Army Navy Store Seattle - Worker Rory Sweets Burks hangs a Gadsden flag from the top of the Federal Army & Navy Surplus store in Seattle's Belltown. The shop has been in operation since 1955, providing a wide variety of tools and products to residents in and around the area. (All photos by Matt M. McKnight/)

Patagonia is a well-known and well-known outdoor clothing brand with a loyal customer base worldwide. But in Seattle, it may not be the best store outside of 1st Avenue and Lenora Street. The difference is clear with its neighbour, Federal Army & Navy Surplus, which has been in Belltown because no one wants to be caught dead in Belltown, which happens sometimes.

Army Navy Store Seattle

Army Navy Store Seattle

As one can imagine from the military equipment in the front window of Federal Army & Navy Surplus, this is a great place to shop if you want to dress up like a soldier for Halloween. But it's primarily a place to create durable clothing and accessories that must withstand harsh conditions. If you get a warning that a major disaster is imminent tomorrow, this is where you might want to shop

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Employee Marshall Hendricks (left) discusses a purchase order with owner Jack Schaloum at the Federal Army & Navy Surplus store in Seattle's Belltown.

However, don't expect to find weapons, guns and fishing gear here; it's not Warshal's, these days, mega sports store that reminds Seattleites of their core roots. (Hotel 1000 — not too shabby — has climbed in its place at 1 and Madison.) Federal Army & Navy Surplus is, surprisingly, a place of peace. Back when the Vietnam War was going on, the store's main customer were protesters, not soldiers.

"In the 1970s, when the American public was dissatisfied with the military, military uniforms (among protesters) became the norm," said Steve Hall, a member of Friends of Historic Belltown. "It's a great way to wear a military uniform and not be a soldier."

Hall has been a customer of the Federal Army & Navy Surplus since his service in the US. Forest Service in the 80's. He went there every May to buy garden supplies or a new pair of pants left over from the Korean War, and would continue to stop by regularly to see what the owners Jack and Henry Schaloum might have in stock.

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"Not so long ago, they had all the snowshoes," recalls Hall. "They have a salesperson who sells them samples, and they sell them to you. It's very different to Patagonia."

At the mass store, you can pick up a refueling device that looks like a missile, some Department of Defense issued M.R.Es (food, ready-to-eat), Chewbacca-style "Ghillie Suit" after a night out. sleeping in trees and leaves, and the Rite in the Rain books contain water-resistant paper.

The son of Jack Schaloum, a fellow golfer, found the latter product—made in Tacoma and "defied Mother Nature since 1916"—to be a very useful tool in the game.

Army Navy Store Seattle

Parents Jack and Henry were Holocaust survivors who came to Seattle in 1951. Izak Schaloum ran a cleaning business near where Warshal was, eventually buying the sports store across the street filled with military equipment. It is here that Jack says Izak "saw the ground" and focused on expansion, creating a business that thrived beyond its 1955 start.

Fashion At Federal Army & Navy Surplus In Seattle

A Ghillie suit, reminiscent of Chewbacca, is seen in front of the Federal Army & Navy Surplus store in Seattle's Belltown.

Sylvia Etter (center) and Ryan Denson (right) browse clothing inside the Federal Army & Navy Surplus store in Seattle's Belltown. "This was my first visit," said Etter. "They have a great mix of guns and other random stuff."

The US Army & Navy pinned up behind the counter at the Federal Army & Navy Surplus store in Seattle's Belltown.

Visitors walk through the aisles under various flying suits hanging from a pole at the Federal Army & Navy Surplus store in Seattle's Belltown.

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Serbian firefighter helmet, believed to date from the 1950s, at the Federal Army & Navy Surplus store in Seattle's Belltown.

The Schaloums bought the old brick building they lived in - a zoo and shoe factory under their former guise - and moved in in late 1979. A young professional at the time, Jack loved Belltown watering holes like The Frontier. The room, where Captain and Coke mysteriously disappear in the final stages.

"It seems like, especially in Belltown, people have an outlet, and that includes selling it to a developer for $11.3 million," Hall said, describing what happened at the recently closed Two Bells Tavern on Fourth Avenue, which is about to be replaced. next to the accommodation tower. "Belltown has a lot of culture, so you can't expect to have this iconic business forever. But what you want is to replace the old with the new if the old leaves, for whatever reason."

Army Navy Store Seattle

Meanwhile, the Schaloum family and their pleasure shop—the last of its kind within Seattle's city limits—are not going anywhere. Jack said he and his brother have no plans to retire, explaining, "Selling kept us physically and mentally sharp."

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But their business model became more difficult with the advent of the Internet. Where they used to print many of their own guns at local military dealers, they now compete with global sellers and sales are skyrocketing online. Even Amazon is currently jumping into the accessory sector, said Jack. And when Amazon starts to go down, it usually doesn't take long to go down.

"There's an old Yiddish saying: 'Man plans and God laughs,'" says Schaloum, just back from a week of hiking through Utah. "So, we'll see what will happen in the future."

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Mike Seely is a former editor of the Seattle Weekly and author of Seattle's Best Dive Bars: Drinking & Diving in the Emerald City. Follow him on Twitter @mdseely.

Army Navy Store Seattle

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