Our Story

Our Mission

Our Mission is to honor the service of our country’s active military and veterans by providing a respectful and dignified way for veterans and their families to dispose of previously-worn fatigues.

To avoid having fatigues end up in a landfill or be destroyed, we are creating products by recycling the fatigues into artful accessories to remember and honor the men and women who wore them in service to our country. These are the people who have created our American fabric.

Veterans who see fatigues recycled into our products realize their service is not forgotten but rather displayed as a sign of appreciation for our active military and veterans.

Service families and others who buy our products show pride and respect in their veterans and in our country.

“The dormant fatigues in post-military storage still hold the courage and dedication they held on the first day they were worn. I feel our company efforts repurpose used fatigues to demonstrate the respect our military earned and still deserve.”

- Connie Swartz

Why “Celebrate Fatigues”?

US Military personnel wear a variety of uniforms throughout their service based on environment and location. The most casual and most often worn are fatigues also known as battledress. Fatigues are made in a variety of camouflage fabrics for the different branches (Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marines, and Navy) and for the different operational environments.

Military uniforms are not typically worn after a soldier “separates from” the military. Former service members may store military uniforms when they are discharged. If the uniforms are not stored, they may be donated to others or to military thrift stores. In some cases, they might be thrown away or destroyed. We estimate there are hundreds of thousands of uniforms in home storage today.

We are gravely concerned about the hundreds of thousands of fatigues that are languishing in home storage and elsewhere that will sooner or later end up in a landfill, thrown away, or burned.

Celebrate Fatigues is intent on helping military families dispose of the uniforms with dignity. We can then recycle and repurpose the fatigues allowing others to remember the service and sacrifice made and honor the men and women who have served in our military.

The Process

Fatigues – Most of the fatigues donated to us come from veterans. We also purchase fatigues from Military Thrift Shops.

Design – We design products that best utilize the fatigue fabric, which limits us to the length and width of the back of the jackets/shirts and the length and width of the pant. The tricky part is designing products that work well with sizing and styling variations in uniforms.

Deconstruction – The veterans at St. Michael’s Veterans Center and Veteran’s Community Project help us deconstruct the fatigues to match the design of the products we make. Remaining insignia and reusable parts are removed, and seams carefully cut apart.

Cutting and Sewing – Our sewing contractors use the patterns and instructions made during the design process to cut each piece individually before professionally sewing each product.

Final Product – Our final products go through quality assurance before being photographed, entered into inventory, and posted on the website.