THE APOCALYPSE IS FASHION-FORWARD.

If you find yourself in a big box store during the early hours at the end of the world, you might reach for zip-off cargo pants and Crocs — if you’re an Inverse reader.

This summer, Inverse surveyed readers about what they’d shove into a backpack if they were caught unprepared for the collapse of society.

INTEREST IN PREPPING spiked in the Northeastern United States in March 2020, and while it’s cooled off from those panicked levels, the concept is now fully out of the bunker. Prepping has gone mainstream for those of us who do not have a house in New Zealand.

Beyond the lockdowns, protests in city streets against police brutality shook up white America and caused arms sales to soar. The escalating destruction from natural disasters — a result of climate change; here’s the data — also drives prepper growth. Personal factors, like a new child, also pull people into prepping.

It’s easier than ever to prep. You don’t need a membership to a warehouse store to buy a pallet’s worth of canned beans. You need only Amazon Prime.

I asked readers of the Inverse Daily newsletter (subscribe here) a few questions about this scenario:

What’s in your apocalypse bag? You know, the backpack you carry when the world ends. These are your essentials for the post-apocalyptic world that you can fit in a standard backpack. The setting for our poll is a partially looted big box store outside New Haven, Connecticut.

Precisely 3,292 people completed our survey. While all of the items below require you buy them on Amazon, one tip espoused by preppers for those first 72 hours is TO GET CASH and GAS UP YOUR VEHICLE.

Finally, an essential part of prepping is MAKING A PLAN with your family and neighbors. This seems to rub against the prepper culture — think John Goodman in 10 Cloverfield Lane — but communication is critical before the S. hits the F.

https://www.inverse.com/innovation/prepper-supplies-buying-guide-2021