I do not own this kit, in fact I've never seen it in person. I am not affiliated with the company that makes it or any competitor to them. I have no affiliation with any product mentioned here.

According to the website, this kit contains:

  • Backpack with water bottle pouch, 26L, 600D tarpaulin
  • 48oz Nalgene
  • Admittedly nifty looking organizer and pouches
  • Survival tent, mylar, 2 adults
  • antibacterial wipes, 15
  • Sawyer mini kit
  • Datrex rations, 12x 200cal bars
  • Convertible shovel/pickaxe
  • UCO Stormproof matches, 15 matches, 2 strikers, 1 match safe
  • Cheap-looking "zoomie" flashlight
  • Cheap-looking pliers-based multitool
  • 100ft paracord
  • Basic first aid kit
  • 2x chemlights
  • Mylar emergency blanket
  • Small tube of nice sunscreen
  • Flashlight/phone charger/radio, looks like an Eton
  • active carbon air filtration mask
  • 2x handwarmers
  • Goggles
  • Cheap-looking knife
  • Mischmetal firestarting rod
  • Acrylic beanie
  • Cold weather gloves



The backpack included with this kit didn't look bad. A little too much branding for my taste, and I'd prefer two water-bottle pouches. It would be easy to spend <$40 or >$150 here. I'll pick the Dakine Network as being a reasonable equivalent at approximately $55 with shipping (https://www.dakine.com/products/network-26l-backpack?variant=31575197024336).

48oz Nalgene, $12 on Amazon.

For pouches, grab some freezer ziplocs in various sizes, perhaps $5.

Survival tent (https://smile.amazon.com/Go-Time-Gear-Emergency-Survival/dp/B07NVWY95Y/) $20.

Antibacterial wipes, a lot of options here, I picked https://smile.amazon.com/Lucky-Super-Soft-Antibacterial-Wipes/dp/B0097W81U8/ for $4 (note that this are nice wipes and more of them than included in the kit).

Sawyer mini kit, exactly what I have in my kits, $20.

Datrex rations, $12. But I strongly prefer Millennium bars; a pack of 6 with about the same calories of the Datrex rations is $15. If room permits I would also carry three Mountain House packs and a stove, which I worked out from my Amazon order history at $53.

I've owned a convertible shovel/pickaxe that looked just like this one and it failed on first use under non-stressful conditions. Cold Steel makes a very rugged small shovel for $34. Add some time sharpening one edge and $9 for the sheath.

Stormproof matches with match safe, $14. Add a mini-Bic and a zip-tie (or a chunk of failed bicycle inner-tube, if you prefer) to protect the button, $2. Add a Spark-Lite and Tinder Quik kit, $11. Add an Esbit stove with 6 Esbit tablets, $13. Starting a fire with a mini-Bic and an Esbit tablet is cheating, sure, but I like cheating if it gets me warm when I'm cold.

The flashlight included in this kit is objectionable to me. There are several flashlights that cost less than $10 that are far better. I can recommend a Klarus XT1C v2 (https://www.batteryjunction.com/klarus-xt1c-v2.html) without reservation, adding a pack of 12 CR123A batteries and an inexpensive case for four extra cells brings it to $64. A headlamp is also a great idea. If you want battery diversity (perhaps you can find one size of battery but not another) the Nitecore HA23 is surprisingly good at its price point for $25. If you want one kind of battery so that you only need carry one kind of spare, the Nitecore HC30 is great at $55. But the one I like -- a lot -- is the Fenix HL50. Discontinued but still available for $50, it can run on either 1x CR123A or 1x AA. I wish Fenix hadn't discontinued it, it's that good.

The multitool here looks pretty bad. I'd get a Leatherman Rebar, ST300, or Wave, for $100 (or possibly less).

100' of paracord is too much. 50' is plenty and takes up less room. $5.

The First Aid Only kit is a good kit at the price point for $17. I personally add a Rescue Essentials Advanced Footcare Module for $22 along with some extra BZK wipes ($1).

Chemlights suck. I wouldn't include them.

I do not like cheap mylar blankets. The Heatsheets 2-person is far superior for $10.

My kits no longer have sunscreen wipes (discontinued) or cream (messy!). This sunscreen stick (https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CICLTAI/) is small, and works well for me for $10. You could spend less on a larger stick.

Eton makes an excellent small flashlight/cellphone charger/radio gizmo. Be wary of cheap brands, some use a coin cell rather than a capacitor to store energy, and thus fail quickly. The Eton I like is $34.

I do not see the value in carrying an activated carbon filter mask, but you can get a pack of three for $13.

Handwarmers are sure nice to have but if the packaging is breached they become useless. $1.

I prefer an inexpensive but rugged pair of ballistic-rated sunglasses to a pair of goggles. $20 is generous.

Don't get me started on this knife. A stainless steel Mora for $15 would be so much better.

Firestarting rods are great, but I prefer the Spark-Lite above.

If you don't have an acrylic beanie to spare, I really love the Countycomm WX Warrior beanie, super warm and low-bulk for $6 before shipping.

Maybe my hands are a weird size but I won't buy gloves if I can't try them on. I'd probably spend $35 on Mechanix ColdWork gloves.


Assuming you bought everything on my list and had none of these things laying around, and shopped fast instead of looking for deals, you're up to $670. This is far more than the $389 you'd spend on the kit. But when you start with the kit and add a good multitool ($100), usable shovel ($43), Heatsheets ($10), Knife ($15), flashlight and headlamp ($114) my build is $1 cheaper.