Our Story & Team

OUR STORY:
One of the greatest aspects about shopping small is that it’s an intimate experience for both the shopper and the business. We are real people that answer your emails, and I’m not gonna lie, we even do a little happy dance when our phone rings from an incoming order. If you’re new here, I’d love to introduce myself and my family. I'm Jess, the Owner + Creative Director of Litto Howler. My partner Isak is the Production Manager who's in charge of making all your leash dreams come true. When we’re not making your pup’s favorite adventure leashes here in Los Angeles, we’re away exploring the great outdoors with our very own pack of 4 dogs.

Litto Howler was started back in 2017 because we simply needed a safer and more durable leash for our pack. As rock-climbers, we both trusted climbing rope to be the safest outdoor gear, even entrusting it with our own lives. So what did we do? We took our old gym rope, tied a climber’s knot, and added a carabiner — voila we had our first dog leash prototype. But once our pack grew, we needed a better system of leashes to make our walks in the city easier and most of all, safer. That’s when we designed, tested, and created Litto Howler’s tangle-free leashes. Our leashes are hand crafted here in Los Angeles. Each and every leash is crafted for adventure and designed for safety, made up of real rock-climbing rope and gear.

Fast forward a few years, we’ve both left our respective careers and committed to pursuing Litto Howler full time. The outdoors is what inspires us to create, so we’re constantly trying our best to find the “balance” of work and getting out there for more inspiration to continue creating. Our team and I strive to make the safest, most durable, and most of all, adventure proof leashes for you and your pups. In just a few years, we’ve built a community of adventure seekers that never leave their dogs behind — #LittoFam. With our community’s help, our leashes and gear go out on the most epic adventures with amazing stories that are one of a kind. Whether it’s a story of Litto Howler serving as your rescue dog’s first leash, helping to reignite the confidence she once had or a story of Litto Howler worn on your adventures hiking in the narrowest canyons and over the tallest mountains; there is truly no greater satisfaction for us than knowing that our leashes and gear have found a place in your home. As always, adventure on!

 

 

MEET THE LITTO HOWLER TEAM:

Jess
Owner + Creative Director

We stand proud knowing that we're an Asian American + Woman Owned Small Business. Jess makes all the business decisions around here at Litto Howler, creates the newest collections, and also run the socials. As a micro-small business owner, it's no surprise we all wear a lot of hats. Jess is also in charge of ordering supplies, maintaining the website, and also sourcing materials. Jess and her partner Isak have a pack of four dogs and love exploring the outdoors together. They're avid campers, overlanders, hikers, climbers, and huge foodies. Jess is born and raised in Los Angeles and used to work in the fashion industry as a Creative Director before fully committing to Litto Howler.
 

Isak
Production Manager 

This is Isak. He is the mastermind behind all of our leash designs. He's been a climber for 10+ years and has much knowledge of safety on the tall rocks since he's a lead + multi-pitch climber. He's climbed all the tallest mountains in Brazil - where he's originally from. He speaks 5 languages that includes his fist language Portuguese, English, Korean, Spanish, and a little Tagalog since he's also lived in the Philippines for 10 yeas. He's super talented and crafty which is why he makes sure each and every one of your leashes are perfected before we send them out. Isak is a beer lover and his favorite day ever would be a day in the mountains with the dogs + a pack of his favorite beer. Cheers!

Kayla
Client Service Manager 

This is Kayla. She's been with Litto Howler for 2 years now. She responds to your daily emails and makes sure your orders are packed with love and care. She also organizes inventory, helps everyone with their custom orders no matter how confusing it may be, sets up all the appointments here at the HQ, and she's generally wearing a million different hats. Kayla has a passion for traveling and exploring new places. In her free time she's finding local concerts to go to because she loves music. Kayla is super active and his the gym every single day. challenging her mind + body + soul and inspiring others to do so too! Kayla is proudly part of the LGBTQ+ community and you'll find her with the cutest pride merch!


Uncle Paul
Production Assistant

Paul aka Uncle Paul is Jess' Uncle Grandfather. He's a retired small business owner and helps out with production a few times a week. Paul used to own a furniture business in Santa Monica for over 30 years so he's super crafty. He loves playing golf with his free time, and enjoys spending time with his kids and grandkids. Paul has a gift of brightening up any room with his positive light and has such a young spirit. We have so much fun with him when he's at the HQ and he truly enjoys coming in and working on your leashes . It's become a hobby for him and we are so thank. The shop dogs are obsessed with Paul because he always brings them treats. His favorite shop dog is Kiko! 


Jorge
Production Assistant

Jorge just started working with us not too long ago, but boy is he talented. He's learned super quickly and is currently assisting Isak with production full time here at Litto Howler. Jorge is a dad to the cutest 5 year-old named E. His son E is who motivates him to be the best version of himself. Jorge's main focus in life is to provide E with opportunities Jorge didn't have while growing up in South LA. He is determined to work hard and be a role model to E, and show him hard work will always pay off. We are inspired by his active lifestyle to break the glass ceiling for his loved ones. Jorge used to be in construction, so he's extremely crafty and takes direction very well. We're really excited to have Jorge on board the Litto Howler team and happy to support his dreams.


Shop Dogs
Watch Commanders + Poopers

Above is (from the left to right) Ekko, Kenzo, Meka, and Kiko! These are our shop dogs, aka watch commanders + poopers, because that's literally all they do. They hang out at the HQ all day with us. They help us test out the products and literally inspired us to create the safest dog leashes on the planet. Meka is a skittish dog that had a lot of fears growing up. When she was about a year old, she made some jolting moves when a skateboard rode by, that resulted in her (non Litto Howler) leash coming undone. She bolted to the middle of the street which was one of the scariest moments of our lives. It was a carabiner type of leash that had to be manually screwed to lock and it was a user error of us humans that didn't lock it all the way. As climbers we used auto-locking carabiners for our belaying, and knew it was the safest mechanism that ruled out human error. So what did we do? We were the first dog leash business to ever create a leash with auto-locking carabiners so now it's a phenomenon the industry has caught onto because it's truly the safest clip out there for leashes.