An Austin Startup's Hero Shirts Sew a Veteran's Own Uniform Into Every Shirt, Starting With a Marine Scout Sniper

AUSTIN — A Texas apparel startup founded by a former U.S. Army Special Forces Green Beret picked Veterans Day for its public debut. Cowboy Athletic Club announced plans to pre-launch its Hero Shirts collection on Wednesday, November 11, the company said in a release — shirts designed to incorporate a genuine piece of a veteran's military uniform, produced in limited quantities.

Each shirt is designed to come with an individually numbered, baseball-style collectible card honoring the veteran whose uniform it carries, with a QR code on the back linking to a YouTube interview about that person's service and life after it. "We live in a world where athletes who hit home runs and score winning baskets are idolized as heroes, their faces immortalized on collectible trading cards," founder Jay Musgrave said in the release. "I believe there should be room in those same collections for the real American heroes, the men and women who put on a uniform and went to war on our behalf."

The first Hero Shirt honors Nick Perales, a former Marine Scout Sniper who lost a leg while serving in Afghanistan and contributed his uniform to the project, the company says. Perales' service and recovery have also been documented by Brooke Army Medical Center, which reported on his 205-mile Veterans Day walk in 2022 in support of wounded service members.

The company says it intends to direct merchandise proceeds toward developing a flagship athletic club and veterans wellness center in Lockhart, serving greater Austin, with a long-term goal of offering memberships and selected wellness services to veterans at no cost. That facility remains in the planning stage — financing, partnerships and an opening date are yet to be finalized, the company says. Musgrave, a first-generation college graduate who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, says he hopes the club will have reached at least 2,000 veterans within five years.