The Trailpost Gear Database

One of the primary design goals of the Trailpost platform is to build and maintain a centralized database of as many outdoor-related products as possible. Some of the planned uses of this database are to:

1. Allow Trailposters to add gear directly to their lockers and have information like item weights automatically filled in.
2. Provide product photography for quickly identifying gear in packs and lockers
3. Let Trailposters rate and review their favorite outdoor products
4. Begin aggregating statistics about commonly used gear, such as "Most popular tents" or "lightest backpacks under a certain price"

Building the gear database is not an easy task, and we expect it to take a while to be fully operational. The plan is to do this in multiple phases:

Create the gear database

Status: Complete

The programming necessary to begin collecting, storing, and organizing the world's outdoor gear is complete and live.

Populate the gear database

Status: Ongoing

Adding products to the gear database is a process that will continue indefinitely. Currently, the priorities for adding gear are:

1. Products that lots of Trailposters have in their lockers
2. Products that we can quickly import from partners
3. Products that are not overly complex

In the long term, Trailpost hopes to cover the majority of outdoor products sold around the world. However, our short-term goal is to support the 20% of products that most people use based on what members are adding to their lockers.

Suggesting locker item/gear matches

Status: Ongoing

In the initial phase of the Gear Database release, the system will begin attempting to match Trailposters' locker items to products that exist in the system.

When logged in, members will be able to view these "Suggested Gear Matches" and reject or accept the match, with the opportunity to adjust the product options if the suggestion is correct, but it got the color or size wrong.

Adding gear directly to your locker

Status: In development

Once the gear database covers a reasonable selection of products, Trailpost will begin allowing members to add products to their locker directly. When doing so, certain Locker Item fields such as name and weight may become optional.