or runtime records. It doesn’t have some crazy bleeding edge emitter. But it has the thing that this blog has focused on from the beginning in spades—utility. Its just the right size with just the right features to make it a great light and my most carried item in 2024.
HM: TRM Bulldog, Frelux Synergy 3 LT, Giant Mouse Riv LL in Magnacut, Axial Shift 3.0
The Giant Mouse Riv LL is the knife I always wanted the Riv to be and it has probably got the most pocket time of any knife in my collection in 2024. Its a slightly different shaped Dragonfly with a different lock and Magnacut steel. I am a sucker for translucent green G10, as I have it on this knife and my beloved Urban EDC Supply Baby Barlow 2.0. The Riv has always been a melt-into-your-hand knife and eliminating the cutout from the frame lock only makes that better. Its really good.
Best Value: Ozark Trail 7.5 inch Knife
After using and carrying this knife for a large portion of the fall, I can say without reservation that it is an excellent knife. It would be a good buy at $50 (in fact, we don’t have to guess, that is what the Kershaw Iridium costs and has the same lock and blade steel and is around the same size), but before I turn into an infomercial, let me point out the obvious—while there is no new tech here that makes the price possible, its the mastery of logistics and the titanic buying power of Wal-Mart that made this knife real. Could Spyderco have made this knife? Yes, absolutely. Could they sell it for $10? No, no they couldn’t. It took Wal-Mart and perhaps only Wal-Mart to bring this knife to market. Gerber may have been able to do this, but probably not. Gerber, the Giant of the Knife World, is a guppy compared to Wal-Mart (Fiskars Annual Revenue: $1.27 billion; Wal-Mart: $673 billion). The power of money and logistics cannot be overstated.
HM: Convoy S2+, Axial Shift 3.0
You might think that a D2 knife with a sliding bar lock for under $10 is the runaway winner, but truth be told, the Convoy S2+ should have been on this list before now. It is a light with not just a fan club, but a church of acolytes. It counts as new because you can get any new emitter you want, any color you want, with two switch covers (rubber boot or metal), an 18650 or 18350 body tube, and a clip (which hilariously costs 75 cents). The build quality is staggering for the price and the beam is as smooth and clean as the top sheet of a new ream of paper. Honestly, you should stop reading this and go buy one. They crush it.
Most Innovative: Roxon Flex Companion
Roxon has been making user-swappable implements for multitools for a while, but in a pliers-based MT you want as many as you can cram in their, especially when leaving implements out does not shrink the overall bulk of the tool that much. But when it comes to a Swiss Army-style knife-based multitool, which, by default, has a smaller size, choosing implements is really cool—they can fundamentally lighten the load. As 2024 comes to an end, Roxon finally got the Flex Companion out. There have been prototypes floating around the Internet for at least two years. It is also not a terribly expensive tool. So, if you have always thought to yourself, I like the X SAK but I wish it had a Y tool, the Flex Companion is your jam. Your dreams of a Pioneer tool complement with a mustache comb can now be realized.
HM: Frelux Synergy 3LT, Cloud Defensive MCH, Axial Shift 3.0
I have had a few of the premium OFTs over the years. The Axial Shift 3.0 is easily their peer. Plus it is about $100 cheaper. All of this in a Made in the USA package and I am kind of mystified as to how this is possible. The snap of deployment and the sound the knife makes is just intoxicating and the thin Magnacut steel is super keen making quick work of tougher cutting tasks like triple ply cardboard.
Best Thing I Previously Missed: Kershaw Bel Air
The Bel Air is a great knife. It is an amazing synthesis of features pioneered by other companies. Ultra thin grinds are found on quite a few knives from the Spyderco Delica to the TRM N2. But Kershaw wasn’t exactly known for their slicers (see: Kershaw Cryo). Similarly, they didn’t create a sliding bar lock—Benchmade did that with the Axis lock. But what the Bel Air lacks in innovation it makes up for in execution. This is a great knife and only my hesitancy to venture into the KAI universe after years of bloated, slabby releases held me back. When the ZT0454 dropped, it got me back in and I had to fill the back catalog with a peek at this knife and I am glad I did. Its great.
HM: Convoy S2+, Leatherman Arc, Skiff Bearings
Don’t think too hard about how the Convoy can be here and elsewhere on the list. I had some additional work performed on the my Emerson Mini A-100 Thesus Edition—I had Skiff Bearings added. Holy Moley, I see what all the fuss is about now. The Mini A-100 is one of my very favorite knives of all time, but there are few tweaks I wanted to make to its design and now, with the addition of bearings, it is a truly world class folder. It pops open and falls shut with blinding speed, and the simplicity of the design allows all of the upgrades I have done really shine. For the record that includes: 1) regrinding the edge to a true V-cutting edge; 2) crowning the spine; 3) new contoured gray G10 handle scales; 4) aftermarket deep carry clip; and 5) addition of Skiff Bearings. Any other design would be almost unrecognizable with all these changes, but the strong lines of the Emerson design always overwhelm everything, in the best way possible.
Best Knife: TRM Bulldog
I love TRM. I love the N2 and the Nerd about as much I like my pointer fingers. The Bulldog is the latest knife from TRM and, like its stablemates, it is super great. It takes the place of the Shadow and is brawnier than all of the other TRM folders I have, but do not mistake this for a troglodytic “overbuilt” folder. It displays all of the beauty and refinement that makes TRM stuff all next level AND it isn’t actually that massive. It feels like a Spyderco Native, in its thickness and weight, but it can stack up with more robust knives.
HM: Giant Mouse Riv LL, Axial Shift 3.0, Benchmade Mini Narrows, Civivi Yonder, Demko Shark Cub
The Mini Narrows inspires in me the covetousness of Gollum. Super thin, well-sized, cleverly designed and made, it is a knife that could be a great one and done. There is only one thing holding it back—the price tag. $500 is a lot of money, even in 2024. Its $100 MORE than a Small Sebenza. Its more than three times the price of a now-discontinued 555hg Mini Grip. That’s Shirogorov or Custom Knife Factory money. And frankly, it is too much. The rational part of my brain tells me I should register my dislike of the price by not purchasing the knife. Unfortunately, I will probably eventually get it, but I will do so through gritted teeth. Note, gritted teeth purchases still count for a company’s P&L statements so I am clearly an idiot.
On the other end of the spectrum is the highly practical, utterly reasonable, and delightfully unpretentious Yonder. Its basically the perfect one and done knife if you have about $50 to spend. And, of course, the lock up is a thing of beauty because sliding bar locks actually can have high tolerances.
Best Light: Frelux Synergy 3LT
Flashlights had a banner year this year with at least four light being good enough to win either the top prize or best light in a “normal” year. Ultimately, this level of awesome required a lot of shuffling and I am not convinced this ordering is correct, but after two months of tinkering its the best I could do. This was in two different slots, Overall Gear of the Year and Most Innovative, but in the end, after multiple edits to this article, I ended up with it here. This is, without question, the best UI on the planet. The light’s form is excellent too. It is a machining feat, it looks gorgeous, and it feels truly locked in when in the hand. Price bumped it out of the Big Award and I am not sure why I dropped it from Most Innovative. Again, this year is absolutely super stacked.
HM: Tactile/CWF Apollo, Cloud Defensives MCH-HC Micro, Exceed Rampart, Kosen/Malkoff VME
Cloud Defensives represents a new generation of American made lights for tactical use. They and Modlite are the generation after Surefire and they have a very nice market niche looking to be filled. The Chicro, however, was the exact wrong product for the EDC market. We don’t need a badge swap overseas made light. We want the real deal stuff and the MCH-HC Micro is just that. Its also not outrageously expensive (for American made lights), has a bevy of smart features, and comes with a battery charger that is not some cheap hunk of junk, but instead a Nitecore charger. The switch covers even allow for tailstanding or tactical activation.
You might not have heard of Kosen or the VME, so let me clue you in. Carrot from EDCF (remember Carrot? remember EDCF?) has a flashlight retail site called Kosen. He teamed up with Gene Malkoff and sells a number of Malkoff products. The VME is the first completely new product for Kosen and it is absolutely perfectly tuned for flashlight enthusiast tastes. The size and build quality is spot on. The switch is a McClicky. The clip is a shortened. But it is the emitter and the driver that take the light to the next level. No light I have used has a higher beam quality than this light—a snap of the clicky switch reveals pure sunlight. And unlike most lights on the market, there is no turbo mode—it will hold 500 lumens for as long as possible. The body tube’s design is just the flashoholic’s chef’s kiss. The VME isn’t for everyone, but if it is for you, we can be friends.
Best of the Rest: GoRuck Waxed Canvas GR1
Who hasn’t pined for a GR1? The Sebenza of Packs is a clean, beautiful piece of kit to carry your entire kit. And while I love Cordura and modern materials (including the very bougie Dyneema version coming in at a staggering $495), nothing, and I mean nothing, has tickled my gear brain as much as the waxed canvas version of the GR1. It is a striking bag. It is also a thought piece—not much in this bag was impossible 100 years ago, so why didn’t anyone make one of these then? I would have loved to see some of the ABS buckles and strap holders be made out of patinaed brass to complete the look, but this is still a special piece as it is.
HM: Kabar Becker BK82 in Magnacut, Benchmade Mini Narrows, Benchmade Dacian, Spoke Design Clickstream
Two fixed blades with totally different approaches caught my eye this year. One is a remake of a classic with AWESOME steel and the other is a product made for Taylor Martin. The Dacian is an “EDC” fixed blade, which is a product category that basically always existed (think of the olde timey Bird and Trout knives), but got a rocket boost of attention thanks to Taylor Martin, the King of You Tube EDC. I love Taylor’s videos, probably not as much as my 9 year old, but he does a very good job. He provides good information, stokes the urge to reach for your wallet, and has slick video production. But his fascination with EDC fixed blades seems odd. Sure, I have carried a small fixie in my pocket before, but it is just not as practical as a folder for most people. If you are in jeans all day and don’t have to go out into the public (or go out into the public in places that don’t care about knives), they work. For the rest of us, its basically like carrying a tube sock stuffed with a knife in your pocket. They are too bulky to work most of the time. But of all the knives Taylor has inspired this year, the Dacian is the one I want to try the most.
Manufacturer: Tactile
“Will, can you make some nice pens?”
“Will, can you take your skills gathered when making pens to produce knives?”
“Hey Will, I’d like to complete my Tactile EDC, can you make a flashlight?”
With “yes” as an answer to each of those three questions, Will Hodges and Tactile have assumed a rare spot in the gear world—they make world class pens, knives, and torches. No one, to my knowledge, can make the same claim. There are a lot of small batch producers that make world class stuff in one of those product areas. A few, like Jason Hui, make two of three. But only Will can do all three. And these aren’t just good exemplars, they are among the best money can buy. Pairing his skills with Charles Wiggins’s electronic engineering insights mean that Tactile’s light is truly world class. Geez, I wonder if Will can make watches?
Best Community Member: Public Defender Division of the Committee for Public Counsel Services of Massachusetts
CPCS, the Public Defender in Massachusetts, has secretly been one of the most successful (on a percentage basis, 100% at courts of final jurisdiction, 2 for 2) Second Amendment legal rights groups in the country. They gave us Caetano at the US Supreme Court. This year, they gave us Commonwealth v. Canjura, legalizing automatic knives in Massachusetts. Critically, there was no way to do this legislatively, as Massachusetts is either the most unfriendly or second most unfriendly legislature in the US in terms of Second Amendment rights. But it didn’t just legalize automatics, Canjura created a blueprint for how to argue cases about automatics in federal court—the right kind of case, the right kind of defendant, and the right analysis under Bruen. This is an important case. Special shout out to the lawyer that argued the case—Kaitlyn Gerber, who I knew when she worked at the New Hampshire Public Defender.
You’d be surprised at how many of our most cherished constitutional rights came from cases argued by public defenders. Now that there is real jurisprudence on the Second Amendment, they are defending our rights there too, unlike, for example, the ACLU (here is their position on Second Amendment rights).
Best YouTube Channel: Knife Nerdery
Oh, if you haven’t grabbed a pair of cans and vibed out to a 26 minute review of a razor blade holder or a bearing screwdriver, you are missing it. Kevin’s review of the Oz Machine Co Roosevelt has roughly the same runtime as the original Lion King. Who knew there was so much to say about a titanium framelock knife? Sure, you have to schedule time for these videos because they rival the Ten Commandments in length (his state of the collection video is over 2 hours), but the details and insights here are next level. Ever wonder what the “take off” angle is for a blade (that is, the angle the cutting edge is when the detent is overcome and the knife deploys, small take off angles are better)? He’s got you, fam. This is a channel that revels in details and is boundless in its passion for gear. As the holidays roll around and you find a week between Christmas and New Years with little scheduled, wake up each morning with a mind blowing, SABR-level gear review. It will reignite your passion for gear.
HM: Carried Away
Technically it is both a podcast and a Youtube channel, but Bernard Capulong and Mikey Batista do a great job of answering questions and chatting about all sorts of gear. They also keep it grounded. Sometimes in hobbies people migrate to extremes—everyone that is into kitchen knives eventually seems to end up with custom Japanese stuff—but here Bernard and Mikey keep things realistic, or, at least, as realistic as they can given that they both fell down the watch rabbit hole. One of my very favorite parts of the podcast though is how Mikey constantly nudges Bernard in the ribs about being a gear snob (Bernard’s preference for if you know you know gear)—which, of course, he is (like we all are). This banter elevates Carried Away above the normal influencer/shill stuff to something better—a discussion between two friends.
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