If you are a member of, or the family of a member of the military, or if you are involved with Airsoft or Paintball, you’ve probably at least heard the name Mil-Spec Monkey. Although a designer and supplier of military and tactical gear and equipment, Mil-Spec Monkey is probably best known for his clever, witty, and sometimes-suggestive (or dare I say inappropriate) military morale patches.
CustomPatches.net has the enormous privilege of supplying Mil-Spec Monkey with his patches. These patches generate massive amounts of buzz and excitement around the office, from the sales department that originally takes his orders to the art department that sets them up for production. I haven’t gotten our production department’s opinion, but I wonder what they think of them as they load his digitized designs into the embroidery machines. Then there is that most anticipated moment when the patches come in from production and some of the staff members rush downstairs to the shipping department to check them out. This of course mostly happens when Mil-Spec Monkey orders a fresh design for the first time.
Mil-Spec Monkey was originally known as DJ MonkeyBoy, since he used to be a DJ. The monkey part came from the fact that, according to him, he is “pretty short and wiley.” After his DJ gig ended, he decided to combine two of his passions—art/design and all things tactical—to create a service that would provide members of the military with the gear, equipment, and weapons they required. His patches provide humor and comfort; he describes them as bringing “a smile to the faces of folks in military, law enforcement, and other uniformed services who often find themselves in crappy situations.”
Since the staff here is so enthralled by his patches, we decided we’d like to know a little more about the Monkey himself. Concluding that so would many of you, we thought an interview would be the best route.
An Insight Into the Monkey: The Interview
Custom Patches: The patches you design and sell on MilSpecMonkey.com cause much excitement around our headquarters as well as the Internet. Your background as a DJ, artist, designer, and Department of Defense contractor is a unique skill set. Did you see yourself in this position ten years ago?
Mil-Spec Monkey: Back then being semi fresh out of school I probably saw myself being in the video game industry for quite some time.
CP: That’s interesting. So then, did you have any intentions when you started Mil Spec Monkey?
MSM: It started as a hobby doing military request patches, so one could say it was not exactly planned with a certain goal or intention, but [I am] very pleased in what it has become, with intent [to] raise morale all around the world.
CP: It seems to have succeeded. What has been the most surprising aspect of the Mil-Spec Monkey store?
MSM: Although small surprises come and go, I’m most surprised MSM was able to go from a seemingly silly hobby into an actual business.
CP: Which military branch is the most enthusiastic when it comes to patches?
MSM: Can’t say one certain branch sticks out on enthusiasm offhand; everyone tends to be quite enthusiastic when they have a cool idea they want to get made.
CP: True. Did you expect your patch designs to be as wildly popular as they are?
MSM: Definitely not; I feel very fortunate everyday I was able to apply my design to a niche medium of the best type of customers in the world.
Do you know the significance of this date? Stay tuned for the answer.
CP: What’s your favorite patch of yours? Would you be OK with people knowing?
MSM: Out of so many it is hard to have a favorite as I take more of a ‘different patches for different occasions’ approach. That said, I liked how the 5-01-11 patch turned out being a morale patch that was still done tasteful enough to wear to work.
CP: It’s true that many of them are not work-appropriate! What does your mother think of the content of your patches?
MSM: I suppose I haven’t asked outright, but I think she sees the fun [and] silliness in most. Some are of course more mom-friendly than others.
CP: It’s difficult to nail down where inspiration comes from. Do awesome designs hit you without warning or does inspiration come from your loyal followers?
MSM: Every now and then I’ll come up with a fun idea out of the blue, but the vast majority of ideas come from fan suggestions. I try [to] make a balance of creating stuff with obvious demand and things no one asked for, but I think is cool to keep things new.
CP: Speaking of cool designs, the Monkey Mobile is pretty sweet. Is it a West Coast thing or are you a car guy too?
MSM: I mostly just wanted to make it clear it was [a] business vehicle come tax time, but I did have fun getting carried away with designing the exterior extras. Wouldn’t say I’m a car guy offhand; [I] chose the Scion XD since had good gas mileage, price, and unique body shape for the time. Getting a surplus Hummer was tempting, just not so much practical for daily city use.
CP: Into which branch of the Military did you want to go?
MSM: I was mostly interested in the Army, highly likely due to my work on the America’s Army project.
CP: What is your favorite MRE (Meal, Ready-to-Eat)?
MSM: It has been a while, but at the time, Roast w/ Vegetables hit the spot.
CP: How did you find and choose CustomPatches.net to produce your patches?
MSM: Starting from no experience I simply did a Google search for custom patches and of course custompatches.net came up. I browsed other site[s] as well, but liked how CP had their pricing and services all viewable online rather than making me call for a quote like I’m buying a used car.
CP: What’s next for Mil-Spec and Monkeyboy?
MSM: We plan to keep expanding the MSM line into more tactical items and hopefully will get more civilians hooked on the fun of patches with Velcro.
CP: Sounds like a good plan. Thanks so much for taking the time to chat with us!
Patch Favorites, Other Merchandise, and Such
Since writing this article got me revisiting all the Mil-Spec designs, I decided to share my three personal favorites: Haterade, Fun and Suck Meters, and Your Mom Sends Me Care Packages.
So where are all these so-called inappropriate designs? Well, this is a family site. You can view them on the Mil-Spec Monkey website. Make sure to also like our Facebook page, since we are starting an album featuring his patches, and our Facebook environment tends to be a little more adult.
Seeing how Mil-Spec Monkey has been a regular, consistent customer of ours for several years, we occasionally decide to have specialty items made for him and surprise him. First, we had a twelve-inch monkey-head patch made and had it framed. About a year later, we had a bobble-head made, which we surprised him with. We’ve recently introduced challenge coins into our catalogue of products, and we decided the first challenge coin we would make should be for him. So, we sent him a double-sided, die-cast, zinc-alloy challenge coin in silver and gold. The gold side contained his Pork Eating Crusader design and the silver side contained the famous monkey head logo.
We’ve reached the end of our post. Thanks for sticking around. What’s your favorite Mil-Spec Monkey design? Leave your answer in the comments below.
Regarding the 5-01-11 patch: it’s the date of Bin Laden’s death.
