The Two Things You Need to Prevent A Cougar Attack

Hit the trails, start a campfire, pitch a tent — all without a cougar breathing down your neck.

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10% of all sales help fund more mountain lion habitat in California.

Gear that's got your back

  • At CougarSmart we've been there — you're just hiking along, or maybe you're knee-deep in a river fly fishing, or like 30km into an ultra, and you get that unshakeable sense that there's something stalking you and it's probably a cougar. While you can't (and we can't) do everything to stop a cougar from pouncing, we believe, and science seems to agree, that our gear can actually deter a mountain lion from pouncing on you while you're not looking.
  • Our gear is high-viz and that's important because it helps keep you seen and safe. Whether that's from search and rescue or a ranger rolling down an old logging road in their U.S government issued jeep wrangler, it'll be easier to keep track of your team (or little ones) when you can see them like a highlighter at a rave.
  • Everything is ultra lightweight. The trail shirt at 4oz feels like wearing nothing at all, and the jacket folds up super tiny and weighs 8 oz but is super wind resistant and keeps a light rain at bay too.
  • That's the cut of it. It's lightweight, quality gear printed and shipped from the USA, it's cougar-deterrent, it's visible from a long ways away. A solid safety choice in cougar country.

What you need to know

Mountain Lions are also known as:
  • Pumas
  • Trail Sharks
  • Cougars
Trail Sharks attack most often when:
  • they have the element of surprise
  • Their predatory chase instinct is activated
  • They're super hungry

By wearing Cowbum gear, you are:
  • Removing the element of surprise. Our gear employs highly sophisticated biomimicry that makes it appear as though you are always looking behind you.

  • Immediately challenging their predatory chase instinct. This kicks in because a mountain lion doesn't want to miss any deer or tasty smaller animals that may be running by. Our highly engineered design makes you appear as a giant predator immediately, likely causing a puma to cease the pursuit.

  • Making it clear to the Trail Shark that you aren't worth the effort. Mountain lions don't want to attack humans, but hunger can make them do strange things. We get it, we just don't want to be got by it. The eye shapes on our gear are probably super scary to a cougar, so they won't waste their precious energy on you.
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Real talk though

True story, studies in Botswana have shown that lions are way less likely to attack something with false eyes on it's backside.

We know it's pretty unlikely to encounter a mountain lion in the wild, and while we definitely believe that Cowbum CougarSmart gear can actually help in the event that a cougar chases you and tries to surprise pounce you, we make absolutely no guarantees.

More importantly friends, is that mountain lions, cougars, trail sharks, and pumas face a growing threat to their existence every year. Declining habitat, poisoning, bad conservation laws, fear, and ignorance have severely threatened the future of these awesome critters. We love the land that they live on, we love to hike through it, and camp on it, and preserving that for countless future generations is important to us. That's why we donate 10% of proceeds to conservation organizations that work to preserve and increase habitat for the long term.

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