Episode 415 - Bear Handlon - A Navy SEAL on a mission to erase 25 Million in Medical Debt

Cleared Hot

Society & Culture

4.9 • 11K Ratings

🗓️ 10 November 2025

⏱️ 156 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Bear served 7 years as a Naval officer in the Special Operations community as a Navy SEAL. He founded Born Primitive in his garage in 2014, the same year he earned his commission. Bear balanced being active duty while building what would become a global brand with zero outside funding.

Prior to his service, Bear played Division I football at Yale University and also competed at the CrossFit Games. Bear became hell bent on creating Born Primitive Tactical after seeing the shortfalls in the gear he was being issued as an operator, while also seeing many apparel brands in this industry that did not actually support those who serve.

Born Primitive: https://bornprimitive.com/

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Okay, got the red smoke.
0:05.1	Gun runs. North and south. West of the smoke.
0:11.2	Okay, copy. West of the smoke. I'm looking at danger close now.
0:15.6	Come on winter, baby. Give it to me. I need it. You're clear it hot.
0:19.3	Copy, cleared hot.
0:37.7	I don't think I could actually even learn how to do it. You know what I mean? Like, I could never be an artist. Like, I can't draw. And I don't think I could ever draw. I understand the concepts of drawing. I can draw stick figures with dicks. I do it all the time. Yeah. We're all good at that. I do it in my wife's notebook all the time when she's not paying attention. And every time the reaction is the same and every time I laugh, I can't stop because I'm a child.
0:42.2	But we went over there.
0:43.1	I'd say we had a 50% idea of what we wanted.
0:47.7	And all I can say is I'm so thankful that there are creative people out there that go down that path.
0:51.8	Yeah, got to delegate it.
0:53.2	Well, there were, and there were many iterations.
1:12.2	It probably took, it's hard to remember because it was, God, it was such a interesting journey, which I feel like you just went through with your retail store. Oh, dude. You don't even know. And we're designing a headquarter building too. So it's 52,000 square feet. So imagine trying to design that. But the store was its own little beast, too.
1:12.6	Yeah.
1:12.2	Well, you guys had one advantage over us. So it's 52,000 square feet. So imagine trying to design that. But the store was its own little beast too.
1:12.6	Yeah.
1:14.7	Well, you guys had one advantage over us.
1:16.9	This will happen for us during COVID.
1:17.7	Oh, geez.
1:21.7	So we would get lumber quotes that were good for 24 hours.
1:25.4	And one day it'd be up 60%, the next day down 40. So I honestly think we probably paid 30 to 40% more.
1:32.4	Because when we worked, like, we almost didn't have the panel that connects the city power
1:39.1	into the building.
	...

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