Bearded soldier to brand manager: Chad Kraken's journey to building his business empire

By Stephanie Meador, posted Jul 31, 2026 on BizFayetteville.com

The KRAKEN-SKULLS brand includes a barbershop, a tattoo shop, a T-shirt company, an embroidery company, a website design company, a media marketing and graphic design company and an auto shop. Photos by GFBJ.

When Chad Kraken retired from the military, he began to brainstorm what his next chapter would look like. With an entrepreneurial spirit and a knack for quickly developing new skills, he became not just a business owner, but the face of a brand.

His brand started with beard care. Kraken developed an interest in grooming products while in the military. That eventually led him to create his own line of products. He initially tried to place those products in existing barbershops. Some were willing; others preferred established national brands. That resistance inspired him to take matters into his own hands.

He opened his own barbershop in 2019, and the response was swift. The shop has since been voted Best Barber Shop in Fayetteville multiple years in a row, a recognition he feels blessed to have earned.

Kraken attributes that success less to traditional marketing and more to how the business treats people.

“I believe the reason why we had such growth is because we give back to the community a lot. Every year we do back-to-school events; we do really cool stuff for the community…so it’s like paying it forward a little bit,” shared Kraken. “You don’t have to be the best at anything, but you have to treat customers right…I think that’s the key to the marketing aspect…I have found the best success is just being good at what you do and treating your people right. And then the word of mouth is far better than any marketing you will ever pay for.”

What began as beard products and a barbershop has since evolved into a full ecosystem of services under the KRAKEN-SKULLS brand.

Today, at his 9,000-squarefoot facility on Shannon Drive in Fayetteville, Kraken operates:

A barbershop
A tattoo shop
A T-shirt company
An embroidery company
A website design company
A media marketing and graphic design company

Additionally, he has a custom auto shop located just down the street.

Beyond hair, ink, apparel and media, Kraken is also a gearhead. His automotive
and custom car shop aims to provide customers with transparency and fairness
in everything they do.

Kraken’s expansion strategy was rooted in a simple observation: he was spending too much on outsourcing.

“What I started doing is identifying things that I was outsourcing, and if I felt that whoever I was outsourcing to was taking advantage of me financially, I would go ahead and open up my own branch of KRAKEN-SKULLS to offset that cost, not only to save me money, but to employ more people and have more control. So I wasn’t relying on somebody else to create my swag or my shirts or hats or all that stuff,” explained Kraken.

Each new division reduced his dependence on external vendors and increased the brand’s ability to respond quickly and reliably. Today, Kraken employs 28 people across his various operations.

One of the most significant additions to the KRAKEN-SKULLS portfolio was the tattoo shop, launched after a conversation with a close friend who happened to be a well-known tattoo artist. The shop is now recognized among the top three tattoo shops in Fayetteville, a point Kraken calls “next level” given the number of talented artists in the city.

Kraken believes his military background makes him uniquely capable of juggling so many different businesses within his brand.

“I’m not afraid of work, and from my military experience, I have the ability to lead troops. So why not treat this as if it’s a military unit and have section sergeants or people or platoon sergeants… in charge of each aspect of what they’re doing, and that’s kind of how I run it now,” shared Kraken.

Kraken remains deeply hands-on. Over the years, he has learned many of the trades housed under the KRAKEN-SKULLS umbrella, from T-shirt production to aspects of tattooing and barbering, which gives him the insight to supervise effectively.

For anyone considering entrepreneurship as a path or hoping to oversee several ventures, Kraken offered some advice.

“You need to think multidimensionally, and you’ve got to learn [and] you have to read books and understand horizontal integration and vertical integration, and understand what they mean and how to leverage your relationships in the community and with local businesses. You need to really take a step back from yourself and understand that yes, you’re building a company. Yes, it’s your name on the line. Yes, it’s going to be a lot of difficult, long, long, long hours, but it’s all for the greater good of not only the city but for your generational wealth. You have to look forward past the five-year and 10-year goal set. You have to say, ‘All right, where do I see myself in 20 years?’” stated Kraken.

Kraken concluded with a message of encouragement to Fayetteville’s military population transitioning into civilian life.

“To anybody out there who is transitioning from the military, just know that you have a lot to offer the job market. A lot of the knowledge that you picked up amongst your military career can be transferred over, and you are very valuable, and you are needed, and you are wanted,” shared Kraken.

To learn more about KRAKEN-SKULLS, visit www.kraken-skulls.com.

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