Our History

OUR HISTORY

Full Metal Jacket was founded in 1988 by Mark Richards. It all began in a small trailer outside of Potomac Arms, right near the famous InterArms. In this small trailer he toiled alone, sometimes six days a week after trudging through the snow uphill both ways. We were originally founded as a more fashion-focused store, with the name Full Metal Jacket being a pun, somehow.

Then Operation Desert Shield occurred.
When Operation Desert Shield happened, most troops still had green gear and a lot of woodland camo, which blended in perfectly with the famously lush Kuwaiti rain forests. Families came to us for anything and everything that was even vaguely sand colored. The lengthy duration of Desert Shield meant that we had many repeat customers, and built a real military customer base for the first time.

In the early 90s at some point that no one remembers, we moved into the bottom floor of the Potomac Arms building that was owned by the Richards family. Now that we were brought in from the bitter cold, we could really get to work. The flood of East German and other ComBloc items coming in made sure of that. We spent the next decade using the powers of capitalism to sell cases upon cases of high-quality communist junk gear.

The Global War on Terror brought a lot of changes to the world, and a lot of changes to the shop. Business boomed as the demand for affordable military gear skyrocketed. As the role of the special operations community expanded, so did our customer base.

In 2006, Potomac Arms closed its doors and sold the building, so we broke off and got our own building for the first time. We also brought on a new co-owner, but he is elusive and photos remain blurry and underdeveloped. There are rumors you can see this possibly vampiric being in the back room of the shop after sundown, but efforts to catch and identify him have thus far been unsuccessful.

In 2011, Champ Sok needed to buy some paracord and we were having a special on paracord that day. Buy 10 feet, get a part of the business. So, he is now our third co-owner.

Full Metal Jacket has had many other members of the team, from Desert Storm EOD vets to civilians. They have all shaped our business in their own ways, and have made us who we are today.