Gear – First Issue Review
The first monthly lifestyle mag aimed at male teens between 13 and 17 was launched yesterday. Gear magazine, published by Paragon, costs £2.99 and cashes in unashamedly on the pester power element now dreaded by all parents. Gear is aimed at “technologically aware, affluent and highly active consumers with virtually unlimited spending power” and blends classic lads mag style features with consumer tests to create something which resembles the Argos catalogue on speed.
The editorial style is snappy and up beat, clearly appealing to a teenage market, and advertising is predominantly for films, gadgets and games consoles, meaning that Gear is essentially a lads mag for teenagers.
Billed as “the new magazine that tells you what the coolest new must have items are so that you can blow your cash on them,” Gear is choc-a-block with the latest electronic, leisure and consumer products that every self respecting teenager would sell his soul for. The first issue features mountain bikes, mobile phones and designer trainers, and will find parents across the country taking out that second mortgage just to keep little Johnny in the latest trend.
Just as well then, that double income families are now more common than ever and according to Gear are prepared to pay what ever it takes to keep their children in the latest fashions, sports and crazes. Gear makes no bones about the fact it plays on the emotional torture that teenagers are so adept in inflicting on their parents and adds weight to this with a series of ‘down and dirty’ consumers tests designed to separate ‘what’s cool from what’s cack’.
The first issue tests the durability of MP3 players by dropping them from skateboards, throwing them off a building with a stunt man and even taking them a bungee jumping. A little extreme you might think for today’s lethargic video game generation but with features on jet skiing, bike racing and extreme BMXing, Gear seems hell bent on creating a nation of teenage adrenaline junkies – however you might accuse me of being a little cynical.
I must confess to being slightly too old to qualify for Gear’s target audience, but whilst flicking through its pages I found myself planning to spend my next pay cheque on jet skiing lessons, a Lara Croft doll and a steering wheel for the Play Station 2 that I was about to buy, so they are obviously doing something right.
Gear is clearly filling a rare gap in the consumer magazine market and while this will probably mean earache for parents across the country at least the teenagers are getting what they want.
Reviewer: Gareth Jones