LANDGAP: Bridging the Preparedness Gap, Together.
Hello, I am Ryan Marshall Smith, co-founder of the LANDGAP brand and a new father.
I used to have no awareness or interest in terms like "survival," "disasters," and "emergencies," and I even scoffed at them. Like most people, I believed that life was filled with too many trivial matters, and although crises were happening around the world at every moment, I never thought that these crises would come upon me, or even if they did, I believed that prepping in advance would be futile.
However, certain events changed my attitude towards these issues.
-In 2015, while camping with friends in the southern mountains, we encountered an exceptionally terrifying storm, and one of our dear friends lost his leg forever (it was baffling that six of us were together but not a single one had first aid supplies or tourniquets in our backpacks).
-In 2018, I personally experienced the Brazos flood, a true disaster-level flood. I was trapped in a place without signal or light for a grueling 17 hours, and that feeling of helplessness remained ingrained in my heart, occasionally haunting me in nightmares.
-In 2019, with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, I realized how lacking my usual preparedness habits were. Those days became exceptionally difficult.
I dare not predict what the future holds, but I no longer wish to passively accept the whims of fate. Therefore, I started watching shows like "Man vs. Wild," "Alone," and purchasing books on crisis survival skills. I also joined discussion groups to gain insights and ideas from others.
However, I noticed that the topic of emergency preparedness still remains confined to a small circle, limited to camping enthusiasts, professional adventurers, and those who constantly feel unsafe and worry about crises. It seems that the general public is more focused on sports teams, entertainment, fashion shows, business, beauty, and digital technology. While there are some emergency survival products available on large shopping platforms, the information is fragmented, making it difficult for someone with no experience to grasp (perhaps because it caters to a specific subset of people). I believe this is a state of affairs that needs to be changed or a gap that deserves to be filled. This inspired the desire for me and my partners to establish the LANDGAP brand.
Our goal is to provide practical and reliable emergency preparedness tools and resources for the general public. We firmly believe that everyone, regardless of their identity, income, or interests, should have a basic understanding of crisis management that is simple and clear.
In other words, we want to make emergency preparedness convenient and accessible to the general public. We aim to be an "accessible and vertically specialized" platform—allowing those with no experience to easily get started and providing experienced individuals with the resources they need.
Certainly, our brand is still young, and our team consists of individuals passionate about positively impacting others. Our website is also in its early stages, and many ideas discussed in the early stages still require effort to implement (such as community discussions and sharing). But we hold onto our dreams and together with you, standing in front of the website, we aim to fill the gaps in preparedness and build a bridge for emergency preparedness.
Bridging the Preparedness Gap, Together.