About Us
Who is behind Damn Goods – and why we do this.
Our story
Damn Goods is us – Anja and Marco, a couple from Germany. It started in 2014 with a simple question: what would we actually do if the power went out for several days? The honest answer at the time wasn't reassuring. Since then, we've worked through it systematically – starting with food storage, then gear, outdoor skills and emergency planning.
What began as a personal project has become a real focus in our daily lives. We regularly go on multi-day hiking trips and mountain walks – not as extreme athletes, but because being outdoors and trusting your gear matters to us. A lot of what we've learned on those trips feeds into our articles.
Damn Goods is also a tool for our own learning. We didn't want to follow a ready-made checklist – we wanted to understand: what actually makes the difference when things go wrong? Which practical skills are worth developing, and which gear genuinely helps you stay capable when it counts? These are the questions that drive us. Writing forces us to go deep on topics rather than skimming the surface. And it lets us grow in different directions – whether that's wilderness navigation, food preservation or energy independence.
Our quality standard
We only recommend what we use ourselves or genuinely stand behind after thorough research. That sounds simple, but it has real consequences: cheap products with poor build quality don't make it into our comparisons – regardless of how good they'd be for affiliate revenue. If a product has weaknesses, we name them. If a cheaper option outperforms an expensive one, we say so.
We have a strong preference for gear that simply works, lasts and makes no unnecessary compromises. Leatherman over no-name multitool. IP68 over "water resistant". That's not brand loyalty – it's experience.
How we work
Our recommendations are based on three sources, which we always make transparent:
- Own use: Gear we use ourselves in daily life, on trips or at home.
- Thorough research: We read manufacturer data, compare specs, evaluate community feedback and follow what experienced users report in forums and reviews. We're research enthusiasts – which sometimes makes us perfectionists, but we'd rather that than shallow articles.
- Manufacturer data with caveats: Where we rely on manufacturer specifications (for example with power stations we don't all own), we flag this and note where we couldn't verify claims independently.
What we don't do: recommend products we only know from a product description. Fabricate reviews or test results. Put affiliate revenue above honest assessments.
Why affiliate links?
Damn Goods is funded through affiliate commissions – when you buy through our links, we receive a small fee from Amazon. This doesn't change the price for you and doesn't influence what we recommend. We clearly label all affiliate links as "Ad". Which products we feature is determined solely by quality, relevance and our own standards – not by who pays the highest commission.
Contact
Questions, feedback, corrections? We welcome messages – best by email at the address given in the imprint.