Quality embroidered apparel by pilots, for pilots

Wings4Aviators is a partnership between RF-4 pilot Chuck Miller, Captain USMC retired, and Russ Gnant, a private pilot and entrepreneur. The company specializes in custom-embroidering military aviation insignia on premier men's and women's sportswear.

How Wings4Aviators began

“Years ago, a friend gave me a navy blue T-shirt with embroidered pilot's wings,” Chuck Miller recalls. “The wings were pretty basic—flat, very little detail, only one color—but I wore that shirt until it was threadbare.

“When I finally got rid of my old wings shirt, I wanted another one—but with better-quality embroidery,” says Miller. “And I thought there were a lot of ex-pilots like me who are proud of their military carrers, call signs, their squadrons and where they got trained.

“That's when I got the idea: Instead of buying a $400 flight jacket, why not be able to put military wings and your call sign on a shirt or light jacket?” Miller recalls. “When I mentioned the idea to Russ Gnant, Wings4Aviators was born.”

Gearing up for custom embroidery

“I approached a friend in the garment business and told him about our wings concept,” Gnant recalls. “But he didn't grasp our custom-embroidery idea—he was too high-volume oriented.

“Chuck and I knew what we wanted,” Gnant explains, “so we bought our own embroidery equipment.

“Developing the embroidered wing designs was an iterative process,” says Gnant. “We wanted something that would capture the intricate detail of military pilot wings. That led us to experiment with depth and layering of the stitches and multiple colors, including a metallic thread we use for accents.”

The secret is in the details

“The metallic thread is subtle,” says Miller. “Actual pilot's wings of gold get burnished over time, but if you're standing in formation and turn and move, you'll catch a glint of the gold. We've tried to recreate that effect with our embroidery. If you're wearing one of our wings shirts in the sunshine, you'll see a glint of that metallic thread.”

‘How did you do that?’

“When we started showing our wings embroidery to people, they would touch the embroidered wings and say, 'Wow! How did you do that?'” says Miller. “That was worth every one of those 12,000 stitches.”

Serving a higher cause

“As we began telling some fellow pilots about Wings4Aviators, we got in touch with [former Vietnam POW] Paul Galanti [Cdr. USN Retired],” Gnant recalls. “Paul marveled at the Wings4Aviators embroidery—and told us about the Families of the Wounded Fund, an organization in which he is involved.

“Chuck and I decided to donate 10% of the proceeds from every Wings4Aviators sale to this 501(c)3 charity,” says Gnant. “The fund has zero overhead costs. Unlike many not-for-profits, the Families of the Wounded Fund distributes 100% of the money it collects to family members and caregivers of military service men and women wounded in combat operations or injured in line-of-duty activities in support of combat operations. It's our way of giving back to those who have bravely served our country.”