Stealth urban warrior clothes

Even those of us who live out in the boonies have to go into town sometime. Some of us have this idea that we can hole up on our homesteads when things get bad. In reality, that’s rarely feasible. Often areas go into a slow collapse. We still have to do business in the city, but the city is a lot more dangerous.

That’s a problem. We can’t just gear up as if for battle in black tactical gear. We have to be somewhat stealthy. There’s the possibility of being caught up in things like riots or just being attacked on the street.

It is possible to dress in fairly normal looking street clothes yet have a higher level of protection. Start off with steel toed shoes or boots. They’ll protect your feet if someone tries to smash your toes. They’ll also protect your toes if you have to give someone a good swift kick. There are steel toed shoes now that look like regular light hikers or even sneakers, so they don’t stick out.

For pants I’d go with motorcycle jeans. They look like regular jeans, but are much tougher, designed to protect a rider from serious road rash. The level of protection really varies and is pretty price dependent. However, the better armored pants could probably turn a knife blade.

For chest protection it’s hard to beat a good leather jacket. You can even go for a more dressy style rather than the biker look.

Eye protection is important. A good pair of shooting glasses will do the job. Get a pair that looks more like normal eye glasses or sun glasses.

Protecting your hands are important. Rugged gloves could save your favorite fingers. Shop for something that provides a lot of protection, but doesn’t look like welding gloves.

Of course, you could spend real money and dress completely in ballistic nylon. That can get seriously pricey, especially for more normal looking clothes. If you got the budget go for it. The clothes I suggest here are all normal things people would wear but will greatly increase your personal protection level.

-Sixbears