Respect, remembrance, and reflection.

These should be at the forefront of our minds this Memorial Day. Men and women, my brothers and sisters, have given their lives in numerous conflicts over the years so that we may enjoy the freedoms that many take for granted today.

As I write this, I’m looking at an article penned by a three-letter news agency. It reads, “The 253 best Memorial Day sales you can shop this weekend”. A wave of nausea passes over me. No, no, no!  This is not what Memorial Day is about. It’s not about getting an extra 50% off an already crappy mattress.

Please revisit my first sentence. Respect, remembrance, and reflection.

Pete Roberts of ORIGIN USA has the right idea. He (along with Naval Special Warfare legend and podcaster extraordinaire Jocko Willink) owns and operates the rapidly growing made-in-the-USA apparel company. Legit made in the USA, not one of these deals where the fabric is made in sweatshops by pseudo-slave labor and assembled in America. No, sir. Everything from the cotton to make the jeans to the ink to dye them and the thread to hold it all together is made in America by Americans. That makes me feel good. It should make you feel good too.

Handmaking a pair of Origin Boots, one at a time. Screenshot courtesy of YouTube and ORIGIN USA.

Full disclosure: I absolutely love all things Origin. From the Jeans to the boots to the Brazilian jiu-jitsu gis, it’s all out of this world. And their sister company, supplement, and clean energy superstar JOCKO FUEL, literally keeps me going every day grinding away for SOFREP (stop by and tell Phil that Guy sent you).

But this article isn’t really about the product; it’s about philosophy. Much like SOFREP, ORIGIN deeply believes in honoring sacrifice.

I was going to try to paraphrase it, but they say it best themselves: