Combat Flip Flops

Matt Griffin spent over a decade as a U.S. Army Ranger, completing over 300 special operations missions in Afghanistan and other conflict zones alongside co-founder Donald Lee. During and after his service, he witnessed women systematically oppressed and denied education, yet recognized them as the "centers of gravity" of their families and communities. In 2006, Matt left the military but continued returning to Afghanistan as a civilian, observing how small business growth—a street vendor expanding from a cart to a store to a billboard—brought tangible improvement: cleaner streets, reduced violence, fewer patrols needed. This insight crystallized his philosophy: "Business not bullets." Rather than more military intervention, he believed economic opportunity and education were the real weapons against radicalism and terrorism.

In January 2012, Matt and his co-founders—Donald Lee, his ranger buddy, and his brother-in-law Andy (the civilian business operator)—launched Combat Flip Flops. The concept was deliberately absurd when spoken aloud: "A bunch of first-time entrepreneurs traveling to Afghanistan to make flip-flops in a combat boot factory." No investor would fund it. Instead, Matt virtually sold everything he owned—motorcycles, cars, a motorhome, a boat—to raise initial capital. He invested about $5,000 before the first sale, using it for tooling, shipping prototypes from Asia via DHL, and product photography. The trio established strict validation benchmarks: they created design sketches online, gauged response, and only after positive feedback invested in prototypes and tooling. They built a simple GoDaddy website—applying Andrea Lake's principle that "simple ugly sites convert"—featuring product photos and pre-order messaging with a July delivery date.

For their first release, Matt and the team contacted every media contact they had in the military and tactical world. They secured features on influential blogs like soldier systems.net, Breach Bank, and other outlets collectively reaching 24–25 million unique views. This media strategy drove enough traffic to their website to sell 2,000 units in the first month. For the first three years, Combat Flip Flops operated as a completely cash-based, pre-order business, using customer prepayments to fund production runs. They understood the math: with 2–5% conversion rates based on inventory levels, success was a function of traffic volume and storytelling. The veteran narrative, combined with the social mission, resonated powerfully in the tactical community.

Media relations and PR emerged as their dominant growth channel. By 2015, the business had hit $300,000 in revenue, breaking even. The margin structure on their hero products was tight but improving: the flagship Men's AK-47 flip-flop sold for $50, cost $17.50 to manufacture, $3.96–$0.89 to ship (improving via ocean containers by July 2016), and $8 in customer acquisition cost via Facebook ads and affiliate marketing, leaving roughly $27 gross per unit. Their highest-margin product was the cashmere shema (a performance scarf), sourced from an Afghan goat herder in Herat, costing $45 landed and $5–6 to ship, generating ~$100 gross margin per $150 sale—allowing them to contribute $15 per unit to education while reinvesting the rest. A 37% repurchase rate indicated strong product-market fit and customer loyalty. By early 2016, they'd already hit $400,000 in sales in the first week of March, projecting $1.4 million for the year with an 8% net margin.

Matt's ambition is unabated: he aims to build Combat Flip Flops into a $100 million company in five years and a billion-dollar company in ten years. He's deliberately cautious about scaling, wanting to avoid over-expansion that damages team relationships. The core mission—funding women's education in Afghanistan through Eight Afghanistan for Education while creating economic opportunity for conflict-zone entrepreneurs—remains central to every product. Matt's broader vision extends to policy: he advocates for free trade agreements with countries the U.S. is in conflict with, elimination of tariffs (which cost him 17% on imports), and government-backed micro-lending and education funds as more effective weapons against radicalism than military spending. At 36, he describes running the business as genuinely fun and sees the brand's storytelling, video content, and documented social impact as the engine for future growth and mission scale.