The gist
Civvies is an online clothing brand that salvages fabric from U.S. military uniforms to create T-shirts and accessories for everyday wear.
Ten percent of all sales are donated to national veterans organizations, such as Freedom Jam USA, a charitable country concert series, or Oath of Action, a natural disaster relief organization.
Along with T-shirts, Civvies sells hoodies, tank tops, sunglasses and hat designs through their website and pop-up booths at local events.
The backstory
Civvies founder Mina Tadrous said when he arrived to the U.S. from Egypt 20 years ago, he was surprised to learn that military service was not compulsory.
"I really appreciated that there were people who sign up to serve, that they make a sacrifice voluntarily for people they don't even know," Tadrous said. "And since I couldn't serve myself, I wanted to find a way to get involved in the veteran community."
An accountant by trade, Tadrous had no previous experience in clothing production when he started Civvies back in 2018. His first designs were created using fabric glue and scissors.
"It's always been 100% a family operation. ... We were running it out of our garage and living room," said Marlo Tadrous, Tadrous' wife, who helps operate Civvies.
The present
In 2022, the pair moved from Southern California to Leander, and according to Tadrous, Civvies has only continued to grow since then, with their online sales reaching across the country.
While the Tadrouses are still in the process of finding a local production team in Leander, they have attended multiple events around town to become more connected to the veteran community.
"It's really special when we get to hear a lot of personal stories from military families and their struggles along the way," Marlo said. "There have been a lot of tears shed at our booth."
Tadrous said he sources fabric from all branches of U.S. military uniforms, so customers are able to decide which one they'd like to represent. In the past, they have even created custom designs for large orders to dedicate apparel to a specific service member.
Quote of note
"With old uniforms, we will not use the names or the patches earned because we don't want to ever impersonate any servicemen," Marlo said.
Instead of discarding the names and patches, Tadrous said they save them with the plan to eventually create a large auction piece to benefit veterans charities.
Looking ahead
In honor of Veterans Day, Civvies will offer special deals through their online shop.
Additionally, veterans always receive a 10% discount on all purchases.
www.civviesapparel.com
