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EDC, short for everyday carry, is a term adopted by gadget, gear, and outdoor adventure enthusiasts that describes the essential items that we carry, whether to solve problems in the great outdoors or stay connected during our 9 to 5. These EDC gadgets can be as simple as a phone, wallet, or keys, or as specialized tools as a multitool, flashlight, or a pocketknife. Power banks, smartwatches, heck, even a drone are all EDCs.
Think of it a bit like a personal survival kit for daily life.
I'm quite into my EDC gear and even go so far as having different carry for different occasions. For this article, I'm keeping things simple and highlighting my top five EDC items -- stuff that most people would find useful and bring around with them. I hope you'll take some of my recommendations, but don't forget that the great thing about EDC is that you can customize things to suit your needs!
Also: 10 tiny gadgets I never leave home without (and how they work)
Without doubt, my top EDC item nowadays has to to be a power bank, and the Nitecore NW5000 is as close to perfect of an EDC power bank as I've tested.
Everything needs power these days, including my phone, smartwatch, earbuds, flashlight, and more. As much as I love having big, huge power banks, or even a power station, I'm not going to carry these out and about with me to run errands. My power bank of choice has to be light and unobtrusive.
And things don't get much lighter or more unobtrusive than the Nitecore NW5000, this ultrathin, ultralight power bank. This magnetically attaches to the back of my phone, barely adding any weight or bulk to my iPhone. There's a USB-C port for charging other items, as well, like my aforementioned earbuds and flashlight. And the whole power bank is clad in tough and stylish carbon fiber.
It's a perfect daily carry power bank, and it's rated IPX5 for water-proofing, so it's happy being exposed to rain.
Link: Nitecore NW5000 review
Also: The best power banks you can buy
While we're slowly shifting over from wired to wireless charging, there are plenty of things that still need a cable. And there's nothing more annoying to carry than a bunch of random cables.
This is why I switched to the Rolling Square InCharge XS, a 4-in-1 keychain charging cable. This handles all my charging needs -- USB-C to USB-C, USB-C to Lightning, USB-A to USB-C and USB-A to Lightning. It can also handle power transfers up to 240W so it's perfect for charging my laptop!
I no longer need microUSB when out and about, but if you do, Rolling Square make the inCharge XL 6-in-1 cable that covers all the bases -- USB-A to USB-C, USB-A to Lightning, USB-A to microUSB, USB-C to USB-C, USB-C to Lightning and USB-C to microUSB.
Link: InCharge XS review
I like my EDC (everyday carry) gadgets, but when I travel by air, I almost always end up having to empty my pockets of a lot of useful stuff. I find it handy and convenient to have a screwdriver, scissors, and a pair of pliers close at hand, but most multitools are a no-go at airports and on commercial aircraft, often confiscated.
But not the TSA-friendly NexTool Mini 9-in-1 Mini Sailor Pliers Lite multitool. NexTool's mini multitool fits the bill perfectly. It has no blade and features needle-nose pliers with wire cutters, tiny scissors, a bottle opener, a SIM extractor, and Phillips head and flathead screwdrivers. There's also a handy keyring for attaching it to your keys.
It's not only great for me when it comes to air travel, but I live in the UK, where blades can be frowned upon, so having a tool without a blade altogether means fewer headaches (and I find that the scissors doubles as a blade a lot of the time).
Link: NexTool Mini 9-in-1 Mini Sailor Pliers Lite multitool review
I know that everyone has a flashlight built into their phone these days, and everyone has a phone within arm's reach, but I don't find waving a smartphone convenient. Also, I don't know about you, but if I need to hold a flashlight with my teeth, I'd rather it be a small keychain flashlight and not a smartphone.
Earlier this year I bought a Nitecore Tube 2.0 keychain flashlight, and it has become my keychain flashlight of choice. The polymer case is tough and can survive being smashed around in a pocket for months on end, the light is a good range, from moonlight mode to a bright 55 lumens, the flashlight has excellent runtime and the battery can last a year between recharges if not used. And, rather than any sort of complex controls where I need to remember some long combinations of keypresses, it has a simple on/off button that's easy to use yet not so finicky that it can accidentally come on in my pocket!
Link: Nitecore Tube 2.0.
OK, this is a weird bit of EDC -- a thin, metal pry tool. Surely this is a niche item that gets little or no use? Oh how wrong you are!
The Mini iSesamo pry tool is one of my most-used tools, used for everything from prying open electronics, scraping labels and residual adhesive off things, opening letters and packages, marking up metal sheets for cutting, cleaning my fingernails before taking a photo of something where my hands are in the shot, and much more. Just the other day I used it to apply spackle to cracks in a wall.
It's such a versatile tool -- I've bent and forced and twisted mine for well over two years and and it's still going strong. No bends, no significant chips, and no signs of quitting. The gadget is tough as nails, yet gentle enough to avoid damaging delicate components.
I've been carrying EDC gear since before the like of MacGyver made it cool (remember MacGyver?). Starting out with a pocket knife and a MagLite (remember MagLites?), I've tried, tested, and destroyed so much EDC stuff over the years through use and abuse that I now have a good idea of what's good, what's not so good, and how to quickly find out which category something falls into!
You can be confident that anything and everything that I list has been tested to the limits, and is something that I'm willing to carry and rely on!
EDC stands for every day carry, and is used to refers to the essential items people carry daily to be prepared for whatever life throws at them.
It depends on your situation and circumstances. Everyone's circumstances and needs are different, depending on whether they want to start a fire, communicate with others, cut things, or open bottles, so only you know what's important for you!
Start small. Don't fill your pockets to the brim right from the get go. Add one thing at once -- something like a pen, penknife, or multitool is a good start -- and get used to using one thing at a time.
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