BANDANAS.
AUDACITY.
REBELLION.
BANDANAS. AUDACITY. REBELLION.
‘Toil & Trouble’ Bandana
Shop 100% Cotton FEminist Bandanas
Featured products
Toil & Trouble Bandana
Leave Your Mark with Stickers
Spooky Baby Bandana
Hi Sugars
Hello! I’m Val Smith, the (mostly) one lady show behind Sugar Camp and all of these feminist bandanas. I’m an INFJ, a mom, a coffee enthusiast, and a designer with no off switch.
It has been a lifelong dream of mine to create a product line from my own illustrations and patterns. It is of this passion that Sugar Camp was born.
Every single Sugar Camp piece was designed by me. I craft bold, colorful, and inclusive bandanas and accessories for everyone. You’ll find a message on all of my bandanas that you can wear loud and proud, or tucked away just for you. I take pride in the fact that my products are a true mood-booster, offering you a way to explore your self-expression.
Why Sugar Camp?
The roots of this story are in a not-so-well-known, but incredibly important bit of history in Dayton, OH (HQ to Sugar Camp Bandanas). During WWII, 600 Navy WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) were deployed here to work on a top secret project.
Each day, the troops would march from their encampment—Sugar Camp—to National Cash Register, aka NCR, to construct bulky machines called “BOMBEs”. A BOMBE was a large electro-mechanical machine used to decode German ENIGMA cipher machines. Much of the WAVES’ work is attributed to defeating the Axis Powers, and bringing an early end to the war.
During their deployment, Sugar Camp served as their home away from home—housing them in simple but comfortable cabins nestled in a sugar maple grove. As a small woman-owned business from Dayton, it made sense to honor these groundbreaking women who broke long-established barriers to serve their country.
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