This Chinese Shovel Has Your Back When the Apocalypse Comes

Ice axe? Check. Tactical knife? Check. Kitchen sink? Check.

July 15, 2016 9:00 am

You know what a smartphone really is?

A multi-tool. The Swiss Army knife evolved for the digital age. Because humans love efficiency, in our thing-a-ma-jiggers as in our lives.

Know what a smartphone won’t do, though? Hack through a sheet of ice or an oaken tree trunk. For that, you need something more analogue. Something like a Shen Ao shovel, a line of multipurpose Chinese excavators that’ll serve you well when the apocalypse comes.

Or, like, your next camping trip.

Each one of the ingenious shovels is made up of a series of self-locking tools that adjoin to create a 2-to-4 foot handle. They offer 11 different models that vary by the component tools hidden inside. Options include but are not limited to: flashlights, tactical knives, ice axes, manual chainsaws, magnesium whistles and 2,200-mAh USB-enabled batteries.

But that’s not all — each of those component tools is also a multitool in its own right: the knife house a bottle opener and a firestarter, for example.

So, it’s basically a Russian nesting doll of survivalist know-how.

The shovels are available at a number of US retailers, or you can check them out at Salt Lake City’s Oudoor Retailer Market in August.

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