orphan as no other articles link to it . please introduce links to this page from related articles ; try the find link tool for suggestions . july 2016 valley apparel l.l.c. type private industry clothing founded knoxville tennessee 1959 headquarters knoxville tennessee united states key people john niethammer owner president jeffrey d. niethammer owner executive vice president website www.valleyapparel.net valley apparel l.l.c. is a united states brand of clothing consisting of flight jackets and military outerwear manufactured in knoxville tennessee for the united states armed forces . founded in 1959 and independent since 2000 valley specializes in military style apparel for both the consumer market and military customers in the united states department of defense dod . contents 1 history 1.1 origins 1.2 creation of valley apparel 2 today 3 products 4 external links 5 notes history edit origins edit in january 1948 robert lane formed superior togs corporation in new york city to manufacture flight jackets for the department of defense . in 1951 he moved his expanding business to a factory to elizabeth new jersey . the following year the government suspended operations for problems related to contract obligations . in response lane reformed his company under a different name rolen sportswear and resumed production of flight jackets for the dod . 1 by 1957 lane sought to expand . this was achieved by creating a new company dobbs industries under 90 % ownership of lane s accountant samuel gelber . lane decided to locate dobbs in knoxville tennessee where they were able to lease factory space from levi strauss & co. and acquire labor and supplies from the wynn industries group . the blount avenue factory complex c. 1984 . formerly part of alpha industries the building in now home to valley apparel l.l.c. dobbs functioned as a subcontractor of rolen sportswear until 1959 when robert lane was caught bribing government officials for contacts . both rolen sportswear and dobbs industries were suspended from dod contracts their only source of revenue . in response gelber approached the wynn industries group and established his own company to continue flight jacket contracts for the u.s. military . creation of valley apparel edit in 1961 john niethammer was hired by one of the wynn group s subsidiaries to develop quality controls plans to meet government standards . in 1982 he became an operating officer of the company . following a decision in 2000 to separate the commercial and government sides of the business john purchased the main knoxville manufacturing plants from alpha industries and began valley apparel l.l.c. aimed specifically at fulfilling department of defense contracts . today edit valley apparel is today a supplier of outerwear to the u.s. military especially of gore tex fabrics . since splitting from alpha they have fulfilled a number of military contracts . 2 3 4 products edit valley apparel produces namely 5 36 p flight jacket 45 p flight jacket apecs parka and trousers usn shipboard jackets external links edit valley apparel official website valley contracts other valley contracts dod contracts notes edit cirker alan d. 2009 . alpha industries inc. a fifty year history of an american clothing contractor . chantilly virginia baker hill publishing . isbn 0 615 29181 3 . government contracts . inside gov. united states united states government . 2002 . retrieved 21 july 2015 . government contracts . inside gov. united states united states government . 2013 . retrieved 21 july 2015 . government contracts . government spending . united states united states government . 2013 . retrieved 21 july 2015 . cirker alan d. 2009 . alpha industries inc. a fifty year history of an american clothing contractor . chantilly virginia baker hill publishing . p. 10 . isbn 0 615 29181 3 . insidegov 2002 . insidegov 2013 . govspending 2013 . valley apparel . valleyapparel.net . retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title valley apparel l.l.c. & oldid 743264612 categories clothing brands of the united statesamerican military uniformsclothing manufacturersmanufacturing companies based in atlantaclothing companies of the united statescompanies established in 1959hidden categories orphaned articles from july 2016all orphaned articles navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 8 october 2016 at 21 43 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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