Writing Samples — Kyle Hebert

Originally published in Splash Magazine, September 2015

Tucked away in a small strip mall off of Navy Boulevard sits an unassuming tailor shop called The Sewing Box. A simple sign in the window advertises custom tailoring and alterations for men and women-- civilian clothes and military uniforms alike. At 9:00AM on the nose, Sam Miller unlocks the front door and flips on the “Open” sign. As he walks through the single main room of the shop toward the back office, he passes a clothing rack with four royal blue coveralls hanging on it. These are some of the world-famous Blue Angels’ flight suits, and Sam Miller is the man who has made them for the last 29 years.

Miller was first approached with the offer to tailor the custom uniforms for the team in 1985, but he had to turn it down due to tight scheduling.

“They came back the next year and asked me again, and I said yes. That first year, we only made flight suits for the ones they called the 'Blue Suiters,' the guys who fly the F-18’s today. The C-130 crew and support personnel came later.

“It was, at that time, a contract job for small businesses. Early on, we lost it to a woman in Minnesota; she sent the flight suits back for try-ons, and, well…I don’t want to say anything bad about it, but they were pretty bad. So the team contacted me and asked if I could alter them." At that time, the pilots were already in El Centro, California for their winter training, and Miller was hesitant to do any alterations to the flight suits without being able to take new measurements or perform fittings.

"So they said, ‘you’re a retired Master Chief, right? We can fly you out on the C-130.’ They put me up in a hotel, I took their measurements, came home, and made the suits.”

Not long after that, Miller got the job by default again when the winning bidder backed out at the last minute.

"The following year, when they put the bid out, nobody else showed up. So the supply officer gave me an open contract; he said, ‘as long as we like you and you like us, there’s no more bidding on it.’ And that’s the way it was for a long time."

It takes about one full day to make each flight suit, and the seventeen personnel who wear the blue suits are each issued six their first year and four more each subsequent year. It’s a lot of work, but Miller doesn’t fly solo. For the past 19 years, Candy Whitehurst has been his right-hand woman, working her way up from an assistant to the current store manager.

“I had only ever sewn at home,” says Whitehurst. “When I started with Sam, I was excited to work on the Blue Angels uniforms, but he didn’t let me work on them much at first--I think he was teasing me. Now, I can basically do everything on them."

Audrey Allen is the latest addition to the Sewing Box team. After studying fashion at Florida State University, Allen responded to an online job posting, and for the past year and a half has been learning the trade from Miller and Whitehurst.

“I’ve learned more in my time here than I did in four years of college,” says Allen. “Seeing the Blue Angels uniforms being made, it’s unlike anything I’ve seen before."

But according to Miller, it’s really not too complex. “Sewing is sewing, pretty much. The tricky part is getting all the patterns sized right. I draw those out on blank newspaper—we used to buy the ends of paper rolls from the News Journal for that.”

Candidates for the Blue Angels are measured for their uniforms once they reach the final selection round—this means that many individuals have measurements taken but never end up being fitted for a suit. One candidate in particular caught Miller’s attention recently.

“There was a female pilot who made it to the last round for the F-18s. Before I took her measurements, I told her, ‘I’ve been waiting for you for 29 years, and if you don’t get picked, I’m writing a letter to the Secretary of the Navy.’ She didn’t get picked, but I sure hope she comes back."

The fit of a Blue Angels flight suit is one of the garment’s most recognizable features, and it catches some pilots off guard when they put theirs on for the first time.

"They’re always surprised how tight the suits are, but that’s part of their regulations,” Says Miller. “One time a supply officer came in for his first fitting and his wife said it was too tight. I told him, ‘look, if I loosen it and your boss makes you tighten it up again, you’re the one who has to pay for it.’ Sure enough, he was back a week later to have it fixed."

In addition to the Blue Angels team uniforms they assemble on a regular basis, Miller and Whitehurst have worked on several other unique projects over the years.

“We made a Blue Angels flight suit for the team to give to President [George W.] Bush,” says Miller. “Of course he wasn’t a Navy pilot so we put Air Force wings on it instead."

Whitehurst recalls another special order: “He made a swimsuit for one of the pilots’ wives, same design as the flight suit. He embroidered her name and embroidered a crest, since we can’t use the real crest for that. She wore it for the air show that July. He did another one for a Teen Miss Pensacola, who I think went on to Teen Miss Florida.”

While Miller himself doesn’t typically take orders to tailor standard military uniforms anymore, he can occasionally be persuaded if he finds the request interesting enough.

“Recently a doctor, a Commander who works at the Navy hospital, asked me to make her a mess dress uniform for a Dining Out event. I told her I don’t do that anymore, but she said hers was different—she wanted it to be made out of the blue camouflage ripstop that they make Navy utility uniforms out of. That got my attention. I told her I’d do it if she could supply the material, and she did, so I made it for her. A little while later, her husband came by and told me that she had been the hit of the ball."

Unsurprisingly, Miller and Whitehurst are proud of their legacy as tailors to the Blue Angels. Even though the uniform contract is now back open for bids, they feel confident about the future.

“I think it’s looking good,” says Whitehurst. “I don’t think anyone else can really do what we do."