About Us

M.A.D. Gear Co. is a small family-owned business currently based out of Hollywood, Maryland. Although we started off making 8-bit "Nuclear Doomsday" themed merch, we decided to expand our operations after the infamous AT&T outage in late February of 2024. Seeing how disjointed the world became for a brief moment with limited communications brought attention to a problem... We didn't have a plan.

Planning is Everything

We (Sam and Jess) like to think of ourselves as well prepared and well organized. We have checklists for everything, homemade references for things we find important, seemingly endless organizational aides, white boards with plans and to-do lists which get updated daily... you get the idea. And yet, we didn't have a plan for when things went sideways. In early March after the AT&T outage, we sat down and came up with a basic, expandable planner which would allow us to coordinate getting back into contact with each other safely and expeditiously. After some tweaking and material sourcing, the Contingency Planner was born. Since then, we have sold hundreds of our planners, and we get more efficient at production every day!

Mission Statement

Our mission is to provide families or small groups with a structured planning tool which, when used appropriately, allows for an expeditious and orderly response to any given scenario. 

Our approach to "Preparedness"

We don't believe that fear-mongering does any good. We'd rather folks spend that anxious energy making an actionable plan, thereby relieving stress rather than adding to an already precarious situation. Perhaps it goes without saying, but it's too late to make a plan when SHTF. Planning provides structure to fall back on when a shocking situation occurs. Exercising a plan develops muscle memory, and when done correctly, increases the odds of a successfully executed plan.

Not every contingency scenario is nuclear Armageddon (although improbable, it's not off the table). Having lived in Florida and Oklahoma, proximity to recurring natural disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes provides valid context for pursuing preparedness as a virtue. Not every scenario is national level conflict, an invasion of the continental US, etc. We take a practical approach to preparedness, and no matter the scenario you're preparing for, we hope that we make your planning easier.