A veteran-owned tactical brand built from the ground up — industry research, website, mobile app, advisory board, and a culture that refused to look like everyone else.
Rogue Dynamics is a veteran-owned brand built around a simple but uncommon principle: "The Beaten Path is for Beaten People." Founded by a veteran with a flair for boundary-pushing, the company sells everything from tactical gear and apparel to lock picks and smart optics — and hosts a blog and podcast for the professional community it serves.
My engagement spanned seven years and touched every layer of the business — from the initial industry research that shaped what products to sell, to the website's multiple iterations, to a full mobile app designed in Figma (paused before launch). I also built and maintained a network of military and law enforcement contacts who served as an informal advisory board and product testing cohort.
In a market flooded with veteran-owned t-shirt companies, how do you stand out? The answer: don't be a t-shirt company. Stand for something more, serve a niche better, and let the culture do the selling.
Before designing anything, we needed to understand what Rogue Dynamics actually was — and wasn't. The brand had three distinct but interconnected identities.
A philosophy about living outside the norm. "Ars Decidium." "We Happy Few." A rejection of the beaten path. Every design, every interaction, every touchpoint had to embody this — or it was off-brand.
A real retailer selling real products — from quirky apparel to lock picks, shooting equipment, knives, and tactical gear. Plus a blog and podcast. The commercial layer had to work as hard as the brand layer.
A genuine community of adventure-seekers, professionals, and veterans who shared values around pushing limits. The design had to feel earned — not like marketing dressed up as culture.
This wasn't a sprint. It was a sustained engagement that evolved as the business evolved — research leading strategy, strategy leading design.
Surveyed the veteran-owned apparel and tactical gear market to find the white space. Talked to veterans, law enforcement officers, and civilians to understand what they wanted — and what they were already sick of.
Built and managed a network of military and LEO contacts who became an informal advisory board — testing prototypes of equipment, reviewing software, and providing structured feedback through interviews.
Designed and redeveloped the Rogue Dynamics website across multiple iterations and hosting platforms. Revisited the target demographic regularly to ensure the site kept pace with how the brand and audience were evolving.
Designed a full mobile app prototype in Figma covering multiple retail layouts, a blog section, and a members-only section for select customers. Tested retail design options with target users before the project was paused.
The mobile app was fully designed and prototyped before the project was paused. The work is real — and it demonstrates end-to-end retail UX thinking across multiple screen types and user journeys.
📎 Artifact Placeholder
Insert Figma app screens: Home Page, Staff Picks, Retail Screens, Blog, Item Detail, Members AreaFeatured products, brand editorial content, and entry points to the retail and community sections — designed for the Rogue audience's values, not a generic storefront.
Curated gear selections from people who actually use it — veterans and LEOs vouching for products carries more weight than any algorithm with this audience.
Multiple retail layout variants were designed and tested. The goal: find the format that drove browsing and purchase behavior for tactical gear, not off-the-shelf ecommerce patterns.
Product pages built around trust signals meaningful to this audience — professional use cases, community testing notes, and real specifications alongside pricing.
Editorial content that served the brand's culture mission — not filler content, but genuine storytelling from and for the professional community Rogue was building.
A gated section for select customers — creating exclusivity and rewarding loyalty with early access, insider content, and community features unavailable to the general public.
The advisory board of real military and LEO professionals became the most valuable asset in the design process — and a differentiator no competitor could easily replicate.
Complete, tested Figma prototype covering 6 screen types across retail, editorial, and members-only flows — ready to hand off when the project resumes.
Multiple website iterations delivered and deployed over 7 years, each informed by user research and shaped by the evolving brand and audience.
Generic ecommerce patterns don't work when the brand is built on anti-generic values. Every UX decision had to pass the "would this feel Rogue?" test.
The advisory board wasn't just useful — it was irreplaceable. Military and LEO users evaluate products in ways that no amount of desk research can replicate.
The mobile app never launched — but the research, prototype, and design system are complete and preserved. The work can ship the day the business is ready to resume.
Seven years of working with the same brand and community means accumulated context that no sprint-based engagement can replicate. Deep familiarity produces better design.
Open to senior/lead UX roles and director-level engagements.