History of the Alpha Industries brand. Alpha Industries and its success story

The history of the Alpha Industries brand is a success story, a real "american dream", which is so often dreamed of by today's youth. Today, Alpha Industries is one of the most popular companies in the world that produces military-style menswear, but things have not always been so smooth in the history of the brand. For those who want to learn more about the ascent of this brand to the top of the fashionable Olympus, the article "History of the Alpha Industries brand" is devoted.

The history of the brand

Alpha Industries was founded in 1959 in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA. However, the prehistory of the creation of the brand is no less interesting than the history of the Alpha Industries brand itself. The fact is that the founder of the brand is considered to be Samuel Gelber, who had previously worked for Robert Lane, the owner of Tags Superior, for a long time. This enterprise was engaged in large orders for the US Army to create military ammunition, first for ordinary infantry, and later for pilots. Over time, the US Air Force entered into a contract to supply ammunition exclusively from Alpha Industries. However, Robert Lane had some problems with the mafia, which was active at that time throughout the United States, so he regularly had to close his factory, move to another place and open a "new" one, which was actually the old one, just had a different name. Once he opened another factory, and in the same town of Knoxville, but was soon accused of giving a bribe to an official from the Department of Defense in order to obtain a government order. The court permanently banned Lane from making deals with government departments, which is why he had to change his occupation. Him, but not his accountant, whose name did not appear in any way in the court case, which means that his reputation did not suffer. And that accountant's name is Samuel Gelber. He decided that since his former boss was convicted and vetoed to further engage in this business, then why waste a good idea? Therefore, in the same town, he rented the basement of one of the Knoxville factories and a couple of sewing machines, hired two assistants and decided to continue Lane's business. However, at first things were very tight, as no one really wanted to deal with an obscure accountant in the role of a designer who could not even establish his own brand. But, as they say, "there is no evil without good." In 1958, the Vietnam War began and everything changed.

Brand history

In 1958, one of the largest wars in which America took part began, so the demand for military ammunition increased tenfold. This forced state beneficiaries to enter into contracts with any firms that can sew clothes for the military. It was then that the US Air Force remembered Gelber from Knoxville. It is worth clarifying that at that time, for uninterrupted and efficient production, all ammunition production companies were organized into a confederation, within which they helped each other with equipment and personnel. For large firms, this was very unprofitable, but for the small firm of Samuel Gelber, it was a pass to the world of large textiles. He obtained for nothing a huge amount of equipment and high-quality fabrics, as well as a loan at minimal interest to rent large premises. Therefore, Gelber decided to officially designate his company and called it Alpha Industries - catchy, pathetic and brutal. This created the impression that the company is large and knows its business, that it is "alpha" in the world of large textiles. Over time, this was true, but at the time of the early sixties, Alpha Industries rented a four-story factory in the small town of Knoxville. However, this did not affect the quality of the products. Alpha Industries men's pilot jackets made of genuine leather, as well as polyester with fur lining, were the most popular, since Alpha Industries jackets were of the highest quality and corresponded to the main parameters of pilot jackets - they were warm, not very voluminous, and at the same time they the pilot felt free, because nothing hindered his movements. 

Rise of the brand

The seventies are known throughout the world as the years of the Cold War and the active militarization of the whole world. Therefore, at that time, the United States decided to give each of its soldiers ammunition in case of any weather conditions. It was like a ticket to heaven for Alpha Industries. After all, the State Department immediately signed a contract with suppliers who showed themselves very responsible during the Vietnam War, and Alpha Industries was among them. In addition to pilot's jackets, the company made all possible types of clothing, shoes, bags and other equipment. For this, we even had to expand and make several additional factories. Now the company could afford a separate building for each type of jacket, and production increased to 550,000 models a year. The war ended, and the veterans who returned from them suddenly found in their local military offices the very jackets in which they fought. This led to a massive increase in interest in the company's products, and, correctly interpreting the trend, Alpha decided to enter commercial production. Since then, since the crazy eighties, the company began to produce clothes for ordinary people, however, all collections were made with a stylistic bias in the military theme. Of course, in the days of hippies and "world peace" such clothes were popular only among radicals, militarists and fans of the confederation. However, with the onset of the difficult nineties, fashion changed course in the opposite direction and the military theme returned to the podium. Almost 30 years have passed, and little has changed in this regard, so military-style clothing is still popular today. Today, Alpha Industries military clothing is as popular as the Aeronautica Militare aviator jackets, as these brands share the same stylistic direction. That is, if you want to buy Alpha Industries men's clothing, then you can also buy Aeronautica Militare men's clothing in the same way. And the best way to do this is in the AVIATOR online store.