Glenn Silbert holds up a flag signed by Chicago-area employees during a 2020 interview at the company’s store and headquarters on Broadway in San Antonio.
San Antonio Express-News file photo
Grunt Style former CEO Glenn Silbert walks past a patriotic display including a traditional fallen soldier table at the company’s flagship San Antonio store in 2020.
San Antonio Express-News file photo
Grunt Style is laying off 80 people amid closures of some of its retail stores.
Kin Man Hui/Staff photographer
Patriotic-themed apparel brand Grunt Style LLC is shuttering eight of the 13 retail stores it operates across the country, including its flagship location at the company’s downtown San Antonio headquarters.
At least 80 employees are expected to be laid off. Among them are 19 from the flagship store at 900 Broadway.
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“The company expects to close this retail employment site in its entirety,” Kelley Wisley, Grunt Style’s human resources manager, told the Texas Workforce Commission in the company’s notice about the closure. “No final determination has been made regarding the future operation or closure of the company headquarters.”
Store closures span six states
Nine more employees will be laid off from a store in El Paso. The rest of the cuts are spread across six stores in five other states. They’re in Chandler, Ariz.; Lutz, Fla.; Destin, Fla.; Branson, Mo.; Woodstock, Ga.; and Myrtle Beach, S.C. The stores are expected to be closed by Nov. 30.
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In addition to the retail roles being cut in San Antonio, the firm is laying off accounting staff members, a video producer and a social media editor.
The company has 49 workers at its two-story Broadway building, according to the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notice it submitted.
Grunt Style is also looking to lease out the space that was once home to the company’s main store on the first floor of its headquarters. A listing shows the 8,045 square foot space as available.
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READ MORE: The fallout at Grunt Style: Daniel Alarik and the company he founded are locked in court battle
Images in the listing show the store space adorned with the company’s cross musket logo and its “This We’ll Defend” logo.
Earlier this year, GlassRatner, a financial advisory firm that works on corporate restructurings, turnarounds and bankruptcies listed itself as an advisor to Grunt Style for “out of court/retail” matters.
Latest cuts follow Illinois facility shutdown
The latest cuts come after the shutdown of its Carol Stream, Ill., production and fulfillment facility last year, which affected 100 workers.
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Veteran advocate Tim Jensen, an early executive turned co-owner who helped build the firm, referred questions to CEO Kevin Corning and the human resources staff. Neither responded to requests for comment.
Last year, Corning replaced former CEO Glenn Silbert, an ex-Under Armour exec who had led Grunt Style since its founder was ousted in 2020.
Known for its military-themed and often politically incorrect T-shirts, Grunt Style landed in San Antonio in 2018.
The company was started by Army drill sergeant Daniel Alarik, who started out selling T-shirts from the trunk of his Nissan Rogue at Fort Benning, Ga., in 2009.
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The brand, which celebrates America and military “grunt” culture with wit and attitude, gained a following and grew fast. Annual sales had topped $100 million by the time Alarik moved the company to San Antonio. But the explosive growth outpaced his ability to manage it, creating a cash crunch that nearly destroyed the company in 2018.
Alarik lost his controlling stake to investors in 2019 and, then, his employment contract with the company in August 2020. That resulted in an online feud between the founder and the company and a lawsuit that was settled out of court in 2023.
Prior to these store closures, the company had 13 retail outlets across 10 states. The closures come as U.S. apparel retailers are facing pressures from trade and tariff policies that are squeezing profits and persistent inflation that is keeping many shoppers out of the market.