A retired Marine Lieutenant Colonel and a former Ranger Regiment corporal walked into an MBA program, and walked out with a business. This is the story of Randy Lenard and Bo Delacruz, two veterans who decided that buying new military uniforms were too costly for a majority of military soldiers. They understood that the current resale shops (pawn shops or surplus stores) rarely give sellers what the uniforms are worth, and mark them up to ridiculous prices for buyers. After pitching the idea to their cohort at the University of Miami and receiving positive feedback, they decided to launch GearSwap.shop, a military gear reselling website.
“Our website of GearSwap.shop just provides that connection to allow those with the uniforms, [whether] you’re a veteran or you’re in the military, to get that product to the service member who actually is in need of it at a reasonable price versus going to a storefront, whether it be a pawn shop or a surplus store location and getting your footlocker full of of gear (worth hundreds of dollars) and getting 20 bucks in return,” explains Randy. “Those folks [are] just going right back out and gouging the heck out of the servicemen and women that actually need the product.”
Randy and Bo are proud of the fact that GearSwap.shop is all American-made, utilizing veteran-run small businesses for development and marketing, and they plan to keep it that way. “We have not taken any shortcuts as far as who is developing our product,” Randy says.
Randy joined the Second Service Foundation in Austin, TX, as one of our nine Semi-Finalists for the Military Entrepreneur Challenge. GearSwap.shop walked away with a $1,000 grant, which they will use for company growth and development. “We really want to push a trusted website, and secure one for our military members and veterans,” he said.
