What's the Brushfire Bag?

It's the bag we wish we had when we drove straight into a brushfire on the way home from school last year. It's the bag we wish we had when we were hiding in our bathroom from an F3 tornado the year before that. It's the bag we wish our in-laws had when they were in Asheville in 2024 for Hurricane Helene. It's the bag we wish our friends in Boone had. It's the bag we wish our neighbor had when she got locked out of her house and cut herself on a fence post trying to get back in. It's the bag you wish you had when you can't drag your bugout bag to Grandma's.

It's the bag we wish we had now, as dozens of countries and podcast bros tell us to prepare but they won't say for what.

So we're making it.

Let's talk about the design

We're in the prototype stage. We're talking to soft goods designers. They're impressed. They looked at our full design. They say we're way ahead of the game, and they're ready to make a tech pack. We expect to have a physical prototype within weeks.

We need funding to make it happen.

(Hit the second tab for more specs.)

It's a bugout bag, but it's not a bugout bag. It's made for everyday life, plus the unexpected stuff. It holds a lot of gear, and it organizes everything. Because... do you really want to be rifling through a glorified backpack during a disaster? Do you like reaching into a dark chasm of nothingness?

We've been making this bag for a year. We just didn't know it. We were collecting all kinds of bags, slapping Velcro patches on them, adding panels and pouches. We became bag connoisseurs, bag sommeliers, bag snobs. We got close to what we wanted, but not close enough. This fall, we finally sat down and powered through a spec booklet to hand a soft goods designer.

We already have interest from a few studios that can make a physical prototype and a tech pack. Once we have that, we can do a run of 500+ bags.

What we love about this bag:

First, it's got a stiff, rigid frame with padded lining on the outside. So it's soft, but it also has structure. It's way easier to put things in than a regular bugout bag.

It's got two drink pouches, so you've got water (or coffee) for you and someone else--like a kid, or a grandparent.

It's got 11 dividers with hook and loop (Velcro) tabs, so you can organize the main compartment anyway you want. Want to put a tablet or a laptop in the back? There's a divider for that.

It's got a front pouch and two side pouches.

It's got 4 different modular panel pouches to hold pens, flashlights, battery banks, cables, inhalers, medical supplies, whatever you need. They hook right onto the outside of the bag.

The top lid has mesh pouches for maps, documents, cables, little snacks, trail mix, whatever you want. It has a nylon strap that hooks around the headrest, so the top stays open while you drive.

The bag is 18.5 inches long, 10 inches deep, and 13 inches tall. It fits right in the front seat of a car, or the back seat, or the trunk. It packs a lot, but it's not enormous. The size sits right at 30-35L.

What's wrong with regular bugout bags?

Well, I don't know about you, but we hate digging through backpacks for snacks for our kids or half-face respirators or goggles when we're trying to drive through a brushfire. We hate digging through loose, crumply duffle bags for ponchos, fire blankets, flashlights, and phone chargers when we're wading through a flood or sitting in the parking lot watching a tornado chug through town.

Don't you?

We hate it when the power goes out while we're traveling and we need to fish through a bunch of junk for a security key or a portable hard drive. Of course, it's not junk. It's all vital survival gear. But when you're trying to find one specific thing, all that gear looks and feels like junk, because it's in the way.

We hate organizing things, only for things to still look disorganized.

We also hate buying pouches and pouches and more pouches and rigging imperfect bags so they do some of what we need.

What if a disaster hits while you're visiting your in-laws for the holidays? What if you want to bring your full-face respirator to the family reunion, but you don't want to make things weird?

So, that's the problem with regular bugout bags. They're made for you to stuff your supplies in and then stick in a closet until an emergency hits right when you're already at home waiting for something bad to happen. They're made to show off to your prepper friends. They're not so good when you leave for work, to go run a few errands, or when you travel to see family, or go to a conference, and you have no idea what's going to befall you.

Patrol bags, tactical bags, gear bags, camera bags. We tried them all. They all have things we like. So we put them all together. It's one big beautiful Frankenstein of a bag. If Marie Kondo packed a bugout bag...

This would be it.

So let's talk specifics:

Right now, we're prototyping the bag. We have a full design and a tech brief. We're talking to soft goods designers. They're excited. They tell us the bag is completely makeable.

Next week, a soft goods designer will start designing a tech pack and prototype based on our design. You can see the full design. We uploaded it for you.

Why back us?

When you support our project, you'll gain access to the back end. We'll give you weekly updates on the design and prototyping process. We'll share updates and detailed photos of the designs and the prototype when it's done. Finally, we'll let you know when it's heading into production and when it's ready to ship.

Before we launch the full public campaign, we'll send a stealth launch link to our prototype backers. You'll get the opportunity to order the back before anyone else.

When will the actual bags be ready?

Soft goods designers said we'll be making bags in 9-12 months. They're impressed with the detail we've given them, and they've said we're already way ahead of the normal process for a bag like this.

When you're not having a disaster, it's just a cool bag.

When you need it...

It's way more.