Although Afghanistan is behind only China and Mongolia in cashmere production, just 30 percent of the country’s 7 million goats are harvested for the superfine wool, according to the Department of Defense.
Luxury retailers have said for years that they want to change that. Kate Spade & Co. (KATE) committed to buying Afghan cashmere in late 2010. But much of the luxury industry was skeptical about the country’s product and processes. What Uncle Sam needed was a supergoat—the livestock equivalent of Seal Team 6—that could be dropped into the country’s most remote areas, infiltrate their stubborn counterparts, and turn them toward fine cashmere and, more broadly, capitalism.
In 2012, the Pentagon started building its team. It flew a batch of fine, strapping male goats from Chianti, Italy, to Colorado State University, where scientists set out to breed an übergoat. It had to be sturdy, compliant, and most importantly, pale.
Generations on, the flock was finally ready for its mission. They were dropped into a small farm in Western Afghanistan early this year, and in June, the Pentagon goats gave birth to 100 kids. They were easily corralled and had the lighter hair that luxury shoppers like. Operation Übergoat was a go.
The next challenge was making it to market. That’s where Combat Flip Flops, a fledgling business launched by two Army Rangers who had served in Afghanistan, stepped in. Its business model, according to co-founder Matthew “Griff” Griffin, is “making cool stuff in dangerous places.” Griffin launched an online crowdfunding campaign to produce a cashmere batch of shemagh, a headwrap found throughout the Middle East. The working title was “Rock the Cashmagh.” “Why scarves?” the pitch read. “Because we can’t make flip-flops out of cashmere.”
In September, Afghan cashmere shipped to factories in India for production into scarves. In the meantime, Combat Flip Flops shipped two looms to Afghanistan, where it hopes eventually to make the finished product. The company promised that each scarf purchase would fund a week of secondary school for an Afghan girl. By late August, the campaign had raised almost $18,000.
The first finished batch of scarves ships this week. They will go to those who gave at least $150 to the crowdfunding campaign. The remaining pieces will sell on the Combat Flip Flops website for $250. “We’ve gone after small wins over and over, and this is another one,” Griffin said. “All over the world, you can find cotton or polyester versions of this; this is the first cashmere one.”
