There are times when I find myself scrolling social media mindlessly, looking at posts and reading some of the comments. Usually, it’s an absolute waste of time, but every once in a while, I find something great. Like the time I saw the Poppies of War fabric on TAB Gear’s Facebook page. For me, it was love at first sight, but I needed to learn a little more about the product and the design.
TAB Gear’s Six Pack was the product that initially caught my attention. It was designed to hold six boxes of shotgun shells, six of their Bullet Binders or a 6-pack of beer…among other things.
I like the bag’s design, which has a large opening that, once zipped closed, has a smaller profile because of the Velcro tabs at the ends. An added bonus is the pleated zippered pockets on the front and back. These offer a great place to store shooting glasses, earplugs, scorecards, keys and more. But as I mentioned at the beginning, the Poppies of War fabric was what initially caught my eye.
A globally recognized symbol of remembrance, the red poppy honors military personnel who’ve died in conflict. In 1915, John McCrae, a Canadian Lieutenant Colonel, penned the poem In Flanders Fields:
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Wearing poppies to honor veterans is attributed to two women, Moina Michael of Georgia and Anna E Guerin of France. In 1920, the national American Legion adopted the poppy as its official symbol of remembrance. Now, veterans organizations across the US, Canada, and Britain distribute poppies each year to raise money for veterans. I invite you to do your own research on how the poppy became a symbol of remembrance. My trip down that rabbit hole also unearthed information on why the poppies were so prevalent in Flanders fields and a poetic response to the poem.
So, how and why did the Poppies of War fabric come to be? Todd Fairbairn, founder and CEO of OTTE Gear, the company that owns the design, wanted a cool Hawaiian shirt that embodied OTTE Gear’s DNA and was fun to wear, yet still tied into the Mil/LE community. He approached artist and designer Andrew Bawidamann at SHOT Show 2018 and commissioned him to create a design. The Poppies of War is an homage to the GWOT.
Most people do a double-take when they first see the design. Upon closer inspection, what appears to be a lovely display of poppies also contains various firearms hidden among the flowers.
OTTE Gear sells the Poppies of War fabric to small sewing shops that want to make cool stuff. They also license the pattern to folks who want to use it on other items. TAB Gear is one such company. Some of the other items I saw at SHOT Show that they’ve made special runs of in the Poppies of War pattern include shooting mats, rifle slings (they have the best sling design out there), pouches with a grab loop, and tripod leg wraps.
TAB Gear has a drop-down on its website just for Poppies of War gear and you can sign up to receive notifications when items are back in stock.
Whether you use your Poppies of War gear to honor the service members involved in the Global War on Terrorism, all veterans or just because you think it’s a cool design, you can go wrong. You will certainly attract attention and get people asking about the guns among the poppies. Also, be sure to look for other companies making products using the Poppies of War fabric. There are a bunch out there.