Clothing and Accessories Brand Volition America Inspires Support for Our Veterans and Fallen Heroes.
Can you tell our audience a bit about yourself and how you found yourself currently sitting where you are today?
My story of how I got involved in this and how I found myself sitting here today is unique. My background has nothing to do with apparel, consumer goods, or brand building. I am a manufacturing guy and a proud American. I currently own and operate two manufacturing companies that manufacture Safety-Critical components for the Automotive Industries and Disposable Devices for the Med Device Community. My journey into building a brand that celebrates country and gives back to our military community was inspired by my involvement in the Folds of Honor Foundation (Folds has provided over $180,000,000 of scholarships to children and spouses of our fallen soldiers and is a 4-star Goldstar-rated charity, and $.91 of every dollar donated goes to the recipients) and Lt. Colonel Dan Rooney (Founder of the Folds of Honor Foundation).
What is Volition America?
Volition is the most powerful word in the English Dictionary. It is the power of choice. You can love, hate, be happy or sad! But ultimately, the choices you make write the legacy of your life. Colonel Rooney approached me about starting the Volition America Brand. The idea behind Volition America was to create a for-profit entity that could create a larger commercial impact, expand its audience, and raise more money for our fallen soldiers’ families thru the Folds of Honor Foundation. (Colonel Rooney also believes his mission is to teach people the power of Volition (a word he feels is the driving force to his life’s journey). Volition is about making the choices to live your best life; our brand chooses to celebrate and unite our country. We use our Volition to choose America and give people the tools to stand up and say, this is what I stand for.
What inspired you to start Volition America?
Ultimately my desire to support Dan Rooney’s mission through Folds of Honor and my love of country inspired me to do this. The ideal he embodies drives us and reminds us that we have the opportunity and privilege to be better than we were the day before. Our goal when starting this brand was to create a group of brands and products that people could use that allowed them to stand up and say; this is what I stand for while helping raise money and awareness for the Folds of Honor Foundation.
What is your connection to our veterans?
My story dates to 2013, when I first attended a Folds of Honor Gala and won an auction to play golf with Masters Champion Craig Stadler. When I won the auction, I didn’t realize that we would be playing golf on Memorial Day and spending the weekend with many of our military members and their families. Before my experience on that day, Memorial Day had just been symbolic of a day to BBQ and play golf. Listening to their stories and getting to spend time with them, I realized that for 44 years, I had taken the sacrifices our Servicemen and their families make for all of us for granted. To this day, I tell people that weekend was my “Patriotic Awakening,” and supporting our military through the Folds of Honor Foundation has become crucial aspect of my and my family’s life.
What has been the most difficult part of your journey?
I think the political landscape of our country has misrepresented what the word patriotism means. People are mistaking patriotism for policy and politics. The Volition America brand isn’t political. It’s a brand that we hope will unite people to choose America by empowering them with the power of Volition. I often tell people you can be very far left and love your country and you can be very far right and love your country. We use a quote at Volition: “we aren’t red, and we aren’t blue…. We are RED WHITE AND BLUE” Our hope is the love of country, and the use of positive choices will bring us together. Fighting through the misunderstanding of what being patriotic means
What makes Volition America stand out?
The Volition America Brand is about building something more prominent than a shirt or a sporting product. We wanted to create a movement that brings our country together and empowers people to make better choices while giving back to those who gave us the freedom of choice. We are doing this by building a brand coalition of like-minded brands. We have added many great partners (Puma, Wilson, Cobra, Demarini, Revo, Luminox, and EvoShield). We also recently launched the Volition America Fund (FLDZ) with RiverNorth Capital, a publicly-traded ETF that invests in American Companies that invest in America. We believe that each brand collaboration will vastly increase the aggregate reach. Thus, giving us a much broader space to raise money and awareness as brands engage their collective audiences
How significantly has Volition America helped our veterans so far?
There are so many fantastic charities that benefit the veteran community. I chose Folds of Honor because their values aligned with my core values about education being the key to our country’s future. Folds of honor offers scholarships to our fallen or severely injured families. In my opinion, there is no better way to honor our fallen heroes than to educate their legacy through The Folds of Honor Foundation. Our ultimate mission is to help support the veterans through the Folds of Honor Foundation. That is the ethos of our company logo. The Folds logo is in the center of our logo but with wings. The idea of our mark is that we are lifting Folds and helping take them places they usually couldn’t go. So, if people want to give back to Veterans by supporting Volition America, we give 13% of our revenue to the Folds of Honor Foundation. We chose 13 because there are 13 folds in a folded flag. That is significant because many brands will only give back a % of their profits. So regardless of the company’s success, our Fallen Heroes and their families will receive our help. We have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Folds of Honor, increased raised awareness, and hope to see our annual donations grow to millions.
How would you encourage our readers to get involved?
Support us by going to our website and buying products or donating directly to Folds of Honor Foundation. We are always looking for great companies that would like to join our movement and be a part of our brand coalition, helping us get our message out and bring awareness to the Volition America brand.
What are your plans for the future?
I will continue building our Volition America Movement so that one day our brand will be a household name that consumers will know when they wear our logo. They tell what the person wearing the logo stands for when they see it.
