Special Projects: American Sniper

American Sniper. Dir. Clint Eastwood. Perf. Bradly Cooper, Sienna Miller, Luke Grimes. 2015. Film.

The late '90's through the mid '00's was not only a transitional period for the country, it was also a transitional period for Mechanix Wear. Our design team met the challenges in professional racing and developed products which have become a staple in the industry. Racing wasn't the final frontier, rather a foundation for a brand building itself on protecting hardworking hands. When we discovered many of our hardware gloves were going to SEAL teams overseas and our leather gloves were going to NAVY flight deck crew members, we went to work on designing specialized solutions to handle the unique risks of their jobs. 

American Sniper was an amazing project for the obvious reason...Chris Kyle. The film marked a pivotal time in Mechanix Wear's transition, not to mention it excited the old guys in the design studio. For some, the project was a flashback to a stockpile of memories of successes and challenges when we entered the world of tactical. The Iraq war presented challenges for our military forces with an arid climate and rugged terrain that hampers hydration, stresses machinery and tatters gear. At a time when high-performance hand protection was gaining speed, it was a natural progression for Mechanix Wear. For this project we set forth to re-create our Core-Four Original®, FastFit®, M-Pact® and M-Pact® 2 for the film, which were widely used by US forces to protect their hands throughout the Iraq war.

Which gloves did you spot in the film?