Avery Trufelman

Patagonia says they don't do it, but they used to do it under another company.

Gore-Tex does it.

Vibram does it.

Danner does it.

It's really, really common.

If you are a company who is trying to do business with the military, the AUSA conference is the place to be.

It's where all kinds of companies from gun manufacturers to health startups to cell phone carriers set up booths and try to impress the generals who are strolling around.

Also present are a number of well-known clothing companies and suppliers.

Many of them ignored me or shrugged me off a number of times before they would finally do me the kindness of outright refusing to talk to me.

Refuse to talk.

I wasn't that surprised.

I knew this would be hard to report on.

I mean, already, if you look at the websites of outdoor companies who contract with the military or make these special ops clothes, those clothes are really hard to find.

Like, they bury it on their website a little bit.

You have to dig around for these clothes and just know they exist.

Like, Patagonia used to put their own name on the uniforms and special ops clothes they made until they started manufacturing them under a company called Lost Arrow Project.

And now it's a rebranded independent company called ForgeLine Solutions.

And I was trying to find someone who could just talk to me in an in-depth way about this.

Like, at Functional Fabric Fair, I saw Vibram had a booth.

And you know Vibram, they make the shoe soles.