Ok, I might catch some sh*t for this…
Frankly, I don’t care.
You know how serious I am about staying away from all that “fantasy prepper” crap littering the internet.
Well, I about snorted my morning coffee out of my nostrils when I came upon this “Navy SEAL survival bug-out bag” that came out on the market…
Now, before I go into my tirade, yes… I do realize that people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones and, having custom-designed our “X-BOB” bug-out bag myself (based upon real-world disaster and tactical experience, I might add), I’m very biased in my opinion.
And to be fair, Hollywood elites probably LOVE this wonderful little backpack for bugging-out when the local Starbucks runs out of Cafe Mocha-chinos. But…
Here’s Why Even Navy SEAL’s Can Screw Up Bug-Out Bags…
Ok, I get how the metrosexual cast of Fox & Friends can ooh and ahh over this go-bag.
It’s “pretty“.
It has nice red accents that match your lipstick color…
… built in phone charger so you can stay in touch with your agent…
… light-reflective patches so you don’t get run over by a Mercedes Benz while evacuating with your pet poodle, Mr. Poofy Buns…
…and it has a giant “SEAL” logo on it to show all the neighborhood dads that you’re… um… “just like a Navy SEAL”.
Except that no Navy SEAL would EVER carry this bag into any military mission.
And as I always say, you NEED to think of each disaster as a “military mission”.
All the things that “look” good on this type of a bag are all the reason you should NEVER carry this type of bag when you’re in a real SHTF disaster.
For example…
1. Blue Beats Red Any Day
Red stands out – and the last thing you want to do when YOU are the only one “prepared” to face a disaster is stand out.
When you catch people’s eye and they notice you “look” more prepared than they are, they’ll ask you to share your supplies.
What’s that you say? “No”?
Well, asking turns to begging… begging turns to demanding… demanding turns to taking – potentially by force.
That’s why our custom-designed X-BOB’s are dark blue in color because it not only blends you into the “baseline” around you… but it also is virtually “invisible” under low-light conditions (while the “Navy SEAL bag” literally has reflective tape on it to make you stand out even more!)
(See our “invisibility test” for yourself here in our free survival gear guide…)
2. Built For Hollywood – NOT For Bugging Out
The “Navy SEAL go-bag” has no waist strap.
Seriously.
ONLY shoulder straps.
Any soldier who has ever “humped a ruck” knows that you NEVER want to carry the weight of your pack on your shoulders.
Only by putting the weight directly on your hips and supporting it with cinch straps to mold it to your body, will you ever be able to haul your gear more than a few miles.
That’s why I designed our X-BOB bugout bag with an“8-point comfort system” so you can travel longer, faster, and more comfortably so you’re not moaning on the side of the road about how painful your pack is.
3. Don’t LOOK Like A Navy SEAL
Ok, so you’re a “disaster refugee” waiting in line at the FEMA food line and when you get to the front of the line, they simply hand you a granola bar and a juice-box for you and your family to split.
You’re tired, hungry, and desperate… but fortunately you look over and see some dude with a pretty black and red backpack – and in GIANT letters on the back, it says “SEAL SURVIVAL”.
What do you?
You say, “Hey, you there! Mr. Navy SEAL… you got some MRE’s for my starving family in that fancy backpack of yours?!”
(See item #1 above for the rest of the story.)
Same goes for the common mistake of using ANY type of military-style “tactical pack” for a bugout bag.
Totally wrong approach.
As I always say… “You want to BE tactical… but not LOOK tactical”, right?
Look, Navy SEALs are total badasses when it comes to eliminating terrorists… taking down an active shooter… or doing a million pushups with only their eyebrows.
But I know there’s no way in hell that a single one of them would truly see this backpack as a good “tactical” choice for a real SHTF scenario.
I can only guess that this was some “merchandising” brainfart of a slick marketing team who thought they could pawn this “go bag” off onto citizens who don’t know any better.
Don’t fall for it.
Get you and those you love a survival “grab and go” system that’s designed for the “no b.s.” realities of what you’ll face under the worst circumstances in a disaster.
Grab my free survival gear guide for how to build the perfect bug-out bag to keep you alive here…
