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Inside Outdoo
that larger pay rate, and that reliable,
safe job every time.”
Due to some logistical and geopoliti-
cal challenges, sandal production in Af-
ghanistan had to be suspended, but the
company re-deployed its efforts in Co-
lumbia, a country torn apart by years of
narco-financed counter-insurgency wars.
Near Bogota, the company partnered
with a local manufacturer known for
high-end leather footwear. Today, they
operate a facility that runs at capacity
producing Combat Flip Flops’ gr wing
collection of sandals. The raw materi-
als, from cow to finished product, are
sourced within five miles of the factory.
Not that Combat Flip Flops has
given up on Afghanistan. Having served
multiple tours of duty in the country,
and witnessing firsthand the persis-
tence and creativity of its people, both
Griff and Lee harbor deep and personal
connections to its future prosperity. So
with the help of a local aid organiza-
tion, CFF found a women-owned factory
in Kabul that was making curtains and
uniforms for the growing hotel market
and e sa-
rongs and shemaghs scarves are now
sewn and embroidered at this factory
for CFF, and the purchase of each one
places an Afghan girl in secondary
school for up to a month. In 2015,
the program amounted to 59 years of
schooling for Afghan women and girls.
Keep in mind, Afghanistan is a
country where the literacy rate among
women is about 15 percent. “Think of
how easy it is to radicalize a child with
no education because his mother had
no idea of the value of an education,’”
said Griff at a recent TEDx Talk on
manufacturing peace through trade.
Indeed, 30-plus years of war and
tribal conflicts has led to a massive
population of widowed women who lack
the skills to provide for themselves.
Another former soldier turned philan-
thropist runs a program in Jalalabad
training Afghan widows to read and sew.
During a four month course, Afghan
widows are taught fundamental literacy,
math, hygiene and sewing. At the end of
the course, the women are given a non-
powered, home sewing machine and
the basic skills to earn a living. Since
thes women don’t have power, lots of
materials on hand, and only basic sew-
ing skills, Combat Flip Flops designed a
simple product that could be made just
about anywhere. That’s the story behind
CFF’s Harvest Belt.
Then there’s the Peacemaker brace-
let made in Laos. Rural residents of
this Southeast Asian country still suffer
the effects of some 270 million bombs
that were dropped by the U.S. military
during the Vietnam War. That’s the
equivalent of a B-52 load of aluminum-
laden explosives falling out of an air-
plane every 8 minutes for 9 years, said
Griff. More than 85 million of those
mines still lie in the earth unexploded.
In order to farm the land, graze ani-
mals or simply to collect the scrap met-
al to melt down into everyday utensils,
locals detonate these bombs, typically
without proper protocol and safety
measures. As might be expected, these
unregulated detonations often lead to
accidental deaths.
“I have seen what happens when a
kid picks up a live round,” said Griff.
To help combat this problem, CFF
is working with local artisans in Laos
to make bracelets from the scraps of
bombs and mines detonated properly.
CFF then donates money from each
Peacemaker bracelet sold to safely clear
three square meters of unexploded or-
dinance in the region. In 2015, nearly
2,000 square meters of landmines were
safely removed through the program.
Continuing around the world, CFF
also is working with a fashion incubator
in Seattle that trains vets to sew and
places them in jobs. The Chest Rig neck-
tie from CFF, made from hemp and re-
cycled PET, is a product of this program.
Over in Eu
in Kosovo, a country torn apart by war
in the late 1990s that today faces a
poverty rate upward of 29 percent and
an unemployment rate of more than 35
percent. Here Griff and company work
with a local embroidery shop to do their
embroidering and make patches for
their accessory collection.
As one can see, it’s a lot to convey,
and Combat Flip Flops has come up
with several clever catch phrases in at-
tempts to crystalize its mission: “Manu-
facturing Peace through Trade,” “Bad
for Running. Worse for Fighting,” “We
make cool stuff in dangerous places,”
“Welcome to the Unarmed Forces,”
“Business, Not Bullets” and “Manufac-
turing Stoke,” among them.
But now through a new POS dis-
play, outdoor stores can dedicate a
small piece of floor space to help CFF
spread the stoke. We are confident it
is a story that will resonate with out-
door consumers.
A worker at the facility in Bogota
Griff showing CFF’s Poseidon sandal
An Afghan women works on a CFF
sarong at the factory in Kabul