Avery Trufelman

1,895,000 pairs of work clothes, 10,000 khaki shirts, 884,000 navy raincoats, 5,000 parkas.

I could keep going.

This was all in one month.

It was all for a song.

The War Assets Administration could not get rid of this stuff fast enough.

Yeah, after World War II, I would say there was a generation that just saw it as like the place to get underwear and like a place to get jeans and socks.

Yeah, exactly.

It was the Uniqlo of the 50s.

You know, you need something, you just go to the surplus store.

A lot of gear companies that we know and love today got their start by selling surplus, or they sort of padded their inventory by selling surplus.

Like REI was a great example.

REI

You know, they've been around for a long time.

They've been around since the 30s, but a member of their co-op was a veteran and was able to get early access to some of the surplus stuff.

And this was a really great way for a young company, in addition to making their own stuff, to be like, and you can also get surplus here.

You know, it's like, oh, their shelves are suddenly much more full.

And they were sort of making their own gear alongside selling the surplus.

It was a great boon for a lot of companies.

In the 70s, they're selling berets and military jackets with extra patches on them.

It's like the military look becomes this trend.