The KYDRA Club

Everyday Carry (EDC) in Singapore: Achieve More on Good Days and Be Better Prepared for Bad Ones

As its name suggests, Everyday Carry (EDC) refers to the collection of items you carry with you on a daily basis. More broadly, it refers to a sub-culture where people share the same passion for making conscious choices about their EDC. Think ‘What’s in my bag YouTubers’ meets ‘Doomsday preppers’.

The EDC community can be found on forums, social media, video platforms, and around blogs and speciality retailers, where fellow EDC fans share and inspire each other. As EDC practitioners, they are always striving to improve what they carry to increase their quality of life and level of preparedness for what life throws at them.

Benefits of being intentional about what we carry every day

Arguably, what you choose to carry (or not carry) tells us a lot about what you believe in, as well as how and where you spend your day. An office worker’s EDC would be vastly different from a craftsman's. A student in the United States carries very different items from an otherwise similar student in Singapore.

Your unique EDC gives a rare insight into who you are – perhaps much more so than what your horoscope or MBTI personality type is.

In fact, the EDC ethos is much like the Scout motto of “Be Prepared”. Planning and curating your EDC requires you to plan ahead and think about actual (and potential) contingencies you might need to tackle. And because you cannot possibly bring an entire storeroom’s worth of gear, you would also need to make trade-offs and compromises.

Implicit in having an EDC is the spirit of service to others. By taking responsibility for your own needs, you cease being a burden to others and are in a strong position to lend a helping hand to others who might not be as prepared as you are.

In this era of mindfulness and minimalism, everyday carry can also be regarded as a movement that encourages adherents to be intentional about what they buy and use, and trim away excess and waste.

Everyday carry and fitness

The spirit of preparedness and desire to live our best life also carries over to the fitness world, where we want to keep fit to live each day to the fullest while being ever ready to tough out the darkest of times when they do arise.

After all, all the gadgets and tools in the world would be useless in the hands of someone without the strength, mental fortitude and willpower to wield them and overcome whatever challenges that present themselves.

How to start an everyday carry for yourself

Taking your first steps into the world of EDC is easy – and who knows, this might just be the start of another lifelong passion!

First, do an audit of items you’re already bringing with you regularly. List them out, and evaluate how often you actually make use of them, whether there are overlaps in functionality that perhaps could be streamlined, and if there are any shortcomings that you’d like to address.

For every item that you flagged for upgrades, you can do research to see what others in the EDC community are using to fill the needs you have. Chances are someone, somewhere, has already gone through the trial and error process, so you don’t have to.

Common items that people bring along with them as part of their EDC include:

Expanded EDC items would depend on one’s vocation and lifestyle, and could include a bag, water flask, and task-specific items.

After you’ve gone through the personal EDC audit process, it’s time to test to see if your EDC holds up to the rigours of life.

Improving your everyday carry

Do a paper exercise to identify unexpected, but not uncommon contingencies that you have encountered before or could plausibly see yourself encountering. Here are some examples worth exploring: 

1) Getting caught in an unexpected thunderstorm.
2) Taking a tumble and suffering minor cuts.
3) Accidentally dropping something outdoors at night.
4) Needing to pull an all-nighter for work at a moment’s notice.
5) Your building has a power or water outage that lasts a few hours.

With this simple stress test, you might discover you might need to add certain items, information, or skills to your repertoire to be better prepared for these scenarios, and be an asset to your loved ones.

Your EDC is like a snapshot of who you are at a single point in life. It rarely stays the same since your EDC grows with you. As you encounter real events in your life, you might discover more areas you wish to reinforce, retire items you don’t need, or take advantage of new products that hit the market.

At Kydra, we believe in making gear that is versatile, dependable, and able to help you perform at your best even during your worst days. We believe that Kydra apparel can be an integral part of any EDC.

Share your EDC or bag dump with us!

So, what’s in your EDC or bag? Share it with us on Instagram by tagging @kydraofficial and using the hashtag #KydraEDC.

We hope you’ll stay well and may your EDC help you stay prepared for whatever comes ahead.

General Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed here are of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of KYDRA. Any content provided by our writers are of their opinion, and are not intended to malign any organization, company, individual and more.