IS SU E
30
HEARTS, MINDS, AND FEET
REC O ILW E B .C O M
174 on and off [to pray] five times a day. They’re just losing a ton of time.” … It was a product made for the Afghan National Army. But what I thought was, “Damn, that thing looks cool. Americans would buy that.” I picked [the flip-flop] up, looked at it, and said, “Hey man, do you mind if I run with this?” He says, “Yeah, sure go ahead.” I called my Ranger buddy [Lee] and said, “Hey man, we’re gonna start a flip-flop company in Afghanistan.” It
After the loss of the first run of footwear in 2012, Griffin and his partner Andy Sewrey, left, visited the home and shrine of Ahmad Shah Massoud, the famed Lion of the Panjshir. Massoud is a national hero who fought the Soviets and was assassinated by alQaeda in 2001.
idea] to him. He said, “I’d like to be a
Afghan National Police went over to the
part of that. “
Afghans, [who] cut off all the contracts
… He comes back with a sketch, straight-up line-drawing diagram on
with the factory we were going to use to manufacture our stuff. …
a computer. ... We released that on
Then our materials supplier pulled
Soldier Systems, and people were
a bait and switch on us. So, Andy and
like, “Yeah, it’s a really good idea, you
I got some duffle bags and hopped
should do that. “
on a plane. We go pick up our foot-
We were like, “F*ck it, we might as
wear, and we start slicing the bags
well.” We didn’t have any money, so
open. All of them were bad — 100
I continued to work my day job and
percent. They were beautiful, but it
sold my boat, mobile home, chopper,
was just bad materials.
another motorcycle.
was like 2 in the morning in L.A. He
What did you do?
said, “Yeah, sure,” and hung up the
That’s when you brought the proto-
MG: We didn’t know what to do. My
phone on me.
types to SHOT Show?
buddy goes, “Hey, you want to go up
MG: We sold 4,000 pairs in about four
to [Ahmad Shah] Massoud’s house for
How did it grow from there?
days. So, we had established a demand
the weekend?” F*ck it. We might as
MG: My brother-in-law, Andy Sewrey,
for the product, [but] Afghanistan can’t
well get something cool out of this trip.
is a non-military dude, plays in a rock
make raw materials. … [Then] Obama
So, we roll up to the Panjshir Valley.
band, and a professional painter. …
announced the end of the Afghan war
We’re hanging out with Mouj fighters
We were on our way to a bachelor
in 2014, so all the logistics and con-
in Massoud’s garden on his martyr day
party, and I started explaining [my
tracting for the Afghan National Army,
and go to his shrine. We see how hard