Thanks to all of you have taken the time to offer your feedback during our Alpha Testing period over the past several weeks. We listened carefully, and we acted on much of that feedback. One of the biggest criticisms among the backpacking forums was/is the lack of cottage manufacturers' equipment. Certainly, neglecting those manufacturers was never our intention. It simply takes time to enter hundreds-to-thousands of pieces of gear into our database. With that in mind, just over the past 2 weeks, we've entered nearly-complete product lines (about 500 new items) from several cottage manufacturers, including:

Six Moon Designs
Katabatic Gear
Mountain Laurel Designs
Hennessy Hammocks
Gossamer Gear
Arrowhead Equipment
Enlightened Equipment

This adds to our list of existing gear lines by ZPacks, TarpTent, ULA Equipment and Lightheart Gear. And within the next two weeks, we plan on entering several hundred more items by Hyperlite Mountain Gear, BearPaw and Black Rock Gear, just to name a few. We're proud to represent all of these cottage manufacturers!

I'll also point out that the usage of the WeighMyGear app is not necessarily limited to weighing the gear you already own. As many people have mentioned, nothing replaces the act of actually packing your pack and weighing it directly on a scale. But what about the gear you don't own yet? What about your "wish list" of gear? Using this app, you can quickly and easily see the weight-effects on your pack by those pieces you can't directly weigh. This app can be a terrific decision-making tool when you're in the market for a new piece of gear, enabling you to compare relative weight-effects of various equipment with just a few clicks of your mouse, before you spend a dime.

Aside from continually adding new gear to the database, our Alpha Testing stage has also revealed a few programming bugs, which have now been fixed. So, WeighMyGear is now more stable, again, thanks to all of you who've participated. We're now entering our Beta Testing phase, and we'll be announcing the app to a larger audience. For this, we've also given the site a new look.

We hope you all continue to follow and use WeighMyGear.com. It will only become more robust and more useful, and we will always continue to listen to feedback and suggestions on how to improve.