Military supplier eyes year-round clothing markets

TACTICAL APPROACH: Newport-based Wild Things LLC is currently expanding its military product line for year-round use and is making strides in the consumer market. Above, CEO Edward Schmults, left, and Chief Operating Officer Frank Tarrantino research fabrics for new fire-retardant combat pants. / PBN FILE PHOTO/ KATE WHITNEY LUCEY
TACTICAL APPROACH: Newport-based Wild Things LLC is currently expanding its military product line for year-round use and is making strides in the consumer market. Above, CEO Edward Schmults, left, and Chief Operating Officer Frank Tarrantino research fabrics for new fire-retardant combat pants. / PBN FILE PHOTO/ KATE WHITNEY LUCEY

Wild Things LLC, a provider of outerwear and tactical clothing for the military, is thriving today, but a year ago, the automatic budget cuts accompanying sequestration nearly destroyed the company, the firm’s CEO says.
“The military didn’t order anything for months,” CEO Edward Schmults recalled. “Our whole supply was crushed.”
By 2014, however, after cutting costs, reducing the workforce from 25 to 16 and closing a New Hampshire office, the company has righted itself, and is growing.
“We’ve survived, have been able to continue to be innovative [and] leverage the work we’ve done,” he said. “We see significantly better business in the years ahead.”
Wild Things got its start in 1981 in North Conway, N.H., when two climbers, John Bouchard and Marie Meunier, started building custom gear for the East Coast alpine community. Meunier remains one of several owners of the company with a small equity stake, Schmults said.
The couple, now divorced, began selling to the U.S. Navy Seal teams in 1984, and expanded their apparel and equipment lines to all branches of the U.S. military. By 2008, the firm began to provide high-quality, lightweight gear for the U.S. Army Extreme Cold Weather System – a major milestone, Schmults said.
The couple picked the company name based, in part, on their love of the book, “Where the Wild Things Are,” by Maurice Sendak, he said.
Schmults joined the company in 2009, having led the renowned FAO Schwarz toy store for three years before that, as well as Patagonia, the outdoor clothing company, for most of the 1990s. He said he contributed a “calming” influence to Wild Things that helped the company weather the worst of the economic challenges.
“We could think coolly about it,” he recalled. “There was a sense that things were very difficult, but also a sense, I think, of, ‘We’re able to get through this.’ ”
The Newport office focuses on management, design, purchasing, prototyping and development, but bulk production is done by third-party manufacturers in Fall River, in New Jersey and in other states, as well as at the company’s original Gorham, N.H., factory.
The company’s technical outerwear products include base layers, as well as soft-shell and hard-shell jackets, and pants and shirts.
The firm is expanding the military product line so that it does not rely on pieces for very cold weather, which four years ago constituted 85 percent of the business, Schmults said.
“Now our product line is for year-round use,” he said.
The fire-retardant line has been a success using wool and rayon, as compared with other industry providers, who use a ‘modacrylic’ fiber that smells bad, Schmults said. The process of making modacrylics also is potentially harmful to the environment and to workers, he said.
Of the 60 different products the company provides, one fire-retardant textile is Pyrad, which is produced by W. L. Gore & Associates Inc. and designed for the military user (as opposed to a firefighter) who may be exposed to a flash fire from an explosion, he said.
Although more than 90 percent of the business is geared toward the military and its special forces, Schmults said that the company made a “revolutionary” adjustment to the consumer market in 2012 by launching mass customization for outerwear. The customer can use a 3-D rendering to pick and choose fabric, where the pockets and hood are positioned, and so on.
“We make that and deliver it in two weeks,” Schmults said. “This is a game-changer.”
This year, the firm continued to refine its product line and the demand from the military has also resumed, he said. While its military products must be made entirely in the U.S., Wild Things is exploring new opportunities where there is no such mandate, Schmults said. Some of these markets include law enforcement and the international military.
“We think our growth is going to accelerate now that we’ve gotten past that awful 2013,” Schmults said. “The consumer business is going to provide growth. And we think we’ve laid the groundwork for our military business domestically as well as internationally.”
Globally, Wild Things already sells to the United Kingdom, Poland, Jordan, Russia, Japan and other countries, he said.
Besides apparel, the company also makes equipment like backpacks and duffle bags. One new product that the firm is about to launch is a customized pack that holds ice tools, snowboard or skis.
In addition, a new consumer line is coming next year and a number of new military products will be offered in January and next summer, he said. •

COMPANY PROFILE
Wild Things LLC
OWNERS: The Walnut Group and four other groups of equity owners
TYPE OF BUSINESS: Outdoor and military apparel and equipment
LOCATION: 449 Thames St., Suite 200, Newport
YEAR ESTABLISHED: 1981
NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 16
ANNUAL REVENUE: WND

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