For 43 years, The Sewing Box in Pensacola, Fla., made the Blue Angels’ distinctive blue and yellow flight suits. That relationship is now over.
On May 14, the U.S. Navy awarded a new approximate $1.69 million contract to Aquila International LLC of Dulles, Va., according to contract details publicly posted on SAM.gov, a website where business owners can directly pitch to federal agencies for the opportunity to win federal contracts, grants or financial aid from the U.S. government.
The transaction description states that the deal, awarded by Naval Supply Systems Command (NAVSUP) FLC San Diego, is a five-year Firm-Fixed-Price (FFP) Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract that “encompasses the construction, alteration, and repair of highly specialized ceremonial flight suit uniforms in support of the Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron (NFDS), widely known as the Blue Angels.”
The scope of work, per the order, requires the new contractor to manufacture custom, exact-fit ceremonial flight suits utilizing distinct male and female base patterns—using flame-resistant fabrics and specific unit insignias. The contractor is responsible for on-site measurement and fitting events at Naval Air Station (NAS) Pensacola and Naval Air Facility (NAF) El Centro.
The new contractor, Aquila, must also “provide rapid alteration and repair services with a mandatory fourteen (14) calendar-day Turnaround Time (TAT) to maintain the squadron’s demanding demonstration schedule and zero-defect visual uniformity,” per SAM.gov.
The contract’s pricing schedule permits as many as four trips annually—a total of 20 during the five-year ordering period. Aquila is based in Dulles, Va., while the Sewing Box operated near the gate of Naval Air Station Pensacola.
This means that future fittings will involve more travel and logistics than in previous years because Aquila must travel from its location to measure and fit Blue Angels personnel.
Longtime Businesswoman Feels Betrayed
The news completely caught Candy Whitehurts, the owner of the Sewing Box, off guard.
Whitehurst told WEAR-TV that she never received a personal notice or reminder that her contract renewal was coming up, which she claimed she had received in years past. This left her without the Blue Angels, whom she described as her shop’s largest customer.
To add insult to injury, Aquila receives this roughly $1.7 million deal while a purchase order from September 2025 shows that the Sewing Box was awarded a one-year contract for about $127,000 to make the uniforms. The record treated the shop’s history, designs and approvals as reasons not to seek another supplier.
“Never have they did that for me ever,” Whitehurst told WEAR. “I’m making pennies compared to what they’re doing.”
Whitehurst added that her shop produced thousands of Blue Angels uniforms. Navy records trace the work to the 1970s and identify the Sewing Box as the team’s exclusive uniform maker.
A 2025 sole-source justification said the shop held exclusive licensing rights, possessed the established patterns, and was the only manufacturer identified as approved under the governing naval aviation safety manual.
“I’m really hurt from it because I just cannot understand, and then we’re local,” Whitehurst said. “We write there right out the front gate. Now, you got this. Now, you got to pay somebody to make the uniform and now you got to pay somebody to do alteration when y’all have emergency blow out or it just don’t fit right.”
Whitehurst Says the Expected Call Never Came
Whitehurst told local news outlet WEAR TV that Navy personnel usually alerted her when it was time to seek the next contract.
“No one called me” this year, she said.
She also said she would interrupt other work and remain at the shop overnight when the team needed an emergency repair or a fit corrected.
“I would have never ever thought that my Blues would treat me like this,” she said.
Federal procurement rules require agencies to transmit notices of covered proposed contract actions to the governmentwide portal at SAM.gov to promote access and competition. The cited rule does not state that an agency must personally remind its incumbent contractor.
The record therefore supports two conflicting viewpoints. While the opportunity was public, Whitehurst claims the informal warning on which she had come to rely never arrived.
A Much Larger Contract Ceiling
Federal award records show that the Sewing Box received $683,653 through 14 awards between 2014 and 2025.
That is the available documented total, rather than the value of every uniform the shop produced since the early 1980s.
Aquila International’s new five-year contract has a maximum value of $1,691,506.40. That is $1,007,853.40 more than the Sewing Box’s documented federal awards—nearly 2.5 times as much.
However, Aquila’s figure is a maximum ceiling, not money already spent. The government has not publicly disclosed Aquila’s awarded price for each uniform, repair hour or trip.
Aquila Has Longstanding Government and Military Connections
Aquila is not publicly presented as a traditional tailoring company.
Its primary federal industry classification is sporting and recreational goods wholesaling. Federal records show it has received approximately $15.4 million through 79 awards, primarily involving the State Department, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice, and Defense Department.
Aquila describes itself as a government contracting, logistics and equipment-supply company that works through a network of manufacturers.
Aquila is run by Todd Kelsey and Matias Maloberti. Kelsey has worked in government defense sales since 2007 and serves as vice chairman of the Task Force Dagger Special Operations Foundation, which supports U.S. Special Operations Command personnel and their families.
WEAR asked Kelsey how his company garnered this new Blue Angels contract. He said that the company has “a longer history with Blue Angels than people probably are aware,” mentioning support dating back to 2024 “with different types of flight equipment to include their flight gloves and some compression garments as well as some other PT gear.”
When asked by WEAR if the new contract was attained due to knowing certain people in the service or government, Kelsey replied:
“I will say that, you know, I’m just a regular person at the end of the day. I’m proud of the fact that ten years ago we founded Aquila. I just think that the work that we do speaks for ourselves. There wasn’t anybody who helped us along the way.”
Maloberti served 12 years in the Argentine Navy and later coordinated U.S. Foreign Military Sales at the U.S. Military Group in Quito, Ecuador. He subsequently founded a consulting company that advised U.S. businesses on security cooperation before joining Aquila.
Aquila also was one of five companies selected to compete for orders under a $28 million Army agreement covering clothing and individual equipment for foreign militaries.
Questions Remain About Abrupt Transition
The question some like Whitehurst have is why the Navy changed course so quickly.
Its 2025 justification described the Sewing Box’s patterns, licensing, approval status and local availability as barriers to competition.
Just months after the justification, the Navy evaluated sample suits and selected a new prime contractor through an unrestricted procurement.
The award notice does not explain how the earlier proprietary-design and approval concerns were resolved.
The contract allows Aquila to use subcontractors for sewing, repairs and supplies, and the award notice directs interested local businesses to contact Aquila. That leaves a possible route for the Sewing Box to continue working on the uniforms, but only as a subcontractor.
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