MontKemba Athletic Apparel

Help support a Veteran owned athletic apparel startup!

MontKemba, is being founded by Omar Armstrong. Omar is a US Army Veteran with two tours in Iraq. Omar initially developed a passion for running during his freshman year of ROTC at Georgia Military College. After receiving an early commission, he transferred to the University of South Carolina, and went on Active Duty upon graduation. His first assignment was with the 3rd Infantry Division. He deployed to Baghdad with the 3rd Infantry Division in 2005. His second deployment to Iraq came in 2007, in which he served as the logistics advisor for an Iraqi Army brigade in Northern Iraq.

Omar received an honorable discharge in 2008, and moved back home to Columbia, SC. He was overweight, dealing with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and had high cholesterol. His physicians at the VA Medical Center suggested getting into physical fitness as a way to deal with his psychological symptoms, weight, and cholesterol. Omar decided to pick up running again. He entered his first 5k with a group of coworkers. He really enjoyed it, and was especially challenged by the people that crossed the finish line before him. Following this race, he started to take his running more seriously, so he trained harder and entered more races, but he was doing this all by himself.

In the winter of 2014, Omar discovered Team Red, White & Blue (RWB), while reading a Runner’s World Magazine. Team RWB’s mission is to enrich the lives of America’s Veteran’s by connecting them to their community through physical and social activity. He joined Team RWB that day, and hasn’t ran by himself ever since. Team RWB introduced Omar to CrossFit, Yoga, and obstacle course races. Becoming a leader in his local chapter also sparked his entrepreneurial spirit. He credits Team RWB with teaching him social media networking skills, community/partner organization networking, mass email management, race vendor booth management, and race organization/direction.

During the summer of 2016 Omar started running with a group of individuals who called themselves “The Crew”. The Crew meets at 5:00 am on Tuesdays, Thursday, and early on either Saturday or Sunday. They are a group of professional and highly motivated individuals all encouraging each other to become better athletes, and people. Omar came up with the following acronym for the name of this “crew”: Consistently Running to Eliminate Weakness (CREW). He developed a logo, and thought he could market this as an athletic apparel line for like-minded individuals.

In the summer of 2017, Omar attended the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans (EBV), hosted by the Robert J. Trulaske, Sr. College of Business at the University of Missouri. EBV provided him with so much valuable information to include that the fact that “The CREW” probably couldn’t be trademarked. Following EBV, Omar went home, researched more names, and decided to go with “MontKemba.” “MontKemba” is a combination of Montu, the Egyptian God of War, and IKemba, a Nigerian name meaning the strength of the people or nation. Why war? “War” is representing the struggle between our goals, aspirations, and dreams; and various distractions, or negativity. YOU are, the “God,” or the one in control in this “battle.” Why “the strength of the people/nation?” We CANNOT accomplish our goals by ourselves! We need the encouragement of others. Positivity is contagious.

MontKemba’s mission is to provide their customers with stylish, functional, and durable athletic apparel. Our motto is “We didn’t come here to play!” We aim to encourage our customers to not just participate, but to constantly get better. MontKemba’s leadership team is currently made up of Omar and several members of “The CREW”.

Through running, the support of his family, friends, and run groups, Omar was able to get off of psych medications, he went from weighing 205 pounds at his heaviest to 170 pounds (at his lightest), his cholesterol improved, and he gained a large network of positive and motivated friends. Through MontKemba, he hopes that he is able to help others achieve similar results in their own lives.

Please support this worthy cause.