How do I become a smart survivor? | What is smart outdoor survival?

Survival for the everyday user is practical, not primitive or tactical.

This is why we created Endure Survival Kits

Our mission is to allow every single customer to become the smart survivor they deserve to be. Every outdoors enthusiast, no matter what experience level, deserve to understand what sound survival techniques are and what is the right gear to purchase so you don't end up sacrificing your life over an inferior product.

What inferior products are we talking about?

The biggest inferior product that is included in just about every survival kit on the market is the Mylar “emergency blankets.”

These blankets are not worth the few dollars you pay for them as they rip easily, you have to hold them around you forcing you to forego use of your hands as well as use of your feet, they do not trap heat around your body effectively with the gaps left for heat to escape and they leave your head exposed (you lose most body heat from your head). A bag is always better than a blanket as a bag will trap your body heat around you, leave you with use of your hands and feet, and the bags we sell come in royal blue so they also act as a visual signal as royal blue is the most effective color to be seen by search and rescue (even better than safety orange as the orange can blend into a lot of the colors found in the natural environment, especially in the fall. 

What is a better alternative? 

The Endure Instant Shelter (Endure Survival gives one Instant Shelter to the homeless for every Shelter that is sold.)

The next most commonly found inferior product are fire starters. Many survival kits come with Bic lighters, primitive flint and steel kits and even “waterproof or strike anywhere matches.”

Bic lighters fail easily, especially at high altitudes as they are pressure sensitive, waterproof and strike anywhere matches are difficult to light and require the perfect surface to strike onto and still often fail (stormproof matches are far superior matches as they will light in a downpour, however, we still recommend quality fuel: cotton balls soaked in vaseline). Anything “primitive” should not be considered for practical survival. Primitive flint and steel kits are very difficult to use as they produce very little sparks. These items are all inferior to a quality ferrocerium rod with a wood handle combined with cotton balls saturated in petroleum jelly. 

The Endure Metal Match Kit comes with everything you need to start a survival fire. The wood handle is key as it can be scraped off the produce tinder in case you run out of cotton balls soaked in vaseline (most ferrocerium rods come with a plastic handle). 

And here is some more info on the inferior or simply useless products that are commonly found.

Other inferior items include axes. We are categorically against axes as an effective cutting tool as they are very dangerous and inefficient at cutting wood. Instead, we recommend a quality hand saw that is fixed and has no moving parts like the Dandy Saw.

For hydration, a collapsible water bottle combine with MP1 tablets always guarantee clean water (assuming a water source is available). The Mp1 tabs are only EPA approved water purification tabs and the only system to disinfect against the guard and other viruses and bacteria that filters, life straws, and other water purification solutions simply can guarantee you will be protected from.

Lastly, for signaling the whistle for life is the loudest emergency whistle available (far louder (up to 120 decibels!) than the average whistle-which are often found in survival kits) and a purposefully made signal mirror made with glass and an aiming mechanism is key to maximizing the signal’s reach and ensuring you can aim it at a passing search and rescue plane, helicopter or ground crew. We commonly see mirrors made of plastic come in survival kits which simply don’t reflect nearly as well as glass. We have tested our signal mirror to reflect the sun up to 26 miles away which no other mirror we tested came close to.