2” x 3” pieces of cloth with no monetary value so what’s the deal. At GORUCK it all started with the Tough patch, which is based on the First Special Service Force’s spearhead, and honors our roots in the US Army Special Forces.
That’s the long-winded way of saying I stole the idea from the military, which is where we’ve gotten all our best ideas. Including the Events themselves.
Since 2010, our Cadre have executed over 1,500 Events globally. We say we’re Building Better Americans because we are. That makes all the Events special, but some are more special than others. July 4th, 9/11, Normandy and others all have a significance beyond your team’s accomplishment because of the where and the when.
So we’re launching and will continue to launch Special Events with special patches. They’re not for sale, not today not ever. And the only way to get the patch is to earn it.
And yes, they thrive under Rule #1, Always Look Cool.
Find all our Special Events here.
Love in a GORUCK I’m guarding the Special Patches kind of way,
Monster
President, GORUCK Nation
I’ve got 4 of the ones in the pic with Monster. Guess I still have some work to do.
The 9/11 event and the Mogadishu mile seem like poor taste to me.
I love Goruck, not just because you all make badass gear, but because you’ve managed to bring together military and civilian culture, vets and non-vets, in a way that’s positive, non-political, open to all genders and abilities, and based on team building.
9/11 has been wrung dry by many who’ve tryed to further their own aims by exploiting that tragedy.
Having a 9/11 “themed” event seems like a departure into jingoism, as opposed to sharing military culture, that strikes me as uncharacteristic for Goruck.
Just my two cents. Your mileage may vary.
Austin, I think that our Cadre will serve as good ambassadors to history at those events. 9/11 often is paired with ‘Never Forget’ and I know that I never will. Over time, there is always that tendency though, especially for subsequent generations. Our aim is to commemorate that day annually, and to have our Cadre talk about what it meant to them, and about our military members’ sacrifice in the wars that ensued. I think it’s more powerful to humanize the event in that way, especially for folks who did not go off to war post 9/11. As for Mogadishu, I think too many people know all about pop stars and the like, but have no idea who MSG Gordon and SFC Shughart were. We aim to change that. And unfortunately, I guess, since it’s still a wasteland, we can’t actually have an Event in Somalia.
Hi Jason, thanks for taking the time to respond. I appreciate that a memorial themed event can be done respectfully, and I’m sure you’ll do it that way.
I’ll be curious to read about it on the blog. I still haven’t done my first Challenge- I aim to fix that asap.
9/11 can be such a landmine, since it’s come to mean different things to different people in the many years since the initial cauterizing collective trauma that was, briefly, unifying.
Thank you for your service, and thanks for building a great company. Best wishes and much respect.
You should make these into stickers (like you put in your packages)or postcards. Patches are earned, stickers are collected. Just a thought.