Our Story & 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!
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.