That empty iPhone case will be useful.
..or, the 'everyday carry' phenomenon.
Why? Apparently the stuff I put in my pockets needs a special name now..
I first started noticing it a couple of years ago on US sites like Massdrop, but have since seen it being used over here more. Often in the form of a magazine spread with a selection of excruciatingly self-consciously curated objects.
Plus I don't know if it's an actual rule or not but I've practically never seen one without a matt-black torch or lock-knife, or other 'tactical' object of some description. Mini camouflage aluminium storage capsule keyring anyone? No? How about a rugged tactical pencil?
And exactly what the significance is of the simultaneous mass organising of these objects into geometrically aligned patterns and the compulsion to visually document, I have no idea; but it's practically a Close Encounters event.
Rant over. Please go about your regular business.
That empty iPhone case will be useful.
Cheers..
Jase
Wallet, phone house keys.
What more would anyone really need in the mean streets of an English town centre?
They are making sure they are ready for the imminent zombie apocalypse.
Pete
Apparently some watches are EDC, but not all, likewise some wallets. I don't get it.
Andy
Wanted - Damasko DC57
Wallet, Phone, Keys, Pen (and whatever watch I'm wearing).
If I've got my jacket with me then I'm probably carrying a Leatherman Micra, a card multitool (with bottle opener, saw, ruler, mini spanner, etc., in the format of a credit card), a Lansky knife sharpener and, strangely, a carabiner quick draw (2 carabiners with a short length of hi-tensile material between them).
I always check my pockets before heading to an airport though - nearly got caught out once (fortunately I had a hold bag and could put stuff in it).
Cheers,
Mark C
Very American phenomenon - lots of guns carried by IT workers, doomsday preppers, and survivalist mentality. Some common sayings, 'two is one, and one is none' so carry spares.
Everything's better when it's tactical too.
I suppose it's yet another very male hobby. The following article, from a website called High Consumption, says it all We're no different with this hobby too hey
https://hiconsumption.com/2015/11/ed...veryday-carry/
EDC IS A STATE OF MIND
Though everyday carry is partly about the stuff you use, it’s more than that. It’s about being truly prepared for each and every day. Being ready for challenges, facing down foes, and putting out fires is the idea behind each item in an EDC loadout. Those who embrace EDC realize that due to the limited space they have in their pockets, backpacks, briefcases, and satchels, each item they take along with them should have a specific purpose or set of purposes in mind. A soldier doesn’t go to war unarmed, an artisan doesn’t go to his workshop without his tools, and you shouldn’t try to get through your day flying by the seat of your pants.
Adopting the philosophy of everyday carry is about really thinking about what each item you lug around does for you, why it is there, and how it can be made better. In putting thought, time, and money into your EDC gear, you’re ensuring that you can work better, work faster, and accomplish more with your time, as well as be ready for those curveballs in the dirt that life’s going to try to get you to swing at. Once you’ve decided you want to streamline your lifestyle, then you’re ready to start gearing up and collecting the equipment that is going to be by your side.
Just popping into town to the newsagents to discuss the delivery of my gentlemans relaxation pamphlet.
Think I have everything covered...
Also have my buddy ‘TactiCat’ with me.
Last edited by Captain Morgan; 17th September 2018 at 14:15. Reason: Forgot TactiCat
Hang on, there's no 'insert hipster brand' sunglasses in that picture!
Must of admit I sort of like the idea, but that probably comes from my fun times in the scouts where you always carried a clean handkerchief, coins for the phone and a pocket knife. Still do! Just now I also always have a AAA torch on me and the coins for the phone have gone by the wayside.
Don't forget a Johnny in case of a bit of tactical luck. Oh and a set of brass knuckles if you are particularly old school.
J
See also the baffling "daily driver".
"I use a Samsung S9 as my daily driver".
Good that there's a fidget spinner underneath the phone...for those quiet moments in the tactical day's mission
Not a fidget-spinner.
Those are the rounds for the revolver.
Also two more speed-loaders for the revolver, plus the pistol with a spare magazine.
Clearly expecting a busy day.....
EDC phenomenon seems to have really caught on in London.
Empty phone cases are a standard feature of EDC shots - the phone itself being used (in lieu of a real camera) to take the photograph.
Plenty more examples at this subreddit: https://old.reddit.com/r/EDC/
I think the phenomenon has much to do with a desire to give one’s life a significance that it really doesn’t possess. The idea that even though you work in bank or a department store, you’re Special Forces at heart. You know how to disable an assailant with one blow because you read about how to throw that disabling punch or you’ve watched the Jason Bourne films multiple times over. You know where to strike and nothing will stop you when that moment comes. After all, you’ve been waiting for it all your adult life.
But you’re called Norman, you’re 36 and still living with your mother. You’re anonymous and insignificant and that’s not going to change just because you’ve pockets full of EDC gear.
To be honest, I don’t find it very different to buying a 4000m rated dive watch, wearing it to the office, draping it over your leather jacket, taking a photo and posting it on a watch forum for other watch nerds to fawn over.
But at least you can use it for one of its purposes, even if diving with it will never happen. How many times will a compass or whatever be needed in urban life, let alone the other stuff?
I don’t practice it but I think I understand why people do it: it’s a form of self expression for people who have to present themselves in a rather reserved manner. EDC is rarely showy, but usually quality, and I like the idea of carefully curating the things you interact with all day.
Personally I find most of it redundant. I need my phone, wallet, keys, lip balm and gum.
Just a bunch of blokes and their trinkets. No different to blokes and their watches. Some blokes carry whole rucksacks full of edc stuff everywhere they go. Some blokes have more watches than there are days of the week. No difference.
It’s pretty pointless
Like those people with 30 or more watches and 300 straps
No one ever displays their tactical bus pass holder or packed lunch box. I would have thought both of these items would be of more use in an urban environment over a compass or LED flashlight.
Meanwhile I am in a small one horse village on top of a steep mountain in the Sierra Nevada region.
I’ve taken a battering,my bikes taken a battering and so has a lot of my stuff,what with heavy rain,mud slides,rippled road surfaces.
I’ve used my EDC bits and pieces tonight to repair my glasses,trekking pole and bikes hot grips.
They forgot to leave me a spoon with my kettle and hot drinks,so I cut one out of a paper cup using the knife I purchased in Portugal.
The places I am going it pays to be self sufficient.
Most importantly of course you can open bottles of local cider with it
Actually it has become a verb. 'Today I'm EDC'ing my Tactical Tom Tracker survival knife to open some Amazon boxes'.
Of course it comes from gun slinging. Amongst their EDC they have their CCW. Then there's their GHB, their BOB and their BOL, and of course their BOV. And their CSK or MSK.
Translation for those who do not believe that the planet is full of zombies out to get them: you Every Day Carry your Concealed Carry Weapon. You have your Get Home Bag, which is not the same as your Bug Out Bag, which is meant not to get home but to your Bug Out Location (typically a log cabin or bunker somewhere in a forest-covered area, with a year's worth of food and enough firearms amd ammunition for a continuous firefight that may last three centuries). To get there you may use your Bug Out Vehicle (often a beefed-up pickup truck or Hummer with enough camping gear and concentrated food to keep a boy scout troop alive for a winter, plus hidden compartments with a variety of guns nestled in foam, like in the A-Team; there may or may not be grenades and an antitank missile aboard, depending how crazy you are and how orange your hair is). In the bags you aways tote a Combat Survival Knife or a Multi Scenario Knife - these are always twice as thick as they need to be, have weird shapes, sometimes hollow handles or sheaths with extra pockets to hold extra survival gear (I never get why those fishing kits are so important).
It's fun to watch those YouTube channels where obese Americans are trying to beat through a fallen tree with some idiot chopper knife presumably made from some exotic hypersteel. Most of the time they give up when about halfway through, which tends to take about an hour of panting, blistered hands and a thousand blows. Meanwhile, a pink-clad five-year old girl in a Danish 'forest class' in kindergarten school has sawn a similar log in bits using a decent folding saw in about 4 minutes...
Personally, I like knives and used to be an avid backpacker in the years before my 'loadout' had moved to become an everyday-carry fat reserve around my waist, so I have some gear. My old pack still has the proud badge of the Backpackers Club sewn on its flap. But, like with watches, one can go too far. Prepping and EDC is marketing, of course, as it incites people (mostly men) to spend loads of money on every fad in knives, flashlights, bags, guns (in the US), kydex sheaths and holsters, tactical tourniquets, camo clothing, commando boots, tarps, et cetera et cetera. I have seen someone showing off their 'gear room' that was as well filled as a decent outdoor equipment store. Once TSHTF (The Shit Hits The Fan, general expression for any disaster such as the North Koreans setting off an EMP weapon over the US, Taliban introducing a zombie virus, Putin invading New York, an asteroid strike, Yellowstone exploding, or some mentally ill carrothead being elected president) they won't know what to take as they too much to pick from. But hey, the guy who dies with the most stuff wins. Keep on shopping.
I have been carrying my Laguiole pocket knife every day of the week since Christmas 1989. I also have a a Leatherman tool and a non-tactical wallet on me (one needs someplace to keep a driving licence and credit card). And a Broadarrow PRS-4 watch from Eddie (it sometimes helps to know the time). And I carry a very small flashlight, so I can find things that have disappeared in dark corners under desks or in the garden shed. It probably makes me somewhat acceptable among the EDC dudes. Although, without a CCW... ;-)
It’ll never happen.
I guess the idea of EDC might provide a psychological comfort to some, and there’s nothing wrong with that, an adult extrapolation of the very precious items stuffed in our pockets during happy childhood days building dens, lighting fires, scrumping apples, collecting frog spawn, playing 15 aside footie for 4 hours with jumpers for goal posts of course and scores of 32 - 27. A Timex watch, Richards penknife with a picture of a Mountie on it, a box of matches, a magnifying glass lens, World Cup Willie badge, Manchester United badge, your best conker, Owzthat, a bob, a tanner, a thruppeny bit and essential supplies like a stick of Basset hard liquorice, a Bazooka Joe, packet of Arrowmint gum and a bottle of Tizer.
Pictures are available on request.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
My Scouts tobacco tin with all the requisite stuff was my pride and joy at age 11. I remember waterproofing the matches with candle wax.
Cheers..
Jase
Yep - best pocket sharpener that I've found.
I actually find myself sharpening other people's kitchen knives with it (can't stand a blunt knife!).
I've a Spyderco Sharpmaker at home but it's a faff to get out, set up and sharpen just one knife so the blade medic is used most of the time - 95% of the sharpness for about 10% of the effort - works for me.
I also tend to run my Leatherman through it just a couple of times after every other use or so - that way I don't ever have to "sharpen" it.
Cheers,
Mark C
The Blade Medic is excellent for in the field, but I prefer their 4-rod box for use at home. In fact I've just today received another, so one for the kitchen and one for the other knives.
Like you, I find the Sharpmaker a bit more of a faff to use.
It certainly amazes me how much clutter people are prepared to carry about with them.
For me it can be catagorised as the following:
Tactical Ware And TrinketS
I think you could put that on one of those Velcro patches that seem very popular with the EDC crowd.