Bug Out Bag Essentials: Gloves
The blue nitrile gloves were a little surly.
Hopefully by now some of you out there have started putting together a checklist of what to put in your bug out bags. While not a primary necessity in your bags, gloves should be high on your priority list nonetheless. Gloves in general provide protection for your hands, which are essentially the second most important tool your body has, aside from your brain. In case of emergency, you’ll be using your hands to fend for yourself and help others so it’ll help to protect those assets of yours.
In my limited experience, you don’t really need top of the line tactical gloves with built in knuckle dusters to keep in your bug out bag. Sure, they look cool and all, but one thing that’s important to know is that gloves are meant to be expendable for the most part. If you’re wearing work/tactical gloves it probably means you’re going to be abusing your gloves and if you’re abusing your gloves then they’ll break down sooner or later. You don’t expect your kicks to last forever if you use them daily, so why should gloves be any different? For starters, you can just head to your nearest auto parts store and invest in a few different pairs of mechanic’s gloves to work with. The Mechanix gloves you see above cost me $20 and they’ve taken a beating through mountain biking, shooting, and outdoor work. The whole time they’ve protected me very well even without a carbon fiber knuckle protector. And should they fail on me, I’m straight. $20 is well worth it for a product I’ve used weekly that’s lasted almost a year.
But work gloves aren’t the only thing that should be in your bag. Medical examination gloves should also be packed with your first aid materials. They’ll keep you from getting nasty stuff all over your hands, and also help prevent cross contamination when you’re administering first aid. Just be sure to get appropriate gloves if you have a vinyl allergy.
In the case of gloves, cheaper doesn’t mean shittier. Just conduct due diligence when inspecting gloves for your bug out bag and you can get away with a solid pair for as little as $10. You can use the dough you saved to buy me drinks. Win win.
