There are some people who wake up and throw a few things in their pockets and get on with life. They don’t mind their bulky wallets or excessively large phone cases—they don’t give any of it a second thought.
Then, there are the kind of people who obsess over the items they keep with them—their everyday carry, as we call it—spending hours doing excessive research on which knife, wallet, phone, pen, watch, and pair of sunglasses they’ve got to carry on them. The kind of people who always have a blade handy when a cord needs cut or the guys who nerd out when they walk into a store and find a multi-use flashlight.
If you haven’t caught on yet, we’ll clue you in: we are those people. Not only have we ditched our bulky wallets, but we’ve meticulously crafted our everyday carry. Looking to do the same? Glad to hear it.
Whether you consciously care about the things you carry with you or not, everyone’s got an EDC, which is short for “everyday carry.”
In it’s simplest definition, your everyday carry is the collection of mainstay items you keep with you everyday. The EDC movement is about getting the most out of what you carry—it’s about efficiency, utility, and worth.
The main reason we—and many others—place such importance in the architecture of our everyday carry stems from the feeling of unease experienced when you’re without any of it. If it’s important enough to feel that naked without your knife, it’s definitely important enough to do some research on which kind of knife you should carry.
Your everyday carry echoes your lifestyle, prepares you for the worst, and enables you for the best. By taking some time and doing your research, you’ll experience a ton of practical and financial benefits by carefully orchestrating your everyday carry arsenal.
You can go from cruising high to crashing and burning real quick in life—that’s why we carry things that help us stay prepared for the worst. Whether it’s a simple blade needed to cut a box or two open, or a window-breaking multitool, one of the main reasons people take extreme care in choosing their everyday carry is their ability to react quickly and effectively to emergency situations.
By adding new tools, or upgrading your current ones, you’ll gain access to a ton of new functions that help streamline your everyday tasks. Whether it’s a convenience factor of always carrying a tactical pen or the added practicality of keeping a multitool on you, maintaining a solid everyday carry package can easily make your life easier.
Sure, the main purpose of your everyday carry is preparation and utility—but there’s nothing keeping you from tailoring your everyday carry to reflect your own style and values.
We nerd out hard when we get into the different types of utility tools available, but it gets even better when you consider all of the ways you can personalize everything you carry; you dictate what you carry, but your everyday carry ends up reflecting your personal style.
Looking for inspiration for all the cool gadgets you can line your pockets with? Check out r/EDC. It's a hundred-thousand strong community of people making the most of their carry.
This is by no means a constraining rulebook - it’s just a guide to help get you started. Whether you'll go on to carefully construct and curate the contents of your pockets is completely up to you. In the end, it’s about what fits your lifestyle.
If you’re a carpenter, you’ll probably end up having a more tool-oriented everyday carry than a digital marketer would—and that's the beauty of it. Take the time to find the items that really streamline day to day tasks and prepare you for anything life may throw at you.
We will say that—if you're going to start anywhere—it ought to be your wallet. That leather bifold shoved into your backpack is doing nothing but taking up space that could be better utilized with other things.
So go forth, make your everyday carry your own, because it really does make you too.
