The Blue Angels Award New Uniform Contract to Aquila International

The Blue Angels are getting a new maker for one of the most recognizable parts of their look: their flight suits. For 43 years, one company has been behind the Blue Angels' familiar blue-and-yellow flight suits. Now, that long-running relationship has come to an end.

On May 14, 2026, the U.S. Navy awarded a five-year contract to Aquila International LLC to make, alter, and repair the ceremonial flight suits worn by the Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, known as the Blue Angels.

The Navy says the procurement process began after the owner of longtime supplier The Sewing Box indicated that she planned to retire. Owner Candy Whitehurst disputes that account, saying she never told the team she intended to retire.

The Sewing Box did not submit a bid for the new contract. Here is what we know about the change and what Aquila's new contract includes.

How the Navy’s New Blue Angels Uniform Contract Took Shape

A change like this was not just about finding another company that could sew. The Blue Angels need flight suits made to fit individual team members.

The suits also have to meet Navy requirements and be ready for the squadron's schedule. That made finding a new supplier a more involved process than simply replacing one clothing company with another.

The change started after the Navy learned that Candy Whitehurst, the owner of The Sewing Box, planned to retire.

That led the Blue Angels Supply Team to seek support in finding a new supplier. The Navy then opened the contract to competition.

“In January 2026, the Blue Angels Supply Team reached out for support due to The Sewing Box owner informing the team that it was her intention to retire,” said Cmdr. Amber Lewis, Navy Supply Systems Command Director of Public Affairs.

“The following month, the formal, open process of posting, bidding, and awarding the contract for the next supplier of Blue Angels uniforms was started and completed several months later in accordance with federal law. Sewing Box was not among those who submitted bids on the open and transparent process,” she added.

The solicitation was posted on Jan. 29, 2026, and remained open until Feb. 18.

“The contract bidding process was open with no restrictions, in accordance with federal law. For all bids, technical factors were considered as well as cost in the evaluation process. The contract was awarded to another registered small business,” Lewis said.

According to Lewis, there was no bid from the company that had supplied the Blue Angels for the past 43 years.

“The Sewing Box did not submit a bid,” Lewis added.

The Navy moved forward with the competition and awarded the new five-year contract to Aquila International LLC on May 14, 2026. This ended The Sewing Box's 43-year run as the Blue Angels' uniform supplier and marked the start of a new contract with Aquila.

A 43-Year Supplier Relationship with The Sewing Box

For The Sewing Box, the Blue Angels were part of a much larger history of serving military customers in Pensacola. The shop says it has provided military uniform services since 1976.

The Navy is saying that Whitehurst had informed the Blue Angels Supply Team in January 2026 that she intended to retire. Whitehurst disputes that account. She said she did not tell the Blue Angels, or anyone else, that she was retiring.

Whitehurst said she had recently received positive feedback about the Blue Angels' suits before learning that the Navy was moving forward with a new supplier.

"I have text messages where the guys are saying, ‘Oh, this is the best suit I ever had,’ right before I found out,” Whitehurst told CNN.

She said she would have preferred to have a conversation with the Navy before the new procurement process began.

“They were just in here praising me, so why did they take this initiative? I do not know,” Candy added.

Whitehurst also said she did not understand why the relationship had changed. She recalled a confrontation with one officer but did not identify that as the reason for the Navy's decision.

“I just don't know where the downfall went except for a little confrontation with one of the officers,” she said.

Whitehurst has since consulted a Pensacola attorney about the contract transition. She’s suggested that an earlier disagreement with a Blue Angels supply officer may have played a role, although the Navy has not identified that dispute as a factor in the award process.

For Whitehurst, there was also something different about the work itself. The Blue Angels' suits were not simply uniforms made in standard sizes. They were custom-built for each person.

“When you say manufacturing, it's small, medium, large,” she said. “Custom is totally built just for that person's body. Nobody else can wear this, but just for them.”

That custom work had become part of The Sewing Box's connection to the Blue Angels and to Pensacola. Whitehurst said she wished the Navy had handled the transition differently. She also felt the change affected more than her business.

“I would have never thought that they would do this not only to me but to our city,” she said.

The Blue Angels have long been closely tied to Pensacola, where the squadron is based. For Whitehurst, that connection made the work about more than making flight suits.

“When you say Blue Angels, you think excitement, you think joy; they bring joy to the city,” Ronnie, Candy’s husband, told CNN.

“They bring joy to kids’ hearts. Even my wife, I think sometimes she loves the Blues more than she loves me with the amount of hours that she spent here getting this blue uniform perfect.”

Fun Fact About the Blue Angels

The Blue Angels started just after World War II, when Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Chester W. Nimitz ordered the formation of a Navy flight demonstration team. The goal was to keep the public interested in naval aviation and show what Navy pilots could do.

The team held its first public demonstration on June 15, 1946, at Craig Field in Jacksonville, Florida. Lt. Cmdr. Roy “Butch” Voris led the team and flew the Grumman F6F-5 Hellcat. At the time, the group was still officially called the Navy Flight Exhibition Team.

The team got the name Blue Angels later that year after Lt. Maurice “Wick” Wickendoll saw the name of a New York nightclub in The New Yorker and suggested it to the team's leader.

Over the years, the Blue Angels have flown several types of aircraft and changed bases before moving to Naval Air Station Pensacola in 1955, which remains their home today.

Why Earlier Contracts Were Sole-Source

The Navy hasn’t always competed the Blue Angels flight-suit work this way. In a 2018 sole-source notice, the Navy said The Sewing Box owned the flight-suit design, preventing the government from sending the design to other manufacturers. The notice also cited the company's history of producing the suits.

The 2026 procurement was instead opened to competition. NAVSUP told us that technical factors and cost were considered in evaluating bids, but its response did not explain what changed regarding the design ownership identified in the earlier procurement.

Aquila International Is the New Supplier

The Navy's search for a new supplier ended with Aquila International LLC, a small business based in Dulles, Virginia.

The Navy awarded Aquila a five-year contract: a Firm-Fixed-Price Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity contract for the Blue Angels' flight suits. The contract has a maximum value of $1,691,506.40 over the five-year ordering period.

Under the contract, Aquila will construct, alter, and repair custom ceremonial flight suits for Blue Angels personnel. The suits must be custom-made to fit individual personnel, with separate base patterns for male and female personnel.

The contract also calls for Aquila to work with materials provided by the government. These include flame-resistant Nomex fabrics in Royal Blue, Navy Blue, and Anniversary Yellow, along with specific unit insignias.

The requirement also adds,

“The contractor must provide rapid alteration and repair services with a mandatory fourteen (14) calendar-day Turnaround Time (TAT) to maintain the squadron's demanding demonstration schedule and zero-defect visual uniformity. The uniforms must comply strictly with NAVAIR 00-80T-123 Aircrew Systems NATOPS Manual, NAVPERS 156651, and Purchase Description (PD) 99-01, as well as all requirements specified in the Statement of Work (SOW) in the contract.”

Aquila will be responsible for on-site measurement and fitting events at Naval Air Station Pensacola and Naval Air Facility El Centro. The two locations are important to the Blue Angels' operations, so the supplier needs to be able to support the team at both sites.

The contract also allows for possible subcontracting and supply-chain opportunities during its five-year period. The Navy says interested businesses should contact Aquila directly about potential work.

Aquila Already Had a Relationship With the Blue Angels

This is not Aquila’s first time working with the team. The company had already been providing other flight equipment to the Blue Angels since 2024, giving the company an existing history with the squadron before it was awarded the new flight-suit contract.

“We’ve got a longer history with Blue Angels than people probably are aware,” Todd Kelsey, Principal and Managing Member of the Business, told WEAR.

Kelsey said Aquila has supported the Blue Angels, providing different types of flight equipment, including flight gloves, compression garments and other physical training gear.

This history came up during the interview after Kelsey was asked about comments questioning whether Aquila had connections inside the government that helped the company win the new contract.

“I’m just a regular person at the end of the day,” he said. “I’m proud of the fact that 10 years ago we founded Aquila. I just think that the work that we do speaks for itself,” Kelsey explained to WEAR.

In February, he also attended the Navy's industry day in San Diego as the company prepared to compete for the new requirement.

The Whitehurst Family Responded About the Change

The contract has moved on to Aquila International, but the change has drawn a strong response from the Whitehurst family and members of the Pensacola community.

In a recent post, Candy Whitehurst's daughter spoke about her mother's decades of work with the Blue Angels and what the change has meant to their family. She described The Sewing Box as more than a business, pointing to the years her mother spent measuring, cutting patterns, sewing, fitting, and altering the team's flight suits.

“This is more than a job. This is a legacy. This is family. This is craftsmanship that has been passed down through decades,” she wrote.

The focus is not only on the contract that was lost for the family. It is also on what 43 years of work meant to the people behind it. Her daughter's post ended with a message of thanks to the people who supported the family and The Sewing Box.

“Thank you for seeing her. Thank you for valuing her. Thank you for standing beside her,” she wrote.

Aquila's contract is now in effect, but the Navy has not yet said when the Blue Angels will begin wearing suits produced under the new agreement or how the supplier transition will be completed. For The Sewing Box, the change closes a decades-long chapter of outfitting the team from just outside NAS Pensacola.

We reached out to Aquila for a statement regarding the new contract, but did not receive a comment by the provided deadline.