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Combat Flip Flops Expeditionary Production Facility – Indiegogo Campaign

Combat Flip Flops is currently hosting a crowdfunding effort on Indiegogo. They are looking to raise enough dough to build and set up their Expeditionary Production Facility in Afghanistan. The Expeditionary Production Facility, or EPF, is a flip flop factory in a 40′ shipping container that can be delivered and set up to quickly establish a manufacturing facility in an area. The total cost for building the facility, shipping it to and constructing it in Afghanistan, hiring and training workers, purchasing raw materials for one year of production, and other expenditures is $500,000. They’ve even outlined the distribution of their funding requirements:

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Fully funded, Combat Flip Flops’ EPF will provide:

  • Employment for 25 Afghans to manage and run the EPF
  • Employment for five Americans on the CFF Staff
  • 60,000 new pairs of flip flops, made in Afghanistan
  • Additionally, if this comes off, Combat Flip Flops will become the #1 footwear and #1 textile exporter of Afghanistan. Donate and/or spread the word, if you can and get in on some cool rewards.

    www.indiegogo.com/projects/flip-flops-for-afghanistan

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    4 Responses to “Combat Flip Flops Expeditionary Production Facility – Indiegogo Campaign”

    1. Stefan S. says:

      Why waste potential employee lives and money on that shithole?

    2. HD says:

      I get it that CFF has become the well intentioned darling of the American tactical/ cool guy gear industry circles, but

      COME ON. Really?!?!?!?

      For the amount of publicity/ backing/ investment/ endorsement that CFF has engendered and the effort put into it, where’s the return on investment? i.e. exported flip flops for sale in the US and European markets like was originally pitched in the original concept a couple years ago.

      Its a well intentioned idea, but its not sustainable as a viable export industry. I don’t doubt that CFF can produce flip flops for Afghans but getting them out of AFG in the quantity necessary to support sales, at the product quality standards expected by western consumers falls into the category of “too hard to do”.

    3. Mike Nomad says:

      Hate to sound like a cheerleader on this…

      The idea of finished product for export having been pitched would surprise me. What would make perfect sense is the idea that this a highly portable effort to (pardon the pun here) bootstrap local/regional commerce. Ultimately, there is the reply to the comment from Stefan S.: So the DoD doesn’t have to.

      Frankly, it amazes me that we (The US) still can’t get this kind of stuff right. (for the curious) There is plenty of RAND stuff available on USAID efforts during the Vietnam Conflict. I know, the geography isn’t the same, etc.

    4. B307 says:

      Ahh, and here come the haters out of the wood work. To all of you who would scoff and criticize this effort. Ask yourselves this question “WTF have I done to visualize and create something never done before and see it through from concept to sell through”? I bet the answer for a majority of you is jack shit. If I had a dime for every time I heard someone say “That will never work” or “That’s stupid” I would have enough money to give CFF to fund the EPF. Go back to your call of duty video games or office cubicles in your dead end jobs and let the real entrepreneurs dream, innovate, risk and change the world.