The Current Collapse Shortages in Venezuela: Clothing, Shoes, and Fuel By J. G. Martinez D. for The Organic Prepper
Dear readers, most of you already should know my country was a successful oil and derivatives producer until the red plague devastated it. Political facts that led to man-made disasters apart, there are some crucial aspects this fuel crisis has made me more aware than ever.
First, you really need a place with a garden to produce your stuff and the means to defend it. (I think I had mentioned this already). Second, you´re going to need much more than just canned food, guns, and ammo. If you plan for a six months disaster, very likely this can last 5 years. Don´t ask me how I know that.
This being said, you´re going to need much more than just what I have mentioned. Everything we used to have on the cheap just in a few weeks, suddenly is under jeopardy, threatened by the coming and goings of international trade, now under a new and fairly gloomy light. Cheap shoes, clothing, blankets, I start to wonder if they are going to be there in a few more months. Once stocks run dry, prices are going to go up. Given anything is left.
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With this situation and everyone´s income diminished severely, the procurement of some basic needs has been delayed. Underwear buying, shoes, and other stuff we need have been put on hold…indefinitely. And yes, these items are as important as the other ones. Maybe not “urgent” but important, yes, they are.
Clothing
In all-seasons weather, where you need more clothes, one of the solutions is to have tons of good quality clothes. Fashion can wait for better times. You will have to use the same clothes maybe for two or three years, that´s why you´re going to need good quality stuff. Depending on how vigorously you wash it, it should last longer. (One of my “green” devices is going to be exactly for that very same application).
Our weather is normally as hotter, and much more humid, than your average summer. Therefore, we tend to use our same clothes until these are faded and worn, because they are not used to buying clothes for the “new season”. In my case, I´d been buying clothes a piece every couple of months, needed it or not. That was when I had a good salary, but I had already understood that having plenty of clothes and using them alternately should make them last longer.
Shoes
Same with shoes. Most of my college years I used two pairs of welder´s boots with steel toes (they were comfortable enough and dirt cheap), one pair of cowboy boots, and a pair of sports shoes I used sparely. I´m talking 5 years. My daily driver was the cowboy boots, and they were repaired beyond believing. I used to walk a lot, and the leather held up pretty well. At least in city conditions. In, other soil and terrain, duration surely decreases.
I am looking now to get a pair of jungle boots (terrain at my cottage is rocky, and snakes are abundant) and make some knee-high ankle protection for the kiddo, just like those used in the trench wars. I have been thinking than some soft leather properly treated should work as a good start, but that is material for coming articles once I can produce my own hide from some native species.
For those with more manual skills, I would advise getting some shoes repairing material and I mean the good stuff. Kilometer of thread in diverse sizes, and a good quality leather sewing machine (after a couple of years, polymer-based fabrics may start to show wear, unless they are extremely good quality) is going to be a quite good investment. Experience has taught me enough these last few years, and I´d rather have a few profitable skills than just one specialization in this now confined-by-disease new world.
I would advise quite seriously those in warmer climates to get a few pairs of leather sandals. These can be repaired at home (make sure to look and download for some online tutorials and get the materials you may need) and could last for years without excessive wear. In weather such as Tibet, sherpas use Yak leather sandals, with thick wool socks, and have been using them for a long time. Maybe this would help to make your rubber boots last longer.
