The 2022 year is closed, yet our journey and vision for Outdoor Wise Living is still just in its early days. 

As we recap 2022, we reminisce on our early days, the virtual community we are building, and the social impact we are trying to make.  Our emotions throughout the year spanned pride to exhaustion and everything in between.  If you have been any part of our journey: following us along on Instagram, getting “OWLside”, or grabbing some of our gear, we want to extend you a huge thank you.  This dream is not possible without your support, and we look forward to everything that will come in 2023. To family and friends old and new who have supported us and rock our gear, you are the best.

Our journey for OWL started back in 2020 as the world had gone virtual and we were going stir crazy as a family.  However, we realized the outdoors was still open and it was an avenue that improved our moods and got us more active.  While there are many brands that celebrate nature and outdoor adventure, we felt there was an opportunity to celebrate the simple joys of time outside and embrace the mantra that there is no wrong way to get outside. 

As we looked to launch the brand, we focused on our values: family, inclusivity in the outdoors, and giving back.  We decided to make nature inspired apparel that both kids and parents could relate to and enjoy.  With high standards for quality, we selected supply partners and worked with Portland Design Company to bring our ideas to life.  We also selected the National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF) as our partner to give back.  Their mission and values are aligned with ours – we both want to connect everyone with the outdoors. We also chose the most transparent way to give back to NEEF, which is to commit a percentage of sales versus a percentage of proceeds or profits. Like any small business starting out, there are no profits for some time as you test your idea, but it was important for us to give back from Day 1.

We officially launched OWL in July 2022.  We remember the first “follows” and the first “likes” from individuals we had never met before, and our excitement grew.  We started to establish real momentum in October when we launched our first virtual engagement event: Outside in October.  We were incredibly excited to see people making new everyday connections with the outdoors across the country.  And, with the close of our first three months of apparel sales, we made our first donation to NEEF, which totaled $180. 

We continue to engage our online community with our “getOWLside” hashtag and sharing.  We also created an “OWL ambassadors” program and will forever be grateful for the new friendships we’ve formed and their ongoing support of OWL.

With the holiday season ending, we are excited to make a big announcement. With the support of our growing community and the OWL ambassadors, we are thrilled to say we reached our goal of over 1,000 #getOWLside posts, which means we will be doubling our donation for the holiday season. Our next donation to NEEF will be $708 for a total of $888 donated to NEEF in our first year! Thank you to everyone who purchased from us, talked about our brand, shared our gear or post. This is amazing!

While 2022 may be over, we can’t wait for 2023.  We are actively creating new designs which we are excited to share with you early in the new year.  We are kicking off ‘30 days to getOWLside’ which is a virtual community event with a goal of creating the habit of making everyday outdoor connections and providing daily inspiration for getting outside throughout 2023.  Last, we are excited to see where our brand can go through your continued support.

We hope to see you outside!

Dan and Ashley