Can gear鈥攁nd the consumerism that drives its sale聽and development鈥攕ave聽the world? That鈥檚 what the Army Rangers behind think, and聽they鈥檙e opening factories in war zones in an attempt to prove it. The goal: spread peace through economic opportunity and education.听
Early last year, I met a couple of rangers in a bar. Five minutes into a conversation about the chaos in the Middle East, one of them scooted in real close, looked me in the eye, and said, 鈥淲eird knows weird.听Wes, you and I are going to be friends.鈥澛
At that point, I was pretty convinced that Griff was going to murder me, possibly to create some sort of hat. But fast forward less than twelve months,聽and I鈥檝e visited him up in Seattle three times, crashed on his couch for a total of two weeks, , , and even bought his wife nice聽flowers for her birthday. (Actually, that was probably the closest he ever came to killing me.)聽
The story I wrote about Combat Flip Flops聽last year, back when IndefinitelyWild was still a聽part of Gizmodo, was probably my favorite of the year. Curious why a couple of crazy guys think flip flops and sarongs can defeat terrorism? .听
What makes these guys neat is that they鈥檙e not a couple of bleeding-heart eggheads. They鈥檙e normal dudes from Middle America聽who joined the military out of patriotism, went through hell to make it to聽the elite ranks of the rangers, killed a bunch of people they thought were our enemies, then realized that, in order to fulfill their mission of defeating terrorism, killing was counterproductive. Their experience in Iraq聽and Afghanistan (and,聽since then, around the world), taught them that it鈥檚 economic opportunity and education (especially for women) that can effect long-term, positive change in war zones.听
And they鈥檙e putting their money where their mouths are, selling everything and maxing out their credit cards to open factories聽and employ women聽and enroll聽them in school in countries聽like Afghanistan. In an effort to make the numbers work, Griff even moved out of the nice, brand-new home he built for his family. He聽now lives with them in a聽modest, rented house across the street.
The plan's聽working. Last year, they donated over 60聽years of schooling to women in Afghanistan and cleared 1,533 square meters of land mines in Laos.听
Now, they have a chance to do much more. On Friday night, they鈥檒l appear on ABC鈥檚 Shark Tank TV show聽and ask the panel of angel investors for the ability to scale their business. You should tune in to watch:聽Griff and Lee are always entertaining. It鈥檚 also something our readers helped make happen, as the show鈥檚 producers first heard about Combat Flip Flops聽on IndefinitelyWild.听鈥淲e want to promote peace through business, not bullets,鈥 says聽Griff.
Their episode airs聽February 5聽at 9 p.m.听ET.听聽