For nearly 40 years, the Blue Angels, the Navy pilots renowned for performing acrobatic moves at air shows and other events across the country, have turned to Jellie Whitehurst, who is known as Candy, to make their blue-and-yellow flight suits.
But last month, Ms. Whitehurst said, she was blindsided. She reached out to an officer from the flying team about paying a visit to take measurements for new suits. It was only then, she said, that the officer told her she would not be making them anymore.
The Navy, she learned, had awarded the contract to a much larger company, a defense contractor in Virginia, far from the Blue Angels’ base in Pensacola, Fla., and her nearby tailoring shop, The Sewing Box, on North Navy Boulevard.
“It was devastating to lose it. Period,” she said. “But it was even more devastating to lose it like this. I would have never thought my Blues would do me like this — that they would treat me like this when we had a good relationship.”
She said that the Blue Angels had always come directly to her to submit a bid as the sole supplier of the suits, and that the officers there never told her they were soliciting other bids to make the suits.
Cmdr. Amber Lewis, a spokeswoman for Navy Supply Systems Command, said in a statement that Ms. Whitehurst had informed the Blue Angels in January “that it was her intention to retire.”
“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,” she said.
Ms. Whitehurst, who declined to give her age, contests that claim. She said she never told the Blue Angels — or anyone else — that she was retiring.
“I am not planning to retire,” she said.
The change in contractors was reported earlier by a Pensacola news station, WEAR-TV, and by Stars and Stripes.
After Ms. Whitehurst broke down in tears as she discussed the issue on CNN this week, some social media users speculated that race might have been a factor.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has taken steps to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, including programs intended to assist small businesses owned by minorities.
Ms. Whitehurst’s past contract documents for the Blue Angels’ suits noted that The Sewing Box is a small, woman- and minority-owned business.
She said she believed the woman- and minority-owned designations were not factors in her having won contracts to make the suits, and she was not sure why the Navy had chosen another vendor.
“They wanted me, and they knew I could do it,” she said in an interview. “My quality was the factor.”
Making flight suits for the Blue Angels has long been a handmade, bespoke process.
After measuring each member of the team, Ms. Whitehurst said, she draws the patterns for their suits on craft paper and cuts out the pieces from a 100-yard roll of flame-resistant Nomex fabric.
Using Nomex thread, she stitches them together with a belt, pockets and zippers, adds the Blue Angels insignia and embroiders the name and rank of each member in yellow. Each custom-fitted suit takes about five and a half hours to make, and she estimated the cost at $850 per suit. She said she makes 85 to 100 suits each year.
“It’s a lot of joy and pride that I feel that the world sees something I made,” Ms. Whitehurst said.
Commander Lewis said a notice seeking potential vendors was posted on Jan. 29 on sam.gov, a government contracting website, and remained open until Feb. 18, allowing vendors to submit information about their capabilities and experience. Aquila International, a government contractor in Dulles, Va., was awarded the contract on May 14.
“Sewing Box was not among those who submitted bids on the open and transparent process,” Commander Lewis said. “The contract was awarded to best value to the government. The cost per uniform is less than the previous contract.”
Ms. Whitehurst started working at The Sewing Box in 1989. She learned the craft of making the Blue Angels’ tightfitting suits with Samuel Miller, a former Navy officer who opened the shop in about 1978.
He had initially called it Feminine Flair and had planned to make women’s dresses.
“That was kind of the wrong name to pick,” Mr. Miller, who died in 2022, told The Pensacola News Journal in 2019. “Pensacola is not a trendsetting city, as you might know, so that did not work out. I had to very quickly mutate and went into alterations and uniforms.”
Since 2014, the Sewing Box has earned $684,000 from the Navy to make the suits, according to usaspending.gov, a government website that tracks federal spending. The Navy’s new five-year contract with Aquila International is worth $1.69 million.
Commander Lewis did not explain the cost difference, but her statement said: “For all bids, technical factors were considered as well as cost in the evaluation process.”
Todd Kelsey, a founder of Aquila International, told WEAR that he was proud his company had won the bid. He noted that the company had been making other items for the Blue Angels since 2024, including flight gloves and compression garments.
Aquila International said it has other federal contracts, such as supplying tactical gear and first-aid kits for the State Department. In a statement, it said that its “focus now is ensuring a seamless transition and delivering exceptional uniforms and equipment for the Blue Angels.”
Ms. Whitehurst said she still hoped to win back the contract. She has been consulting with a lawyer, but said she was not sure if she would take legal action.
“It would mean a lot to me if I could get them back,” she said. “And when I retire — when I decide to retire — I would like to retire as the maker of the flight suits.”
