Once-homeless veteran’s company hires, trains ex-warriors

Posted: 9:12 p.m. Friday, Aug. 6, 2010

If there’s one group of people that David Pate cares about, it’s homeless, out-of-work veterans, including those with drug- and alcohol-abuse problems or post-traumatic stress disorder.

That’s because Pate, 36, of West Palm Beach, who served in the Air Force in the first and second Gulf Wars and Bosnia, was one of them.

“I was a homeless vet,” said Pate, who turned his life around in 2002. “I almost died. My brother took me to a 12-step program, Fern House on Church Street. They saved my life.”

Today he owns and operates MMA Textiles, which produces more than 7,000 pairs of shorts a month for the fast-growing sport of mixed martial arts. Pate employs nine veterans and wants to expand and hire 30 more.

“Everybody here was in the military. They built aircraft. They operated tanks. They did not know how to turn on a sewing machine,” said Pate recently at the company’s workroom off Forest Hill Boulevard in suburban West Palm Beach. “We hire them, then teach them how to sew.”

Pate, who first participated in mixed martial arts, a combination of jujitsu and muay Thai kickboxing in Germany in 1992, began importing shorts in 2005. Then it started to bother him that he was selling imports, mostly from China, and not something made in the United States.

He wasn’t pleased with the quality, either.

“What we have done in this country is to take manufacturing out of our economy. If we take that out of the equation, we can’t be the powerful U.S. we could be,” Pate said.

Pate was raised by his late grandfather William Pate, a Navy veteran and banker, and grandmother Janet Pate, who died at age 97 in August. She taught him how to sew.

In 2009 he started designing, making and selling the shorts in his garage.

“I bought my first sewing machine at a yard sale,” Pate recalled. “I saw an opportunity to make something nobody else was. I employ people who were unemployable. I did the math. I can employ people in the U.S. and do it for almost the same amount of money.

“See the fabric? You can’t rip it,” he said, holding up a black swatch of the polyester fabric made in Burlington, N.C. The Velcro is from Velcro USA, Boynton Beach, the Kevlar thread is from Coats, North America in Charlotte.

His products qualify for the Made in USA Certified seal.

The shorts, which retail for $50, feature triple-stitched waist bands, with a drawstring on the inside, a Velcro strip closure and a stretch panel so the shorts won’t rip as fighters kick their legs, twist and turn.

MMA sells the shorts wholesale to shops, clubs and schools. MMA contracts with screen printing company, Great Western Printing, Lake Worth, to have the customer’s logo placed on the shorts.

David Diaz, an instructor at Carlson Gracie Academy, Las Vegas, said he came across MMA’s shorts on the Internet in November, and has been buying them ever since with the school’s logo for its more than 200 students.

“We use these shorts a lot. We wear them constantly on the mat. The material does not fade. It doesn’t rip,” Diaz said.

In addition, in July Pate’s company began making the steel cages used in the sport.

Pate works closely with Faith Hope Love Charity Inc., of Palm Springs, which provides resources and help for veterans. The charity operates Stand Down, a residential program that orientates vets back into civilian life.

In the past few months, Pate has hired a number of veterans through Stand Down. It costs $6,400 per employee for 12 weeks training including the cost of a seamstress, who teaches them how to sew, the pay they receive during training, and the sewing machines.

“One of the fellows who works for me was on the side of the road with a ‘homeless veteran’ sign. He, his wife and kid were living in a car,” Pate said.

The economic downturn has exacerbated the problem of homeless veterans; many who worked in the construction trades have lost their jobs.

The Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that veterans make up nearly 40 percent of homeless Americans. In Florida, an estimated 18 percent of homeless people are veterans, according to the Florida Department of Children and Families.

Joseph Edwards, 53, was a weapons demolition expert in the Army, before working as a carpenter.

“When the economy went kaput, I became homeless. I tried my hand at being a carnival worker. It provided pay and a roof. Then I got hurt while working in West Palm Beach. The Veterans Administration offered to help me out. I went to the Stand Down program in 2007,” said Edwards, who now works at MMA Textiles.

Once the employees become skilled at making shorts, they are encouraged to start their own eBay businesses selling them. Pate provides them with the shorts at a discounted price.

Faced with a backlog of orders, Pate said he wants to acquire 15 more sewing machines and hire another 30 people. Otherwise, he will have to outsource to Miami work shops.

Having exhausted his own resources, Pate has turned to something called “crowd funding” to raise the $150,000 needed to expand. Donations are being raised through a website at http://balancedfundraising.org/funding. It’s also on Facebook.

The idea, which began with independent filmmakers to raise funds for their projects, is to concentrate on helping one cause at a time. The campaign began Aug. 1.

“Dave is hiring guys that would have a difficult time getting a job. Now they are going to have a job, get paid and get training,” said Steve Vicory, executive director of Balanced Fundraising, Palm Springs, Calif.

For less than a semester of trade school tuition, a veteran can be employed and trained.

“The price that is being paid to help these guys is nothing. Can you imagine what it would take for a governmental agency to do what he (Pate) can do? If we can do it for ourselves and for our brothers who gave up limbs, life and a whole lot more, why not?” Vicory said.

For Pate, who wears a blue fedora and gives them to donors in honor of his grandfather, who wore one every day, it’s all about helping veterans.

“He was a person who helped vets. I am just a vessel, really,” Pate said.