This year marks a decade of REI's observance of the consumer high holy day, Black Friday. For the past 10 years REI has shut its doors for Black Friday, suggesting that instead potential customers should get outside and enjoy the world around you. That's great advice, but of course Black Friday is also one of the biggest retail spending days of the year, and REI is a for-profit co-op—what to do? Have your holiday sale early, of course.
This year the REI Holiday Sale runs from November 14 to 24. There are two member-exclusive coupons with the Holiday Sale. The first is for 20 percent off a regular-priced item at REI, the second is 20 percent off any item at REI Outlet. Many of the best REI deals this year are on the company's house brand gear, but we've also pulled in deals from competing sales at Backcountry, Six Moon Designs, Zenbivy, and other cottage industry retailers. Below are the best deals on all our favorite tents, backpacks, sleeping bags, pads, cookware, outdoor apparel, and more.
Not sure what you need? Check out our many outdoor gear guides, including guides to the best backpacking tents, best sleeping bags, best sleeping pads for backpacking, best base layers, best merino wool clothes, best rain jackets and many more for all our well-tested picks.
Updated November 17: We've added a new section of deals on camp stoves, as well as one for paddleboard and kayak deals. We've also added some new deals on GoPros, Garmin devices, and binoculars.
WIRED Featured Deals
Deals on Backpacks
Photograph: Scott Gilbertson
The Flash 22 is possibly the best value daypack on the market, especially now, on sale. This is a very lightweight, minimalist pack, but it's surprisingly comfortable. It'll handle loads up to 15 pounds without straining your shoulders, and the side stash pockets are large enough for a Nalgene bottle or rain jacket. The Flash 22 is made of 70-denier recycled ripstop nylon, which is on the lighter side, but mine has held up well, even on some rough cross country hikes in the North woods.
The ultralight cousin to the Flash 22, the Flash 18 lacks the hip belt, side stash pockets, and floating lid. The result is a stripped-down, bare-bones pack that we like because you can stuff it in your carry-on, and have a nice backpack whenever you need it. Don't load it up with more than 8 pounds of gear, and avoid anything with pointy bits, as there's no padding here, but so long as you recognize its limitations, this is a great little pack.
This no-nonsense day pack is comfortable with loads up to about 10 pounds, and has plenty of pockets for organizing your gear. The ripstop nylon body fabric is DWR coated and the back is better padded and stiffer than the Flash packs above, making it overall bit more substantial. The U-shape access panel is nearly identical to Mystery Ranch's Ripruck series, with two zipper sliders to give you quick access to the main compartment. There's also a zip pocket just under the top to give you a place to stash keys and small items. The side pockets are big enough for a Nalgene bottle and the daisy chains on the bag give you somewhere to clip extra stuff if you need to.
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