5 U.S. Veteran-Founded Sports and Fitness Businesses Worth Knowing

For National Veterans Small Business Week 2026, Run The Money is highlighting five U.S. veteran-founded or veteran-owned sports and fitness businesses—from baseball-adjacent team apparel and golf clothing to training equipment and fan merchandise.

When we talk about the business of sports, the conversation often begins with billionaire team owners, television contracts and multimillion-dollar athletes. But the sports economy is also made up of smaller companies built around an idea: a better uniform, a more useful training tool, a new kind of fan shop or a brand that understands its community.

Some of the entrepreneurs building those companies first served in the U.S. Armed Forces.

National Veterans Small Business Week runs November 9–13, 2026. The U.S. Small Business Administration uses the observance to recognize veteran entrepreneurs and the resources available to them. We thought it was a fitting moment to explore the sports and fitness businesses veterans have helped create.

These aren’t rankings or endorsements. They’re five different stories of U.S. veteran entrepreneurship that sports fans, coaches, athletes and families may enjoy discovering.

1. Vertical Athletics — Performance accessories and sports merchandise

Military connection: Renée Krieg, U.S. Army veteran

Vertical Athletics is a reminder that a sports business doesn’t have to begin with a revolutionary piece of technology. Sometimes it begins with recognizing a specific customer’s needs. Krieg initially focused on athletic apparel for taller customers before expanding into performance accessories, cooling products and sports-related merchandise. That evolution—from solving a niche problem to exploring adjacent markets—is a useful lesson for any aspiring founder.

Learn more: Vertical Athletics’s company story

2. Brave Hawk Sports — Custom team apparel

Military connection: Michael Wilson, U.S. Navy veteran and co-owner

Uniforms are part of the experience of playing sports, especially for youth teams and community leagues. Brave Hawk Sports works in custom athletic apparel, where design, ordering and dependable delivery matter to coaches and families. Navy veteran Michael Wilson joined the business founded by Bryan, bringing another perspective to a market built around teams and relationships. For families, this is also a reminder that the companies outfitting local teams can be small businesses.

Learn more: Brave Hawk Sports’s company story

3. Blue Falcon Golf — Golf apparel and community

Military connection: Derrek Burr, U.S. Marine Corps veteran

Golf apparel is crowded, so a distinctive point of view can matter as much as the shirt itself. Marine Corps veteran Derrek Burr’s Blue Falcon Golf draws on military-inspired humor and identity to reach a particular community of golfers. The company also describes supporting wounded veterans through a portion of its sales. Its story illustrates a broader business lesson: a niche brand can compete by knowing exactly whom it serves rather than trying to appeal to everyone.

Learn more: Blue Falcon Golf’s company story

4. Surplus Strength — Strength-training equipment

Military connection: Jason Campbell, U.S. Army veteran

Surplus Strength makes equipment for serious strength training, with American manufacturing central to its identity. Founder and Army veteran Jason Campbell built the business from a garage-based effort. In an industry where customers care about durability, practical design and performance, that origin story makes the company worth a closer look. It also shows how a founder can start with hands-on product development rather than a large media platform or retail footprint.

Learn more: Surplus Strength’s company story

5. PXG (Parsons Xtreme Golf) — Golf clubs and equipment

U.S. military connection: Bob Parsons, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, founder and CEO.

PXG is the biggest name on this list, and it offers a different kind of sports entrepreneurship story. Bob Parsons founded the golf equipment company in 2014, bringing his experience as a business builder and his enthusiasm for golf into a brand focused on club design, engineering and custom fitting. PXG says it remains veteran-owned. Parsons served with the Marines during the Vietnam War and received the Purple Heart; the Veterans of Foreign Wars has independently profiled his service and subsequent business career.

PXG’s example shows that veteran-led sports entrepreneurship isn’t limited to small apparel startups. It can also mean building a nationally recognized equipment brand with a substantial research-and-development operation. The company’s PXG for Heroes program offers dedicated benefits to eligible military personnel, veterans and first responders.

Sources: PXG’s company history and ownership statement; VFW profile of Bob Parsons.

What these five businesses tell us about the sports economy

There’s no single veteran-entrepreneur playbook here. Some founders entered sports through products they wanted to improve. Others built around communities they knew, skills they developed or a particular type of customer they wanted to serve.

That diversity is what makes the broader sports business world interesting. The same industry includes a neighborhood team buying uniforms, a golfer looking for a gift, a fan searching for licensed merchandise and an athlete evaluating training equipment. Each represents a different customer and a different opportunity for a small business.

For families, it can also be worth learning who is behind the brands that show up at practices, in gyms and at games. Supporting a veteran-connected business doesn’t require buying something today. Following a company’s work, sharing its story or recommending it to a coach or fellow fan can help people discover it.

Know a veteran-founded sports business?

We’d like to continue this series with firsthand conversations. If you own, work for or know a veteran-founded business in sports, fitness, recreation, sports media or fan culture, connect with us through our Work With Us page. We’re especially interested in how founders got started, what they’ve learned and what they’re building next.

Sources

Information about each company and its military connection is based on the company-published histories linked in the profiles above. For the observance, see the SBA’s National Veterans Small Business Week page.

Editor’s note: Businesses were selected independently based on publicly available information. Inclusion is not a paid endorsement.