About Us

I started a brand to represent the people who care and commit.

Have you ever heard the saying, "Why don't you give one iota?" That's where the name AOTA comes from. An iota is the smallest amount possible — and AOTA is built around the opposite of that.

Let me tell you why that matters to me. A few years back, I went on a four-day fishing trip up north with my family at Gurt Lake. We fished for hours every single day and had nothing to show for it. By the last day, we were exhausted, burned out, and had already packed up our gear. We stood there debating whether it was even worth trying for one more hour. It would have been so easy to just call it and head home.

We decided to go anyway.

Within that last hour, I hooked a 30-inch walleye — my first one ever, and a dream size for the species — with the same family who'd fished those empty hours right beside me. That hour is one I'll remember for a long time. And it taught me something I haven't forgotten: staying committed when it's not the easy option is what makes the payoff mean something.

That's the moment AOTA is built on. It's not really about fishing — it's about choosing to give more than the minimum, even when nobody would blame you for stopping. And it's part of why nature shows up in everything I design. Being outdoors is where that lesson found me, so every AOTA piece carries a piece of nature in it as a reminder of where it all started.

You'll see that idea in the design itself. The A is wrapped in a vine that swirls through it — a reminder that growth is never a straight line, it takes its time and finds its own way through. On the side of the hat, a moon and clouds represent the hours nobody sees — the early mornings and quiet effort that come before anything worth remembering.

AOTA is for people who give more than the minimum. Not because it's easy. Because it matters.