Some trends follow fashion but may have originated out of function. Anyone interested in hunting and the outdoors has seen the evolution of camouflage originating out of the military and passing into the consumer realm where photo realism is state-of-the-art. This is where fashion or commercialism has broadened the application of camo clothes to other products such as knives, guns, bows, arrows, bags, hammocks, and more.

This is all good if you don’t want to be seen, but what happens in the field when you drop some equipment on the ground? When breaking camp or leaving a blind, will you leave with all of your equipment? To compound this potential hazard, imagine being in an emergency situation, under stress, in a hurry, and in dim light. The best tools to have would stand out from the surroundings. There are now blaze-orange camo patterns that are undetected by color-blind animals that are being produced primarily to keep hunters from being mistaken for game, but I’ve recently seen this applied to a hunting knife which in my opinion is brilliant (in more than one way).

So, consider acquiring emergency and survival tools in bright and contrasting colors so that they can be found fast in a time of critical need.