Silent Earth
A True Doomsday Prepper
extract from my little family prepping guide
Clothing Considerations
When we talk about Prepping Supplies the normal focus in on stockpiling food, fuel and medicines, plus ammo if you live in the US of A, But nearly as important in our plans we need to think about what we will WEAR or USE in the period between a collapse and normal commerce starting up again. That interim period could be many years long and we must plan for that as well if we can.
Let us think about this issue whilst many items of clothing are still very affordable thanks to imports from Asia and China, If you feel the threat to your own situation could involve a long term disruption to your life what sort of things could you buy now and set aside for times of shortage. Not only could you ensure you have some of the clothing essentials you need but you may end up with a valuable commodity for bartering.
We will focus primarily on personal clothing but will briefly look at other items you may wish to obtain.
The sort of items you may consider worthy of bulk buying could be many and varied but try and think about think you may need that will no longer be easily available.
T Shirts / Undershirts *
Polo shirts*
Vests / Bras *
Underwear briefs / Panties*
Socks*
Cargo pants or work jeans
Micro fleece Shirts
Cargo vests
Fleece sweaters
Woollen sweaters if they are what you like
Fleece jackets
Cotton canvas Work Jackets (Fatigues)
Water proof outdoor jackets
Winter parka
Work gloves
Leather belts
Head Scarfs / Bandanas / Baseball caps etc
Work / Hiking / Walking shoes boots and spare insoles.
Sandals / Clogs / Flip flops
*= Multi Packs
I tend to buy “Value” packs from Tesco, Matalan, Makro etc then try them out to see if they are durable, comfortable, and good value for money. You need to check because at times stores will try and sell off some real junk as bargains.
For Example I once bought two packs of Polo Shirts from a well-known store, and even when washed on a low temperature and room dried instead of tumble dried they still shrunk so much they would have fitted my youngest son instead of me.
On a similar point I bought some budget range of walking / approach shoes (UK made as well) from a national retail outlet, they wore out in weeks and had such little internal foot bed support they rapidly become useless.
Kids
Let us not forget the children and their expensive but necessary habit of growing.
Hand me downs may become the norm like fleeces etc but some items such as underwear and footwear really need to be obtained in multiple sizes to allow for growth as will maintaining some level of personal dignity for the children.
When the kids grow out of items post collapse do not discard clothing as once washed and cleaned these clothes probably will have much barter value for families with kids who did not prepare as well.
Cleaning and personal hygiene materials are covered in the stockpiling and caching lists. The list of items above is not absolute everyone will have their own list of requirements but can use this list to work from.
Modified clothing for EDC prepping
More and more preppers I meet are doing some interesting stuff with their EDC clothing, Poorer preppers like myself tend to modify or tailor proprietary brands of clothing to suit our own needs, I’m always adding extra pockets, re-enforcement patches, Fastex webbing and hangers, kit hanging loops, elasticised draw cords etc to my clothing. Equally many preppers choose to buy and wear clothing primarily designed for soldiers or police officers such as Combat Jackets, SAS smocks, M65s, Concealed Carry Jackets, Specialist Vests etc. And not forgetting our passion for tactical cargo pants either. Some folks spend huge amounts on first rate specialist outdoor clothing and still end up messing on with a sewing machine to get the product they want.
Also and very importantly in this ever more uncertain and violent world parents are also seeking specialist clothing for their children. GPS tagged clothing and shoes for the very young, GPS tagged phones for errant teens spring to mind but equally the enlightened urban families both prepper and ordinary types as well as the kids themselves have identified a need for even more specialist clothing.
This includes slash proof and knife resistant vests, hoodies, smocks and jackets for kids !! (What a terrible indictment of today’s society until you realise that in London alone over 50 kids have been stabbed to death in recent years which makes teen prepping more important than ever it was before.)
Slash resistant clothing is now very popular in places such as Washington DC, New York, London, Birmingham, Rome, Berlin and Tokyo for teens as well as adults. It is a newish product range some city preppers may wish to consider as well.
There is also a trend among our teens and city dwellers to reduce the risk of becoming victims of muggings and street robberies by wearing clothing that allows them to conceal the inevitable collection of electronic gadgets they have these days. Firstly it helps them reduce the risk of being targeted as in many cases they can conceal their personal kit about their person instead of in bags and rucksacks.
Jackets, Hoodies and Vests that look just like ordinary outdoor civilian fashion clothing but have huge numbers of concealed pockets and hidden routes within the clothing to route phone speaker / headphone wires etc, This again is a development that can in many cases be beneficial to the urban prepper community as you can very often carry a full EDC load in the pockets rather than in a bag.
Article on Kids stab proof clothing
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1552956.ece
Concealed 24 pocket Fleece
http://www.scottevest.com/v3_store/Fleece_Jacket.shtml
22 concealed pocket travel Vest
http://www.scottevest.com/v3_store/New_Travel_Vest.shtml
26 concealed pockets Jacket
http://www.scottevest.com/v3_store/Revolution-Plus-Jacket.shtml
Specialist Scottvest range Men and Women
http://www.scottevest.com/v3_store/subindex_jackets_vests.shtml
Tactical multi pocket hoodie
http://www.scottevest.com/v3_store/cotton-hoodie.shtml
Knife Slash Resistant Hoodies
http://www.bladerunner.tv/hooded-tops-c-76.html
Knife Slash Resistant Windjammer Jacket
http://www.bladerunner.tv/weatherproof-jackets-windjammer-c-83.html?brid=lip3989ubahf3t7ouffangro2
Clothing Considerations
When we talk about Prepping Supplies the normal focus in on stockpiling food, fuel and medicines, plus ammo if you live in the US of A, But nearly as important in our plans we need to think about what we will WEAR or USE in the period between a collapse and normal commerce starting up again. That interim period could be many years long and we must plan for that as well if we can.
Let us think about this issue whilst many items of clothing are still very affordable thanks to imports from Asia and China, If you feel the threat to your own situation could involve a long term disruption to your life what sort of things could you buy now and set aside for times of shortage. Not only could you ensure you have some of the clothing essentials you need but you may end up with a valuable commodity for bartering.
We will focus primarily on personal clothing but will briefly look at other items you may wish to obtain.
The sort of items you may consider worthy of bulk buying could be many and varied but try and think about think you may need that will no longer be easily available.
T Shirts / Undershirts *
Polo shirts*
Vests / Bras *
Underwear briefs / Panties*
Socks*
Cargo pants or work jeans
Micro fleece Shirts
Cargo vests
Fleece sweaters
Woollen sweaters if they are what you like
Fleece jackets
Cotton canvas Work Jackets (Fatigues)
Water proof outdoor jackets
Winter parka
Work gloves
Leather belts
Head Scarfs / Bandanas / Baseball caps etc
Work / Hiking / Walking shoes boots and spare insoles.
Sandals / Clogs / Flip flops
*= Multi Packs
I tend to buy “Value” packs from Tesco, Matalan, Makro etc then try them out to see if they are durable, comfortable, and good value for money. You need to check because at times stores will try and sell off some real junk as bargains.
For Example I once bought two packs of Polo Shirts from a well-known store, and even when washed on a low temperature and room dried instead of tumble dried they still shrunk so much they would have fitted my youngest son instead of me.
On a similar point I bought some budget range of walking / approach shoes (UK made as well) from a national retail outlet, they wore out in weeks and had such little internal foot bed support they rapidly become useless.
Kids
Let us not forget the children and their expensive but necessary habit of growing.
Hand me downs may become the norm like fleeces etc but some items such as underwear and footwear really need to be obtained in multiple sizes to allow for growth as will maintaining some level of personal dignity for the children.
When the kids grow out of items post collapse do not discard clothing as once washed and cleaned these clothes probably will have much barter value for families with kids who did not prepare as well.
Cleaning and personal hygiene materials are covered in the stockpiling and caching lists. The list of items above is not absolute everyone will have their own list of requirements but can use this list to work from.
Modified clothing for EDC prepping
More and more preppers I meet are doing some interesting stuff with their EDC clothing, Poorer preppers like myself tend to modify or tailor proprietary brands of clothing to suit our own needs, I’m always adding extra pockets, re-enforcement patches, Fastex webbing and hangers, kit hanging loops, elasticised draw cords etc to my clothing. Equally many preppers choose to buy and wear clothing primarily designed for soldiers or police officers such as Combat Jackets, SAS smocks, M65s, Concealed Carry Jackets, Specialist Vests etc. And not forgetting our passion for tactical cargo pants either. Some folks spend huge amounts on first rate specialist outdoor clothing and still end up messing on with a sewing machine to get the product they want.
Also and very importantly in this ever more uncertain and violent world parents are also seeking specialist clothing for their children. GPS tagged clothing and shoes for the very young, GPS tagged phones for errant teens spring to mind but equally the enlightened urban families both prepper and ordinary types as well as the kids themselves have identified a need for even more specialist clothing.
This includes slash proof and knife resistant vests, hoodies, smocks and jackets for kids !! (What a terrible indictment of today’s society until you realise that in London alone over 50 kids have been stabbed to death in recent years which makes teen prepping more important than ever it was before.)
Slash resistant clothing is now very popular in places such as Washington DC, New York, London, Birmingham, Rome, Berlin and Tokyo for teens as well as adults. It is a newish product range some city preppers may wish to consider as well.
There is also a trend among our teens and city dwellers to reduce the risk of becoming victims of muggings and street robberies by wearing clothing that allows them to conceal the inevitable collection of electronic gadgets they have these days. Firstly it helps them reduce the risk of being targeted as in many cases they can conceal their personal kit about their person instead of in bags and rucksacks.
Jackets, Hoodies and Vests that look just like ordinary outdoor civilian fashion clothing but have huge numbers of concealed pockets and hidden routes within the clothing to route phone speaker / headphone wires etc, This again is a development that can in many cases be beneficial to the urban prepper community as you can very often carry a full EDC load in the pockets rather than in a bag.
Article on Kids stab proof clothing
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1552956.ece
Concealed 24 pocket Fleece
http://www.scottevest.com/v3_store/Fleece_Jacket.shtml
22 concealed pocket travel Vest
http://www.scottevest.com/v3_store/New_Travel_Vest.shtml
26 concealed pockets Jacket
http://www.scottevest.com/v3_store/Revolution-Plus-Jacket.shtml
Specialist Scottvest range Men and Women
http://www.scottevest.com/v3_store/subindex_jackets_vests.shtml
Tactical multi pocket hoodie
http://www.scottevest.com/v3_store/cotton-hoodie.shtml
Knife Slash Resistant Hoodies
http://www.bladerunner.tv/hooded-tops-c-76.html
Knife Slash Resistant Windjammer Jacket
http://www.bladerunner.tv/weatherproof-jackets-windjammer-c-83.html?brid=lip3989ubahf3t7ouffangro2
