Survival Clothes For The Outdoors

Choose the survival clothes to wear in the outdoors carefully, your clothes are an important part of your gear, essentially clothes are mobile shelters that you wear. They protect you from the UV rays, rain, heat, and cold, they offer some protection from insects, thorns, scrapes, and cuts that you would get while moving through the forest, jungle, etc.

Survival Clothes For The Outdoors

Outdoor survival clothing needs to be rugged, durable and suited to the environment. They need to have pockets, lots and lots of pockets.  Survival clothing for the outdoors also needs to be designed in such a way as to allow the wearer to be flexible.

They need to have  double stitching at stress points, optimally be reinforced at major wear sites (eg: knees, elbows, etc). Pants should have places to insert knee pads. Jackets should have extra material on the elbows, if possible choose jackets with hoodies. 

Best Survival Clothing Materials for the outdoors

Basically, There are 3 Types of Fabrics, Natural, Synthetic, and a Blend of the Two

Natural Fabrics:

Cotton: Probably one of the most common fabrics on the market, Although a bad choice as a base layer or mid-layer, depending on the type of cotton, it could make for a decent hardshell material (eg: oilskin cotton fabrics for jackets, waxed cotton jackets, the famous M65 is a cotton jacket that many survivalists, hunters, and bushcrafters have been wearing for decades. One of the cheapest materials out there. and is exceptionally Good for hot, dry climates.
Disadvantages: Once cotton gets wet, it takes ages to dry, doesn’t provide any insulation, and doesn’t wick moisture.

Duck cotton: Great material for work clothes, durable, strong, abrasion-resistant. The pros are that it is much tougher, water-resistant (to a degree), and moderately wind resistant. Decent hard-shell
Disadvantages: As a survival material, it has all the cons that cotton has.

Oilskin cotton: Durable, great water resistance. Good Hard shell material.
Disadvantages: Poor insulating qualities, hard to find as its not that popular anymore.

Wool: Great material for survival clothes, good insulating properties, Great choice as a mid-layer.
Disadvantages: Fragile, more costly than other materials.

Merino Wool: Great wicking properties, retains warmth when wet, has natural odor resistant abilities. Fantastic base layer.
Disadvantages: Expensive and delicate compared to synthetic fabrics.

Down: Great insulating ability, Perfect for dry cold climates. Good only indoors when kept dry.
Disadvantages: Once wet, it clumps and loses its insulating properties.

Synthetic Fabrics:

Polyester and Polypropylene: Great wicking material, but expect to get a little aromatic if you sweat in it, it does retain its insulating properties when wet though, which makes it great as a base layer. It’s a good cheaper alternative to Merino wool. Good base or mid-layer.

Nylon: Lightweight, high tensile strength, good abrasion resistance, and breathable, but not waterproof at all. If you see a nylon material that is labeled as waterproof it has most likely been coated with waterproofing of some sort. The problem with that is when nylon is coated it usually does not allow moisture to escape. Great material for ponchos and raincoats when waterproof treated.

Thinsulate: Excellent insulation abilities even when wet, very lightweight. Very often used as a gloves inner liner.

Polarguard: Often used in sleeping bags and higher-end parkas. Good insulation even when wet, also dries relatively fast.

Blended materials:

There are a large variety of materials that have been blended, it is beyond the scope of this article to list down each one, and to be honest, I haven’t tested most of them, so can’t judge the pros and cons of each one, but a common one that most people will have in their closet is polycotton.

Polycotton: Durable, high abrasion resistance, dries a lot faster than pure cotton. Kind of the best of both worlds material, but with the same drawbacks to a much lesser degree. That said it really does depend on the percentage of polyester to cotton and the company that produces it.

Natural Fabrics VS Synthetic Fabrics

How To Layer Clothes

Base layer (wicking layer) material that wicks moisture from the body and has decent insulation when damp or wet. The best material is Merino wool, a cheaper alternative is polyester.

Mid layer (warmth) this is your insulating layer, wool is your best choice. Thinsulate and fleece are budget-friendly alternatives.

Hardshell layer (windproof, rainproof, high abrasion resistance) is any tough material that has some insulating properties.

As an extra, I always carry a poncho and waterproof pants. This might seem like overkill to some, but in my opinion, being dry and warm makes a big difference in a survival situation and comfort level when camping, hiking, or going outdoors in general.

I am a firm believer in layering, it works, you can add or remove layers depending on the weather conditions. In the worst case scenarios, you can take off wet layers and dry them over a fire.

Choose the materials that suit your environment and that are within your budget. When it comes to survival clothes for the outdoors, try to go for the “buy once, cry once” motto. It is better to buy one good jacket than 5 cheap ones that will fall to pieces after a few wears.

Best Survival Clothing Brands

In the past survival clothing for the outdoors was mostly tactical attire, camo clothes bought in military surplus stores were the most common.

Nowadays, there are dozens of options to choose from, companies that sell good survival gear, they aren’t marketed as survival clothing (as there is no such thing at this time). But they do meet the criteria you are looking for in survival clothing.

For example, Carhart is a company that specializes in workwear, but their clothing would make great survival clothing, Fjallraven is a company that specializes in outdoor recreational and bush-crafting clothing, they make great jackets and pants,
Patagonia and Arc’teryx are both good, high-end brands.

Even tactical companies now have lines of their clothing that do not appear tactical, 5.11 Tactical, Propper, Alpha Industries, Helikon Tex all have decent clothing that is durable, moderately priced, and are now either designed to be covert or are common enough that they don’t stand out in a crowd.

Companies like Crye Precision and Tru Spec manufacture durable, well-designed clothing that unfortunately does stand out as tactical, but if that is not an issue for you. Then these are good companies for you to check out.

Essential to Survival Clothing for The Outdoors

These are some of the things I look for:

1. Material… choose the best material you can afford.
2. Stitching, look for even tight stitching, double stitched on stress points.
3. YKK zippers, the best brand zipper on the market… never had YKK zippers fail on me yet. backup Buttons are great.
4. Pockets, the more pockets the better.

Added benefits would be clothing that was reinforced at the high wear and tear areas, elbows, knees, etc.

A Friendly Reminder

Don’t forget to pack gloves, sunglasses, hat, shemagh, bandana, poncho, gaiters, a couple of extra pairs of underwear and at least 3 pairs of Merino wool socks in your Bugout Bag, oh and the best-danged pair of boots that you can afford. For more information on the Survival Boots

If I forgot anything, post a comment, I am always up for improving.