It all started
in the fall of 1988, LTC Robert J. Oldmixon retires from the
army at Fort Lee, Va. His last assignment was the IG for TSA,
now DECA. Fort Lee, also know as "Home of the Quartermaster"
is located just south or Richmond Virginia right off of interstate
95.
When he
retired he started Appomattox Gallery which was about a 150
sq. ft. shop inside the PX mall. Yes I did say 150 sq. ft. not
1500, it was literally a large closet. A short time later we
moved into a larger space, about 600 sq. ft where the business
started to grow.
At this
time most of the work was being done in a garage / work shop
at Bob's house. this is when I come in. Hello, my name is Scott
Oldmixon, Bob's oldest son. At the time I was in high school
doing my best to keep out of trouble. I had always had a fascination
with computers and that proved to be very beneficial later on.
Now at this time I had converted part of my bedroom into a work
area too. I even went out and started a company of my own called
Progressive Designs. My products included custom printed coffee
mugs, mouse pads and shirts. I used the sublimation system we
bought for the awards business.
In 1994,
we opened our second location in Colonial Heights just outside
Fort Lee. We called this, The Award Shop. Shortly after
opening this location we moved into a much larger building located
on the Boulevard (US Route 1) in Colonial Heights. Our new building
has about 6,000 sq. feet of work space with a 2,000 sq. foot
showroom.

Now, with
room to grow, we have branched off into many areas of business.
From trophies and plaques to medals, challenge coins and our
own line of custom framed awards. We also offer screen printing,
vinyl banners, embroidery, laser engraving, sublimation as well
as custom medals made in-house. We have grown substantially
with our wide variety of products and capabilities.
As for our
shop at Fort Lee, we are still there. We now have the largest
retail space at the PX, about 1500 sq. ft. and we continue to
add new products and services.
Our company
has been helping to design and manufacture military coins since
1990 and with the rise of the Internet we brought our challenge
coin company, military-coins.com, online in 1998. Now, with
our own Internet sales department, we are able to focus on military
coins and strive to provide excellent service, quality and low
prices to our military customers.

In 1998
I branched out again starting Richmond Designs, LLC. This company
focused on website design and programming. Since then I have
restructured the company to a single purpose; to provide high
quality products to the military and corporate community.

In
2008, 10 years later and Richmond Designs has managed to grasp
a fair share of the market for challenge coins and related products.
We will continue to bring new products to our customers and
try to offer service and reliability second to none.