About Airborne Apparel Company

We're a Paratroop-owned, family operated Michigan small business that began by accident and has grown into a full-time endeavor.

How does a business start accidentally? Well, in the summer of 2019, founder Brian Watkins discovered that his beloved circa 1994 unit shirt had become almost as unserviceable as his circa 1970's body.

 Unable to find a new or even used one anywhere, he recreated the graphics and printed a replacement. When others from the unit saw it, requests came in to purchase the shirt. Once the first design became available online, requested designs from units across Division and the Airborne community soon followed. 

In 2022, after a couple years as a drop shipping side hustle, Airborne Apparel Company relocated from a suburban Metro Detroit to a quiet dirt road in rural southern Michigan. Here they built out a shop and moved all production in-house to provide higher quality products and even better customer service.

In the five years since it's first sale, Airborne Apparel Company's catalog has grown from a single offering to over 300 designs representing more than 60 Airborne units and three generations of the Airborne community, with new designs and units added weekly.