Best camo for Suburbia USA?

[Bockscar]

What are your thoughts on the best camo for living in a suburban environment? Multi-cam? Black? Other? Does it depend on the time of day you venture abroad? Or does it not make one iota of difference in the long run (I'll be noticed no matter what)? I'm on the verge of getting a Zulu as my do-all pack in case of disaster, and I'm leaning toward either multi-cam or black. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[straps]

Black.

Do-able combos are intentional mixes of Black and Foliage or Coyote and Foliage. (e.g. Organizer, Mini Longs and maybe Omni Belt that contrasts with the pack.)

Any Multicam larger than an E&E is NOT Gray Man camouflage...

[David in OR]

Black. And the Zulu, with its PALS, will still get you noticed by anyone paying attention.

My disaster ruck is a 35-yr-old French climbing pack in fire engine red and navy blue.

[Ralph]

Any pack, in any color indicates you are carrying something, probably of value. Things of value are likely to attract predators - including those wearing uniforms. Clean-shaven, short haircuts, situational awareness, an aggressive walking style and good bearing, with or without a pack with PALS is likely to be interpreted as military. On the other hand, predators go for targets likely to be easy, and military types generally are not easy.

There is an old saying about hiding a grain of sand on a beach. If you really don't want to be noticed you have to look like everyone else, so unless carrying a pack is commonplace in your area you won't look like everyone else.

[Flexxx]

I say go with black also, I drive past a college daily and 90% of the backpacks are black.

Just fits in easy....

[Quirt]

You need to become the "Gray Man" which means you need to blend in and deceive. Camo only "calls you out!" That means stay away from anything which will single you out or worse isolate you as a "prepper" or "survivalists"...which only makes you vulnerable. Stay away from camo, or anything that targets or labels you as ninja or "tactical." Black is a dead give away and so is a 'tactical' backpack...more on this later on.

Look around at your world - and go beyond your immediate "inner" world of work, home, store, church, and play - look beyond to the "other" areas you must trapse through in order to get where-ever you're planning on getting too (I'm assuming you have a plan and back up plan). See what other people are wearing in their leisure time and walking around in EACH of these different micro-cultures urban areas seem to consist of. You may need several sets of customized urbanized camo to blend in depending upon where your at and where you want to go...I'll explain more in a minute.

First, in a suburban -potentially or actual- hostile environment you need to blend in and deceive (become one with your environment or the Gray Man)...so perhaps in your neighborhood which might be more affluent than other neighborhoods - you'll need to wear polo brand jeans and a Tommy Hilfinger (or whatever it is) sweater with an over the shoulder type of yuppie/urban typical bag they generally wear/carry stuff with. Look like a typical guy out for a walk to grandma's house or whatever one does. As you move from your, for example, affluent neighborhood to a blue collar neighborhood, you might need to recover a cache which has a pair of torn cargo type worker jeans, with soiled/greasy very used work boots and a Carhartt type jacket and carry a workers type lunch box/ice cooler for lunch or whatever blue collar people in the city carry their stuff in. If people in this neighborhood smoke Camels then have a few packs of cigarettes available in a cache for trading info or to fake like you're smoking to blend it! Oh and this ice box lunch thingy is your BOB.

Then as you go through a lower income neighborhood, you go to another cache and you may need to change out to a Pro Ball team type hoodie, the straight bill ball cap that are all the rage now, may need to get a clip on ear ring (or whatever their doing now) and those baggie pants down to your knees to blend in along with a backpack like they use...I'm not from the city so I can't tell you anyway these are just fictious examples to get your brain going in the right direction anyway.

BLEND IN! BECOME the culture you're walking thru!!!!

Let's face it, you're not going to be able to go from A to Z in one pair of clothes if your walking or riding a bike (which a bike is a great source of transportation as you can move quick and are more difficult to be caught. Plus good for training and getting into shape!)

Get AWAY from this "I've got to have everything I own in one BOB" nonsense and this "tactical looking BOB" nonsense. You don't need two weeks worth of food, you don't need a weeks worth of underwear, you don't need six knives... This is survival not Gilligan's Island! You're only need enough to get you from A to Z in a week or two so learn to live with the bare minimum. Learn to carry the bare minimum to get you from one cache to another cache to a back up cache if things go sour. Develop a network of trusted friends where you can hold out and re-supply and move on. Remember Oz = pounds and pounds = wear/tear on people who need to walk/ride for miles. When you can move, you need to move fast and light on your feet. AND if you do get caught, you can afford to lose whatever you have in your bag!!!! You just cannot afford to get hurt, lose your life, or lose the secret location of your network of friends along the way and your cache locations. In fact, if you do get caught and you look like you know what you're doing, and you have a lot of tactical cool stuff/gear then they'll probably torture you until the get more intel out of you about your stash of goodies elsewhere you're trying to get too.

You need to blend in! You need to look like nobody, going no-where, with NOTHING! And if you're caught, you relucantly give up what precious few possession you have in this BOB. And these things better not look REI new, or very tactical or very expensive! A rusty Mora knife, a bandana with lots of holes in it, a headlamp with no batteries in it (they're hidden) so it looks like you've really fallen on tough times, a newspaper with old donut wrapped up in it, and a soup can for a cup/cooker, and maybe a GI type canteen. That is what someone city might have if there was a collapse or whatever scenario might befall you.

Okay, the various clothes is one option...the other and best option is to move at night and hunker down at day in a pre-planned (with back ups) secluded location where NO ONE would find you. Have several routes pre-planned in case one route or hunker down location doesn't pan out. Prepare yourself for night ops and train for night ops. Practice, practice, practice - and get friends/family to hunt for you at night and try to find out. Move stealthily at night, and DON'T go "hey diddly-diddly straight up the middle." Instead take routes no one else generally takes - go where you're not expected to go, sleep in the day where no one in their right mind would sleep. Wear clothes that if you're compromised won't scream "Tactical!". Wear navy blue pants which work well at night - not jeans - pants that are nylon or poly blend which dry quickly, are quiet, and if wet will dry faster than cotton if you do not have a heat generating resource to warm/dry yourself. Wear clothese others wear in these neighborhoods. Find for yourself by taking evening neighborhood walks which colors blend into the night/dark and which patterns work best but are considered "normal" everyday-everyone wears them colors/patterns.

I've given away way too much - but you get the idea...ponder this and the other advice given - good luck!

[Bockscar]

Thank you for the replies. I really appreciate it. Yesterday, I ordered a black E&E (This will be my first Kifaru, and I often wear a black T-shirt). I just might order another E&E in tan for when I'm donning a white T-shirt. I've used backpacks since I was a kid, but I haven't had a nice one in a long time. I'm now middle aged and I realize that it's hard to beat a good back pack for carrying the stuff I might need. I have a wife and kids, and I really don't have the luxury of leaving far from home if something were to happen. I'm looking to bug in. But I obviously might have to venture out if necessary.

But seeing all the offerings from Kifaru (which I have admired for a few years now) has me rationalizing wanting a larger pack that I could potentially take on board an airplane and/or use for something over a few-day period if necessary. Hence my interest in the Zulu.

Anyway, thanks again, guys. I really appreciate the feedback.

[Bushcraft]

Excellent post Quirt.

[David in OR]

The Zulu is a wonderful pack. Extremely versatile. I use mine for weekend backpack trips, for hauling climbing gear to the crags, for travel, and for day hikes in the winter. If you order one, you'll find use for it. There's probably no better Cormac McCarthy The Road pack made.

[larryschwartz]

In keeping with the gray man concept, if you are set on getting a Kifaru backpack, instead of going with something more commercial/civilian looking like a mountaineering pack or something you might find at a big box store, go with a model that is as plain as possible and without any PALS/MOLLE webbing on it.

Also, just because you wear a black t-shirt all the time does not mean that everyone else does. Keep in mind that you are trying to look like everyone else's normal, not your normal.