Avery Trufelman

It's not like a company supplying to the military is going to be like, oops, we made a couple extra hundred thousand jackets.

Clothing for the 21st century army is made to order by private companies who stand to make a lot of money.

So many of the brands that you know and love are in fact military contractors.

They make a lot of clothes for the military or for special operations.

They're really, really, really interconnected.

Like Arcteryx does it.

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.