When COVID-19 lockdowns began in 2020, Green Beret veteran Ruben Ayala felt the pinch. The owner of a successful vending machine company in San Antonio, Texas, Ayala’s revenues tanked when school campuses closed. Instead of letting that stymie his entrepreneurial spirit, he reconnected with three other Army veterans to create Triple Nikel, a hip-hop infused military apparel company.
“What we didn’t see in the marketplace was a clear representation of what we felt military service was like,” Ayala said. “You see the memes, ‘veteran’s starter kit’? You got a trucker [hat] that’s folded, and you got your shirt with an M16 on it, Oakley sunglasses. We wanted to go the complete opposite of that, pull from hip-hop culture and say, ‘We’re not going to be the typical veteran-owned clothing line.’”
Ayala partnered with his former team sergeant, Rod Graham, and another Special Forces operator, Chris McPhee. McPhee introduced them to Curtez Riggs, a 20-year Army veteran who spent the majority of his career in recruiting command before founding the Military Influencer Conference (MIC), which builds networks within the veteran community (MIC has since expanded to include all leaders in the space such as military spouses and advocates).
Riggs was facing a dilemma in the aftermath of the George Floyd incident. As a business owner, he was intentional about purchasing from veteran-owned companies, spending $50,000 on apparel annually. But soon, business decisions became a matter of conscience.
“We had the veteran community basically standing with the Blue Lives Matter movement,” he explained, “and I found myself where I wasn’t comfortable giving them my money.”
555th PIB: Triple Nickles
Naming their new company Triple Nikel was “a no-brainer,” said Ayala.
“Triple Nickles” was the nickname for the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion, an all-black unit that deployed stateside during World War II to combat forest fires ignited by Japanese balloon bombs on the West Coast.
“Going into the 82nd, if you’re Black, the Triple Nickle history is something that is very well known,” Ayala said. “We wanted to pay those guys homage.”
The partners received the support of the 555th Parachute Infantry Association before starting the business, but they altered the spelling to avoid copyright issues. “We get trolls every day on our social media like, ‘Y’all can’t even spell,’” Ayala said, laughing.
Riggs shrugs off that sort of criticism. “We don’t care about the limelight,” he said. “We’re secure in our skin. We didn’t say we wanted to wake up tomorrow and be apparel moguls. We wanted to tell stories of those that were underrepresented, but most importantly create great products.”
Breaking the mold
Riggs’ existing connections in the veteran space helped build their brand. In 2023, Triple Nikel became a Kohl’s featured veteran-owned clothing company, sold at 600 brick-and-mortar stores nationwide. They are now sold at Walmart online and have an Amazon storefront.
They have also launched a multimedia project, BLK OPS, telling the stories of special operations veterans from underserved communities. It began as an exhibit at the National Veterans Memorial and Museum in Columbus, Ohio, but has grown into a roadshow and a series of documentaries on Amazon Prime.
Ayala embraces the opportunity to educate the public about veterans who break the mold.
“You turn on a movie and it’s always the same white dude with tattoos and a big old beard talking about how many people he killed,” he said. “It’s tired, and we want to paint a different picture.”
Triple Nikel is proud to be able to fill a void in the veteran apparel field, but they recognize and respect the other companies that paved the way.
“I have to give props to those who came before us, the Grunt Styles or the Black Rifles, because we see what they do,” Ayala said. “They clique up as a team. We’re basically doing the same thing, but from our perspective. We keep it hip-hop and keep it cool.”
Visit Triple Nikel to learn more.
