Hey everyone, saw this amazing forum and thought you may like to hear about a new site for MYOG.
I've hiked and camped my whole life, my mother would take me out to the lakes (Cumbria, UK) every month or so as I grew up and we would hike for a day, camp, return home.
I only recently started doing longer, multi-day hikes with friends and it got me thinking about making my own, lighter gear. I love a hands-on approach and getting to know something inside-out.
After doing the West Highland Way in Scotland last year with two friends, I have been searching for makes and tutorials to make gear for future multi-trekking days and to make my load lighter, I carried about 12kg in total on a 6 day hike and it was far too much!
So I built www.makeoutdoorgear.com It was just launched and needs a lot more work doing to it, but I feel the important things are set up and makers can add their gear makes and outdoor enthusiasts can search for builds. It isn't just for full builds from scratch though, if you are making small amendments to gear you already own, there is an option for this too.
It really needs makers adding their gear makes and I would be honored if you could add your recent makes to the site as this is the only way the search features can work. It's simple to register Https://www.makeoutdoorgear.com/user/register
and you can have a write up done in no time.
At the moment you can search for different things, in a number of ways.
For example, if you want a new shelter with specific requirements, you can do that here https://www.makeoutdoorgear.com/make-shelter
packed up you want the max length to be less than 45cm, because you're carrying it on the side of your pack or on a bicycle pannier.
or if you want it to be less than 1200g
or you are searching for a shelter that is supported by just hiking poles
and a few other filtering fields and sorting criteria.
You can search by lightest make on any of the pages if that is what you are after.
I also have a lot more ideas to help people find exactly what they are after, as long as it's been added to the site, people should be able to find it.
If you have any ideas for the site, please get in touch, leave comments, I would really appreciate it and I hope it helps in some way