Manufacturers report a spike in demand for underground shelters since Russia invaded Ukraine, but an anthropologist who studies preppers says the real pros don't do bunkers

• Insider spoke with three companies that build underground shelters about the conflict in Ukraine.
• Representatives of all three said there has been a spike in interest around bunkers.

US-based companies specializing in building underground bunkers are reporting a surge in customer inquiries in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. But an anthropologist who studies doomsday preppers says that the most hardcore members of the community scorn fallout shelters as a viable survival option against the threat of a nuclear war between global superpowers.

Violent flare-ups in the US and abroad tend to goose sales of certain products in the US, like firearms and pepper spray. But existential threats like nuclear war or climate change have prompted the rich to look at more expensive options, including fallout bunkers, massive stockpiles of food and water, and even specially outfitted apocalypse condos.

According to Gary Lynch — the general manager of Texas-based Rising S Company, which specializes in survival shelters — he has received an uptick in phone calls requesting information about the company's underground bunkers since Russia invaded Ukraine.

Lynch provided Insider with documentation showing that his company sold five bunkers on February 24, at prices ranging from $70,000 to $240,000. He said Rising S Company typically sells anywhere from two to six bunkers a month, and that the winter is usually a slow season.

"Russia is a superpower, and the threat of a superpower being in conflict with us is more of a touchy subject," Lynch said. "There are people alive today that remember the Cuban Missile Crisis."

The North Carolina-based U.S. Buildings Group reported a similar trend in a call with Insider.

"We are seeing an increase in overall interest, as far as the international unrest is having an impact on our business," said U.S. Buildings Group marketing director David Davis. "Speaking with some of our sales teams, that's coming up in conversations."

Davis also provided Insider with data on consumer inquiries for the company's bunker product. For the month of February, 47 of 97 total discussions with prospective clients took place since the invasion, a 130% spike from February 2021. In addition to survival shelters, U.S. Buildings Group also sells a range of products including freestanding steel buildings and carports.

Atlas Survival Shelters CEO Ron Hubbard told Insider in September that he's experienced a boost to his Texas-based business from conservatives who are unhappy with President Joe Biden's performance in the White House. But in recent days, he said he's getting more calls than usual.

"I've never seen it like this because we've seen Russia invade a sovereign country," Hubbard told Insider. "A lot of people who were on the fence are like, 'Let's do this.'"

Hubbard did not provide documents to show an increase in sales, as Atlas has mostly seen the uptick concentrated around initial inquiries from customers.

"It's mostly phone calls," Hubbard said. "It all starts with a phone call. They say, 'What do you have in stock? What can we get really quick?' There's always a panic buy when things like this happen."

'Watch it all burn'

Interest around underground bunkers for the wealthy and the prepared tends to soar in times of intense conflict. However, the general concept of underground survival bunkers may not resonate with hardcore preppers, according to an expert who has studied the community.

"Out of all the preppers that I've talked to — hundreds of preppers — no one owns a bunker," Dr. Chad Huddleston, an instructor at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, told Insider. "They watch shows like 'Doomsday Preppers' and laugh at those people. Because it's tactically silly. If you have a bunker and anyone finds out about it and there's an actual societal collapse, then everyone's going to go to your bunker."

What's more, Huddleston said that the preppers he's interviewed — mostly white men with jobs and families who hail from a wide spectrum of political backgrounds, ranging from radical libertarians to extreme leftists — find the bunkers prohibitively expensive.

Huddleston added that his contacts within the prepping community are highly "practical" and pessimistic about surviving an event as cataclysmic as widespread nuclear war. Rather than saving up for shelter options, most prepare "death bags" for such an occasion.

"Basically their thoughts are, 'If shit gets really bad, I'm just going to pop these pills and drink whiskey and watch it all burn. Who wants to live in a nuclear wasteland?'" he said.