EP 31: Stories of the Hunt with Bryan Offutt

It was unbelievable. It was unbelievable. 20 yards away, a whap. I'm like, get another arrow, get another arrow. All of a sudden, I saw this cat coming right back at us. Anything to do with Western big game.

Welcome to the Epic Outdoors podcast, powered by Under Armour. Hello, everybody. It's Jason Carter with Epic Outdoors podcast. Today, we've got a special guest, Brian Offit of Under Armour. What's up? What's up? What's up, Brian? I love Brian. We've been hunting together for a long time. We'll get into that. Before we get started, I do want to thank UA and their sponsorship for the podcast and their support of Epic Outdoors. They're a phenomenal company. Very, very progressive in all of their products and what they're coming out with. And, of course, I'm a huge fan of the Baron camel pattern. It's awesome. I've used it exclusively since it's come out. And it's awesome. So, anyway, just appreciate them and all the support. I've been involved with Under Armour for quite some time, doing a lot of different projects, including the Ridge Reaper TV show, which is owned by Under Armour.

And we continue to do different things, and we'll get into that as well. So, anyway, welcome, Brian. Thanks, buddy. Thanks. How are you doing, buddy? I'm doing good. I'm doing good. We're at the Western Expo. This is great. It's awesome. It's awesome. This is a great venue. And, you know, you get done the season and you come out here and it's just like, oh, man, it just feels so good to be here, doesn't it? Yeah, it does. You know, we've been getting up at 2 in the morning and crunching statistics and kind of cranking on the magazine because, you know, at 8 o'clock the phone starts ringing. And so we really get a lot of, you know, grunt work done, so to speak, early. And Adam and I were talking. We actually look forward to coming here. It almost feels a little bit like a vacation. We get a visit with people and talk hunting. That's great.

And just kind of get a little different set of walls to look at. You know what I mean? Totally. Totally. And, Jason, congratulations to you and the team, man. Awesome. Epic Outdoors. You know, it's something special and really proud of you. You know, you're a good friend of mine. And it's pretty awesome to see. And, you know, I'm not trying to get so bubbly on you, buddy. No, yeah. But it's great. We don't need to start crying here. But, yeah, no, I sure appreciate it, Brian. It means a lot coming from you. And, of course, you know, we've shared many, many hunting camps together and been out in the fields. And so I do feel like I know your family and I know you know mine. Yeah, no doubt. And so there is a lot of history there and we've shared a lot of things. And so it's pretty awesome when it comes full circle and we can continue to work on projects together. Absolutely.

So, anyway, maybe give us a little bit of background of your hunting background, like where you've been and what you did. And then what led you to Under Armour? And just kind of give us a little bit of that. Yeah, sure. Sure. So, man, I'll bring it all the way back to the beginning. So, yeah, I was born in Alabama. So I'm like a, you know, a southeast kid. Didn't spend a ton of time there. But as a family, we kind of worked our way up the coast. And so Montgomery, Alabama, moved to North Carolina, and then we ended up in Maryland. Awesome. And so lived most of my life there. I went to school. I went to college down in Georgia. So pretty much, you know, a southeast, I don't know if you call me a native, but definitely from there. And, man, you know, just growing up, you know, my dad's side of the family was big in rodeo.

And so just growing up around animals, horses, and, you know, my family did team roping. Just outdoors. Oh, yeah. Everything outdoors. I mean, everything we did. Yeah. And what you practiced was, you know, roping the, you know, the fake cow. Yeah. You know, we did it all. Yeah. And just love being outside. And more than anything, you know, I grew up with a BB gun in my hand. Yeah. And I'd love to go out. And, you know, we had a ton of groundhogs on the East Coast. We had groundhogs. Yeah. And, man, I lived for it. Like, every weekend, every time I woke up, like, outside all day long, like, just want to go and be outside. And, oh, my gosh, it's going to get dark soon. Like, are you kidding me? I've got to go back inside. That's right. But, yeah, so, but in Maryland and, you know, whitetail, whitetail deer is pretty much, you know, where I spend a lot of time in a tree stand. Yep.

And we also do waterfowl. So I live on the eastern shore now of Maryland. Love it. And it's great. We've got whitetail deer. You know, we live on the Chesapeake Bay, which is awesome for fish and for crabbing. We've got, you know, the Maryland blue crab, in which you need to go crabbing with me. Bring your boys. I do need to. I love seafood. Yeah. We don't have good seafood in Utah. They call it crawdads. I don't want to offend anybody, but the Maryland blue crab is pretty tasty. But, yeah, and, you know, just growing up in the outdoors, man. Yeah. You know, it's been special, very fortunate, very humbled, and, you know, love, love the space. So whitetail deer. And then, I'll be honest, man, like, my introduction to you was my true introduction to the West. Wow. And now I've had this, call it obsession, like, you know, most Western hunters have.

We hadn't known each other very long before we would come out and went elk hunting. Yeah. I mean, just real brief. Yep. And, you know, I said, man, I've got to do this. Yeah. Like, what is this elk hunting? Are you kidding me? Yeah. You know, I just know whitetail deer. Yeah. And, man, it was awesome. But, yeah, so went to college. I was a criminal justice major. Okay. So when I was a kid, I always thought, like, FBI. Like, I want to be an FBI agent, you know. And so went to college for a criminal justice degree. And coming out of college, I went to the FBI, went Secret Service, and applied there. Wow. And pre-9-11, they only wanted accountants and lawyers. And I just wanted to go after bad guys and kick down doors. Yeah, right. So I was all ticked off. Like, what? What do you mean you don't want me? And so I'm like, come on. I want to go after bad guys.

And, you know, so I was like, man, I was ticked. I was pissed. I was like, come on, man. Yeah. And now what? So, yeah. So I started my own personal training company down in downtown Baltimore. There you go. Yeah. I remember that. Yeah. Used to train, you know, some crazy guys. Yeah. Some crazy people. And I was like, I got to get out of this. I'm done. Yeah. I'm out. Meanwhile, ran into a couple guys from Under Armour. Yeah. And they came in. And they were like, hey, we want to get free workouts from you. And I'm like, who the hell are you? Yeah. Like, what? No. This is when Under Armour is in its infancy. They're a fairly young company. So this was like literally, like, what are those shirts? I was looking at them. I didn't even know who these guys were. Yeah. But they were just like, yeah, we work for this company, Under Armour. We'll trade you some shirts for workouts.

And I'm like, who are you? I'm going to trade you money for workouts. I'm doing this to feed my family. Right. Actually, it was just to feed me at the time. There you go. All right. But anyways, I went on vacation down to the Outer Banks. And something came over me where I was just like, I don't know who these guys are or what they're doing. Yeah. But their passion and my willingness to just go after whatever they were going after, because I didn't know. Yeah. But I was like, man, I want to be a part of this. Like, I like, you know, this is something I could really gravitate towards. And I called them every single day. I called them like four times a day. And they were just like, all right, just come in. Fine. Yeah. They're like, just come in. But we want free workouts. Yeah, exactly. And then 9-11 happened. Of course, you know, the world stood still. And I came on in October of 2001.

Wow. And yeah, started in the warehouse. Like, literally. Warehouse. Warehouse, man. Like, I was on the ground floor. Small warehouse. So we had. Back then. Dude, the warehouse was like, you know, a little bit bigger. In this booth. Okay. It's a little bit bigger than 10 by 20.

It was probably quite bigger. But young. But it was different. You know, Kevin Plank, you know, our CEO and founder, ran the front half of the business. Where he was really the front man. And, you know, the guy that really went out there with a, you know, a business card that said. He had one card that said owner and founder. And then another card at the same time that said, like, sales manager. He was everything. Because it was just like. He did everything. Hey, I need to talk to the CEO. You pull out that card. Hey, I need to talk to the sales manager. Did you pull out that card? Because we were. When you're a young company, you do everything. Yeah. You wear many hats. Yeah. I mean, I came in. I was employee number 33. So, it was just. Wow. It was just, you know, a few of us. And so, I ran the whole warehouse floor. Kip ran the back end of the business.

So, everything from sourcing the product. We were all, you know, USA made product. And, you know, it was something special. And Kip and I used to shoot our bows in the warehouse and the rolls of fabric. Which, if Kevin knew about it, we'd be fired today. We won't tell him. No, please don't. And, but it was awesome, man. I mean, it really, it was, it truly is the American dream. Yeah. Where Kevin, you know, started the company out of, you know, he was playing football at the University of Maryland. Okay. And, you know, football player was like, I'm wearing these compression shorts. They, you know, make me feel light and dry and compressive. Like, I got t-shirts that were switching out, like, four times a game that are heavy, cotton. Yeah. Like, they're miserable. Like, why can't we have shirts? Like, these shorts. Yeah. So, you know, he went in the back of his car.

He went up to New York City, like, found this fabric, went down to his grandmother's basement in Georgetown, you know, right there in D.C. Crazy. So, he sewed up some shirts, gave them to the guys and said, hey, what do you think? And the guys were like, man, this is cool. You know, you had the fat linemen that were like, hey, I feel like a stuffed sausage. You know, this isn't going to work. They look like a stuffed sausage. But, you know what? They said, hey, man. We'll do it. I feel lighter, drier. Like, this is awesome. Yes. And so, Kevin made some more shirts in the back of his car, drove down to Georgia Tech, gave it to some of those guys. And, you know, that's how the brand got started. And so, really, from that singular T-shirt of performance. But, you know, there's always been this, you know, Under Armour's going to make you better. Yeah.

And we haven't lost that from that day of, you know, when you put this on, like, this product's going to do something for you. And we're going to empower you. And we got your back. Yes. You know, even from the start of, you know, it literally was like Kip and, you know, a few of us at the time that loved to hunt. You know, we made the mock turtleneck in cold weather gear. And we're like, man, it'd be awesome if we could get this in camo. How cool would that be, you know? And, by the way, we own the company. We could do that. And, you know, so it's kind of cool having, you know, one of your buddies that hunted at the company and has a passion for, you know, this industry.

And so, we made it for us. But it was out of a passion for, you know, the love of hunting. Yeah. And next thing you know, it was kind of like, well, we could probably sell some of these too, right? And by the way, then we could get paid to hunt. Then we've got to go on all these hunts to try our stuff out. And then we've got to be Jason Carter. Well, I still want to be that guy. Yeah. I still want to be that guy. So, anyway. So, fast forward. October from 01 to when I think, wasn't your elk hunt that we did together in 2008-ish? That's probably right. I'm thinking about 2008 or so. You came out to Utah. At that time, I think you were the head of outdoor marketing. I don't remember your official title, but moved high up into the company in a matter of seven years or so. Yeah. I mean, you know, I took a couple different places. One, I hated working in the warehouse. Yeah.

I was just like, get me out of here. I want to talk about the brand. I want to tell people about this product. Like, I want to get out. But you still had to put your time in. Oh, my gosh. Work up through the ranks. So, I went to sales, and I helped to start up our indie sporting goods channels for the West Coast, the Rockies, and the Northeast. So, literally, I was, you know, selling T-shirts and mock turtlenecks to the mom-and-pop retailers that were selling to colleges, to Pop Warner Football. Yes. And I literally had, like, a little trifold catalog that was, like, heat gear-tight T-shirts, mock turtlenecks when it's cold. And we had a couple polos. Wow. And the catalog's a little bit bigger now. Yeah. It's a lot bigger. Yeah. It's like an inch thick. I mean, you got more lines of socks than... There's a few skews. There's a few skews. Tons and tons of them. There's a few skews.

But, yeah, so did Indy to 2003, when we went to war as a country, we had Special Forces calling us up. And they were saying, hey, we'd love, you know, your football product. Yeah. But we're wearing it overseas. We're wearing it underneath our body armor. Wow. We freaking love it. But we need it in the Marine Olive Drab, and we need it in the Army Brown. Yeah. And so I was fielding these calls. Yeah. And I was like, man, this is awesome. Yeah. Now we're moving. I said, I went to Kevin and Kip and said, we got to take care of the best athletes in the world. That's right. These are the best. They're over there. It's 136 degrees. And we got to keep them lighter, drier, and the best. And they didn't hesitate. And they're like, oh, hell yeah, go get it.

So I helped to start up the whole tactical business for Under Armour back in 2003, which was really self-fulfilling for me because I was a criminal justice major. I wanted to be doing what these guys were doing. I used to tell them that. I was like, I want to go with you. They're like, you're fine, buddy. Like, just keep doing what you're doing. And they brought you behind the scenes a little bit here and there. You got some friends, buddy. I did. Yeah. We got a couple. And I love it, man. They're good dudes. I've been very, very, very blessed to be a part of this ride and meet some phenomenal, phenomenal Americans and people along the way. And I'm really humbled by it. And so with that, started up the tactical business. And outdoor, we really were building that. And Kip and I, and I was helping him and figuring out where we're going to take from military tactical to hunting to fishing.

To action sports, which is ski and snowboard. And, you know, each of those really, you know, you can be, you could be a sub-brand if you want to in each of those. And so we really got focused within tactical and hunting. And that's where, you know, I went to help out on the marketing piece. And so we did about five years about right there, five or six years. And, and then, yeah, we're, we're here to today. And so we went, so we went 2007. Seven. Seven. Right? Yep. So. 2007, 2008. You kill a giant bull with me. Life's never been better. First time. Dude, that was so awesome. First time. First elk hunt out on public land, southern Utah. First elk, 380-inch bull. Doesn't get better than that. I think he was a little bit bigger than that. He might have been a little bigger than that. But I scored him at that. Let's call it that.

It was one of the, it was, it was the greatest hunt that I've ever done in my life because I had no idea what I was getting into. Yep. You know, I just knew like, so I remember, I remember a year before that hunt, Kip and I were walking, it was either this show, actually I think it was ATA. And we were walking around the archery show and, and we were talking about like, so what do we want to do? You know, we've got this UA hunt thing, like, what are we going to do with it? How are we going to grow it? Yeah. And it's like, what are we about? We're about innovation, technology brand, performance, and like we're edgy, we're rough. And like, we're about pushing the limits. And so, you know, we were trying to come up with, you know, what is this that we're talking about? And it's like an elevated platform of product, of storytelling. And like, you know what?

We've got to get, we've got to get somebody involved in this. Yeah, absolutely. And so one of the things we were talking about was this idea of Ridge Reaper. Yeah. And, you know, we were talking about people in the industry or whatever, and like, we started talking to you. Yeah. And then you and I went on this elk hunt together because you're like, you've got to go with me. You've got to experience like what's going on. That's right. And like, we'll talk product. And, you know, we were like, you and I were just gangbusters. Like, I want to do this. And it's, it's this thing, Ridge Reaper. Oh, no. And then I remember sitting on the back porch of the place that we were staying at for the elk hunt. And I was describing to you what Ridge Reaper was. Yeah. And I said, man, this is what it is. And I said, this is what it's called, Ridge Reaper.

And you looked at me and you go, I'm the Ridge Reaper man. Yeah, that's my name. Like, what you just described to me is what I do. And that's what I'm about. And I was like, this is freaking great. And then we went out and you showed me the West, man. Yeah. Like, we went up there and pounded the hell out of the ground. Yep. We worked hard. Like, we worked hard. I had no idea. It was public ground. We had guys literally in trucks, like. Tracking us down. Tracking us down, like guns out the window. There was some crazy stuff going on. I'm like, what is this? This is the Wild West. This is cool. It was crazy. I was going to get my tactical buddies out of here. Yeah, I know. It was. Well, and that's public land out here. You know, you do have a lot of families. And when you have special tags like that, that's a special elk tag.

You know, residents here in the state get one of those every 20 years. You know what I mean? Yeah. And so, when they do draw one, they bring everybody. Yeah. They bring grandma, grandpa, all the uncles, cousins. And you just got a lot of people going on. Yeah. And we dealt with that. Yeah. A lot of people on our hunt. Totally. I mean, you know, that we were, I guess, somewhat competing against. But everybody wants to kill a great bull. Totally. It was warm weather. September. Hot, actually. It was hot. And, but anyway, we got it done. Worked our guts out. We did. Since then, we did do a mule deer hunt and a lion hunt. But the lion hunt's got to be, like, one of my favorite experiences in the world. Oh, my gosh. That was unbelievable. Well, I got to tell you, I remember, so, just to go back to this elk hunt a minute, because I've learned some things.

So, I've done probably, I don't know, four or five elk hunts since then. And I remember, it was so funny, because, you know, I'm, like, paying attention to everything you do. Yeah, yeah. Like, what are you, like, what are you hearing? Like, what is that? Yeah. I remember one of the first bulls we came up on, on that hunt. We were out in the middle of this field, you know, and we're, like, laying down, just listening to all around us. And you're, like, well, do you hear that one over there? And I'm, like, yeah. You're, like, that's a dink.

That's a dink. Do you hear how it's calling there? It's, like, that is so weak. And I'm, like, oh, yeah, yeah. That's a dink. Yeah. Yeah, Carter. I'm with you. I'm, like, I have no idea. I have no idea what you're talking about. And then we go off, and, like, so we're, you know, trailing these other bulls. And then all of a sudden, we see where we heard that dink, a massive bull. And you go, hey, you remember that sound of that dink? It's actually, he's a stud. He's a giant. I know. He said, man, sometimes you just don't know. Yeah, you don't. You don't. But it's really hard. I'm, like, no, man. You just taught me. You just taught me that was a dink. You just taught me that was a dink. I don't want to go after him now. And I'm, like, yeah, but he's a giant. Let's go. He's a giant. Sometimes you don't know, and it is hard for me to chase a dink bugle.

A dink sounding bugle, it is for everybody. You know? You just think, man, he's so weak. But it doesn't really mean anything. It really does. I've hunted, you know, giant fives or even small fives that sound like giant bulls. Yeah. And it's just the way it is. Yeah. But it's funny how that is, you know, because, you know, growing up on the East Coast, too, or whitetails, it's, like, sometimes you can hear it where they're grunting back or something like that. Some of these animals, like, you just can't tell. No, you can't. You can't. No. But that was pretty funny. You were, like, hey, you remember that dink? He's a giant. And we're going to kill him. Right now. Let's go. So, anyway, and then fast forward, we've had a few more experiences. You know, we've hunted quite a bit together, actually. But, like I say, probably that most memorable hunt was the lion hunt. Oh, my gosh.

So, you know, you and I, we're always texting and talking and all that. And I remember I told you, I said, man, I don't, like, I might have an issue with myself because I know growing up, like, I just, I'm not a cat guy. Yeah. You know, like, some people love cats in their house and all that. And I'm just like, man, like, I don't know what it is, but. I'm not that guy. I'm like, Carter, if you can ever find, like, the mother of all cats out there, like, let's just go after it. Because I feel like this need. To kill a cat. I got to go after a cat, man. And so you were like, all right, I'm going to hang tight. And if we get the opportunity, like, you just got to be ready. Yep. And if you can be ready when it snows out here, like, I'm going to call you. And we're going to go. And we're going to chase a giant cat. But your job is so taxing. It's hard for you to get away. Yeah.

It's just, you know, so we're in Baltimore. I travel all the time. We're a global company. So, you know, travel. Working hard. You know, not just North America, but it's everywhere. Yeah. And, you know, I have multiple categories. But, you know, just like everybody else, you got to find time. Yeah. If you can manage from work to, you know, to family. And, you know, you're trying to put all those priorities in check. Yep. Family first. Yep. And God and country and work. And then, you know, hunting's probably somewhere in those priorities high. Somewhere one or two. Probably. Or three, probably. But it's high. It's high. I got to hunt. Oh, yeah. It feeds the family. Yeah, absolutely. And the great thing is you get to do it with one and two sometimes, too. That's right. Or all the time. That's right. And so, yeah. And then you called me in December. And you're like, man, can you do it?

And I'm like, I'm coming. Done. Let's go. And so we were in Colorado. Yeah. Craig, Colorado. Picked you up. And you picked me up. We drove up. Saw our boy Horrocks. He's the man. He's awesome. Great, great dude. With some phenomenal dogs. And so new experience for me. Yeah. Again. Yeah. Have no idea what I'm getting into. Right. And, you know, we're going to go chase these things and let these dogs just work, work, work, you know. I've been good friends with Josh for a lot of years. And he's a phenomenal hunter. He loves his dogs. He knows dogs like crazy. I mean, they're like kids to us. Yeah. You know what I mean? Oh, yeah. And they do what they're asked. I mean, they mind him and work extremely hard. Just watching the dogs is probably one of the funnest things about lion hunting. Yeah. But this story, this story is incredible. Yeah.

I mean, even if we didn't get a lion on that trip, watching those dogs work and the rewards, that's what, you know, I kept asking Josh, what are these dogs, like, what do they love? He's like, you know what they're waiting for? They're waiting for me to hug them. Yep. They want love. They want love. After this is all said and done or if, you know, they get, if they tree one of these lions or whatever. Yes. I'm like, what do they want? They want to, you know, taste the lion? Or he's like, no, man, they want love for me. I'm like, that is awesome, man. It's amazing. That is so cool, that bond that he has with all those dogs. Yeah. You know, it's just, that's why we all love animals. Oh, yeah. You know, because there's just a lot of special, you know, it's a special bond. So we get, we get on this track, the dogs go to the end, we see the lion out on the cliff.

Well, number one, I wasn't in the greatest shape of my life. Neither was I. It's wintertime, bro. So it's wintertime, it's like mid-December, you know, almost Christmas, so you're putting on your winter coat. Yeah. And these dogs, you know, go after, go after this lion. Canyon over canyon. In a canyon. Yeah. And then, you know, we're like, well, you know, it's like three miles up there. And I'm like, like up there? Yeah. Up there, Brian. Like way up there, are you talking about? And by the way, if we get up there, I want to make sure he's there. I don't want to go over to the 14 canyons. Yeah, Horrocks, are you sure they have him? Are you sure that he's there and he's sitting there? Because they go another couple miles, we may not make it out. But, yeah, man, and that was so cool. So we got up there and, man, just had this lion on a ledge. Yep.

And, I mean, on a ledge that, I mean, it went straight down. Straight down. Straight down. Yep, it did. And, I mean, so I'm like, all right. What are we going to do? What am I going to do? Yep. So, you know, I've got my Hoyt, you know, Josh and Carter are like, hey, man, there's a big boulder. It's like six yards away from them, up on top. Go up on top of that boulder and shoot down on them. I'm like, no, I'm not. I am not getting that close to that cat. Yep. I mean, this thing is pissed. And these dogs are like two feet away from its face. They are, yeah. And it's just hissing and they're, you know, barking and it's just chaotic on that. That's right. Freaking lip right there. And he doesn't want one of his dogs hurt either. No. So there's quite a little science to getting them killed. Yeah, Josh, let's not hit one of the dogs. Yeah. Don't do that.

So I said, man, I just, I want to make sure I'm safe. Let's see if we can try to get a broadside shot on them. Yeah. And, you know, 20 yards or so, whatever. I'm like, I don't care. I'm not getting close to that cat because I don't, I've never done this before. And it's pissed. Yeah. So you and I are like, all right, we're going to go over. You're like, I'm going to film you. I'm going to film you. I got my phone. I got my phone. My iPhone. I got my iPhone here. I'm going to film you right over your shoulder. I'm like, all right, let's go. So we go over to this ledge 20 yards away, broadside. Well, and we're sitting out on this thing. It's like an island ledge. Like you can't jerk anywhere. You'll fall off. You'll slide. It's ice and then snow on top of a little island of ledge. It's hard to get up on it. So we got ice and snow. Yep. We've got this ledge.

Meanwhile, we kind of had to like walk up on this ledge. And on either side of us. Fall off. You're falling off. Yes. And it's like probably what? Two feet across and like five feet long. Yeah. Something like that. Like an island. So it's just you and I on this ledge. We can't move. Right. So it's kind of like, all right, buddy. Here you go. Here we go. Make sure it's a good shot. Are you ready? I'm ready. Record. Record. 20 yards away. Fwap. Hit him. Like cat goes over to the other side of the ledge. That's right. I'm like, crap, buddy. I thought I. Yeah. You heard that. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I'm good. And and then, you know, you get another arrow. Get another arrow. I didn't even know what was going on because all of a sudden I saw this cat coming right back at us. That's right. And I'm like, oh, my God. Like, what are we going to do now? Dead silent. Yeah.

Like you guys aren't saying anything. Nothing's going to except I hear. You know, this cat coming. Yeah. I'm freaking out. And somehow you're re-knocked. I re-knocked. Don't remember doing any of that. Like, I don't know if it's. I don't know what it is. And shot this freaking cat at two feet away. No, he comes and like charges us. So it's right at us. It comes right at us. Comes right at us. And I was like, crap, I'm looking around. Like, where am I going to run? I'm looking around. I'm behind you. So I'm like, hey, he's like, he's going to get Brian and I'm going to leap and I'm going to be fine.

Nice. And I mean, dude, he comes right at us, right at us, right under our bench. Well, you even stopped filming because you were like. I stopped for a minute and I'm like, crap, this is really good footage. I hit it again and hit record again. And as the line comes by us, I mean, you shoot him on a run, made a perfect shot. And I filmed the whole thing. It was unbelievable. Two yards. A yard and a half. It was unbelievable. It was unbelievable. It was. I was scared. I'm not going to lie. I really was. Because I'm like, this thing is running right at us. And I'm like, it's going to come up and paw me right in the face and knock me off the side of this mountain. And I was nervous because I knew what your shooting skills were like. And I'm like, I don't have any weapons with me.

I got Brian. I got Brian. I got Brian between me and this cat. What am I going to do? Yeah, I know. You were trying to push me at the cat. Oh, so funny. And man, that was unbelievable. I gave you guys some serious grief after that because I'm like, why weren't you talking? Why weren't you walking me through? Like, hey, man, get ready. The cat's going to come back at you. Oh, that was crazy. Get ready to draw. No, that was just silent. It was silent. It really was. And it was a phenomenal. I'll never, ever forget that. No, it was awesome. So fast forward to this past year, you killed a couple of giant whitetails. Yeah, yeah. Well, I had a great season, man. I'm very fortunate. Got a nice bull up here in northern Utah. Yep. And came back and got a mule deer. You bet. And then, you know, I love whitetails. I really do. Just growing up with them and been fortunate. Lee and Tiff out in Iowa.

Yep. Likoski invited me out. And so went out there and spent a couple days with them. And, I mean, what Lee has there as far as how he manages the property and the time they put in. Yeah. And Lee is absolutely, he's like you, man. Yeah. For the whitetail world. He's like how you are from mule deer. Yeah. He is of whitetails. And just an unbelievable. He's got a hit list. He's raising them. He's working with them. I mean, it's nonstop. And I mean. He named them. Oh. Everything. He knows every single deer. I mean, he has multiple properties out there. Yeah. Yeah. And, I mean, he farms them. Yeah. But I'm going to tell you what, this guy, and what I learned, and, you know, I've hunted with Lee over the years. I love the passion that he has. Like, he loves these animals, man. Yeah. It's crazy. Yeah. Like, he loves them.

This guy, when I was out there with them, we were just talking about, you know, he loves to feed them. Yeah. Like, he loves to feed these deer. Yeah. He will look for, and he's like you, to where he will look for every possible reason not to kill that deer. I'm telling you. Well, I want to kill him. But you'll sit there, well, you know. Yeah. Yeah. You know, maybe there's another one, maybe. Break him down a little bit. Yeah. He's got this weakness, and maybe he'll be better next year. Yeah. Is he maxed out? How old is he? I think the thing is, is the common thread of, I think he's got another year in him. Yeah. And I think every, and it'd be like, well, Lee, he's eight years old. Well, he's. He might not come back. He might not make it through the year. Yeah. It's like, well, maybe we should. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Because he just loves them, man. Yeah. So, it was really cool.

Went out there. So, I actually went out in October, and I only had a couple days. Yeah. And it was warm, and we were on a cornfield, and they had this buck, a really old buck that was coming in there, that they had said, you know, we've got to take this one. Lee knows every single buck out there. Yeah. So, it's like, buddy, you better know. Yeah. The animal that we're going after, and, you know, he's pretty particular about that. But that's how he manages, you know, his place. He's passionate about it. Yeah. Man, he loves them. He cares for them. He's passionate about it. He wants to grow the best that he can. Control as many of the variables as he can. It's just management. I mean, you can't control disease, or you can't control sickness, or, you know, other people hunting neighboring properties, or the rut when they go to make a walkabout and end up getting killed on a neighbor. Yeah.

But the more variables he can control, you know, the better he is, and the better chance he has at harvesting that animal. Totally. And that's the same thing. It's a common, like you said, it's a common thread with what we got going on out here. It's just, we deal with a lot of public land and obtaining tags. Of course, you know, that Iowa tag wasn't easy to get. No. We applied you, you know, for several years and gained points. That's right. So, you could go, and you drew that tag. Yep. Yep. Yep. And as a non-resident. That's right. Because you're not from Iowa. No. Yep. And so. You know, just fortunate to be able to go on that property. But yeah. I mean, you got to go through the process. Yeah. And so, went out there and had this deer. They named him Lefty because he had, like, messed up his left eye. Left eye was shut. Yeah. But just a really cool. Yeah. He was an 11-point buck. Yeah.

And, you know, just old, great deer. And made a mistake. Yeah. I went to shoot this deer. I got down on my knees, shot this deer, and I shot about four inches below him. Jeez. 40 yards. I'm like, what? Jeez. What happened? Yeah. I felt sick because I was like, first, I thought I hit him. Yeah. And I was like, oh, my gosh. Yeah. Worst thing in the world, you know, is wounding an animal. Yeah. Yeah. So, I went back and looked at the footage and all that, and I missed him. Thank goodness. But went to shoot my bow, and my bow was off. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. So, from travel, and I don't know what I did, but it was off. Wow. And so, on that trip, didn't have another opportunity for deer, and Lee was like, listen, you need to come back for late season. Yeah. Like, come back here. Yeah. You know, these deer will be coming pretty regular for food. And let's see if we can do it, if you can get back out.

So, I did. And it was great. It was so cold. Buddy, it was like you and I in Canada. Oh, dude. The Canada trip is, we got to talk about the Canada trip someday. Oh, yeah. A future podcast. We'll do that as a future podcast, but it was cold, buddy. Wow. And it was so, it was, you know, it's Iowa, man. It was negative 14. Oh. And so, they had this deer that they were calling Crooked Horned H. I don't know why. Who knows? Yeah. Crooked Horned, you know. Something to do with an H. Yeah, with an H. And so, this deer was just a really old deer. And so, we went out, and on a cornfield, this deer was coming pretty regular. And I had, you know, two days I put in, and this deer did not come. Jeez. And I mean, and I'm telling you, like, sitting in a cornfield, in a corn blind, and you've got like a hundred deer right out in front of you. Some of them are like six feet. Jeez. It's so cool. Yeah.

It's just great to be out there like, I can't believe I'm in the freaking cornfield, the middle of Iowa, with all these deer that don't know we're here. Just wildlife, just being that close to wildlife is awesome. It's so cool. Absolutely. And he's got some giants out there. So, I'm just like taking pictures. I'm like a little kid in a candy store. Jeez. Like I am here at this Western Expo. And it was really cool. So, the third day, we put a full day in. This deer doesn't come out. And, you know, most of the big deer are going to come out real late in the evening. Yeah. It's about five minutes before dark. We see this freaking toad come out. I'm like, oh my gosh, it's Crooked Horned H. Here he comes. Here he comes. So, he's out about 80 yards and just not coming in, is not coming in, and actually started just, was a bully. Yeah.

We called this other deer, Director Comey, that Crooked Horned H was going after and messing with him. Messing with Comey. Messing with Comey. And we're like, gosh, this deer. So, you know, now I'm personal. Yeah. Like, Crooked Horned H, you know, I got to go after this deer. I had one more. So, two minutes left. Yeah. And I'm with my camera guy. He's like, I'm like last light, man. Like, I don't, like, we probably can't shoot. Yeah. And this deer starts coming in. Well, this deer is coming on a beeline right into us, and we've got this deer broadside at 20 yards. Yeah. And I'm like, I'm going to shoot this deer. Yeah. I drew back, and I'm like, I can't see it. I can't see it. And he's just like, well, do you want to shoot it? I'm just like, I got Lee Likoski in my ear, like, if you miss this deer, you know. So, you know, I let off, and I was sick. I was so sick.

I'm like broadside, 20 yards. I could do that in my sleep. Yeah. And so I had to leave the next morning. That was it. Wow. It was over. And so I was all distraught. We went through the footage, and Lee was like, it's the right call, man. Yeah. Like, you know what? You didn't feel comfortable. You would have killed it. Yeah. Yeah. You just got to, you know. Sometimes it happens, man. It does. And so packed up all my stuff.

And so one thing that happened that day for that hunt is Tiff came up to me, and she said, here, I got something for you. I'm like, what do you got? She's like, I got a lucky horseshoe. She's like, this horseshoe right here helped me kill all my biggest deer in Iowa. No way. No way. She's like, I want you to have it. Take it with you tonight and go out there. And kill a deer. And she's like, you're going to kill Crooked Horn. It's going to happen tonight. So I hang it up there. And, you know, this whole thing happens. You know, I let off. I'm like, crap, man. You know, and I'm like, you know. So I was all bummed out. Yeah. Packing up my stuff. You know, I head back to Cedar Rapids. Got a hotel. Hopped on, you know, a plane that morning. I had a flight out at 6 a.m. And we go to take off. And we get halfway down the runway. You know, you're back in your seat. Yeah.

And all of a sudden, the plane lets up. Wow. The plane lets up. I'm like, what the, you know. What's going on? I'm looking down the, you know. Yeah. I'm trying to look at my window down the tarmac. Like, oh, my gosh. We're going to go off the freaking road. Meanwhile, it's snowing. It's negative 17. Wow. Like, and the pilot gets on. And he goes, hey, guys, we've got some lights that came on up front here. We're going to turn this plane around. And we've got to get maintenance to check this thing out. Wow. No way. So we go back in. And he's like, all right, it's going to take longer. We thought we need everybody to get off. Wow. So we get off. And I'm sitting there. And I'm like, no way. I'm going back hunting. I call my wife. And I'm like, this plane. We'll be here all night. I don't know how long it's going to be. She's like, don't get back on that plane. You should probably go hunting.

I'm like, what? Wow. What did you just say? Let me record that. I called Lee. I'm like, Lee, if I get my bags off this plane. Can I come? Let's do it. I'm like, do we have another shot? He's like, get over here now. Wow. So leave. I get my bags off at noon. Fly back to their house. I'm, you know, driving. Yeah. Driving fast as crap to get there. I get unpack all my stuff. Shoot my bow. Ready to roll. I'm back in the blind at 2.30. Wow. Get out there. It's 3.45. It's early. I'm like, oh, my gosh. There's Crooked H. Here comes this freaking deer. Wow. Here comes Crooked Horn H. comes up right at 40 yards broadside. Freaking smoked him right there. Come on. Smoked him at 40 yards. This deer goes 60 yards in the middle of this pasture. Lays down. Dies. Dead as a doornail. Jeez. And, like, we went back. And Lee told me, he was like, we went back. I mean, we were so fired up.

It was unbelievable. Cool. And so, also, that night that I was leaving, Luke Bryan flew in. Yeah. So, Luke was there. He was going to do a muzzleloader hunt. Jeez. And I was like, Luke, I'm going to miss you. I got to take off and all this. Yeah. Well, I come back. We don't even see each other. I kill that deer. And then he went out for a muzzleloader hunt and killed a deer. Jeez. But that same night, we come back, and Lee was like, I am more excited about you taking that crooked-horned deer than me shooting Petey, which is the biggest deer, oldest deer that he's taken in 2016. And it was just a really cool moment. I went, looked in my backpack, and that freaking horseshoe was in my backpack. You were taking it home. I was taking it home. It had stopped that plane and brought me back to their house.

I said, Tiffany, this freaking horseshoe, I forgot to give it back, and that's why I'm here. Oh, my gosh. They were like, yeah. That's an amazing story. It was really cool. That's an amazing story. And so I couldn't get a flight home because the weather was so bad. Yeah. And Luke's like, well, I could probably give you a lift home. I'm like, oh. Come on. So he did. Wow. So it was really cool. It's one of the most memorable, for sure, whitetail hunts. Yeah. Yeah. And just being with great friends and family like that. I consider the Likoski's family like I do you all. And so just a really, really cool time. So we got to talk about Ridge Reaper a little bit. Yeah. We had the Ridge Reaper TV show and started filming for it in fall of 2012. Came out in 13. But let's talk about it a little bit. I know I've had a lot of questions. People, it's gone from TV to now where it is today. Yeah.

And, you know, and what the future is of Ridge Reaper. Yeah. You know, Ridge Reaper started, you know, basically with a few of us from Under Armour and, you know, of course, you as the host. Yeah. And it's just been a phenomenal, you know, really an identity for us to have as Pinnacle product and, you know, and being a part of the West. Yeah. And really what you stand for and what we stand for in this space. And so it's been something really special to us. You know, the TV show and, you know, originally when we had worked with the Outdoor Channel, I literally, you know, we were coming up with a concept. Yep. Sat down. Basically on your elk hunt. Yeah. Kind of. Well, that was the start of it. Yeah. As we started filming then. Yep. You know, that was the year before we really came up with Ridge Reaper. Yep.

But that was where kind of it really started where you and I were working on what is this? Yep. I remember going down in the basement of Jeff Wayne from Outdoor Channel. Yep. I'll never forget that. Denver. I was pitching them. Yeah. Pitching them because I wanted them, you know, to be a part of this and really understand what we were trying to do. And they were. And they were a great partner to us. Yes. And, man, you know, just a couple great seasons with the Outdoor Channel. And, you know, one thing at Under Armour is we're constantly trying to, you know, innovate. Yep. And see also where, you know, the consumer's going. Yeah. And, you know, we want to be trying, you know, try to be ahead of that. Yeah. So one of the biggest things is, you know what, I think we're willing to take some risks. Yeah.

And one of those was, you know, we're going to take this great, phenomenal Ridge Reaper platform and put it digitally. Yep. And one thing we can, you know, as a company in digital is like every, you know, our target consumer at Under Armour, not just in hunting, but total Under Armour consumer is 18 years old. Right. Where does that 18-year-old consumer spend the majority of their time? Yeah. On their device. On their phone. Yep. Yeah. So we wanted to try and get ahead of that. And, you know what, let's put it out there and test. It's not to say we can't go back to TV. Right. Right. You know. But let's try to do something cool here. Put it on YouTube. Yeah. Whatever. And you can track it as well. So let's see what, you know, what formulas work and what the people are responding to. Right. Yeah.

The great thing, there is social too, so you can get, you know, good feedback on that side as well. But, you know, we've moved Ridge Reaper to digital. Yeah. We've seen some great success. And we also feel like it's, you know, it's also an evolution to where we started in the West. And now we, you know, we had Ridge Reaper started with Baron. Yep. And now we have some other camouflage patterns with Forest. Yeah. And, you know, we're testing out some different ones that could work for some other, you know, pursuits. So we'll have, like, other shows such as whitetail shows or a lot of different things. Who knows? It'll be a lot of variety. You know, the cool thing that we had this year, we launched at a shot show was, you know, Lee and Tiff are now a part of the, you know, the family. Yep. So they'll be wearing our camo. Yep. You know?

And so who's to say we, you know, we couldn't have a whitetail hunt with Lee. Right. Or Tiff on there. Yeah. And, but they love the West as well. So it's not to say we couldn't do that. Oh, they've killed some good stuff out West. Yeah. For sure. Lee's a good hunter. He's a phenomenal hunter. Yep. He's a good guy. So what do you think his favorite animal is to hunt? I don't know. Well, it's got to be whitetail, I would think. I've got to be whitetail. Sheep. Really? Really. I couldn't believe it. We were hanging out one night and I was hanging out in his house. I'm like, what's your favorite? He's like, I love to hunt sheep. Wow. He's like, it's such a. He killed an amazing. It was a, looked like a doll sheep to me with a bow. Yeah. Like an amazing ram. He, you know, he just said the physical and the mental. So. Yeah. You know. Yeah. Just. Such a challenge. Anguish that you go through.

I don't think you could take whitetails out of his blood though. Oh, no. I mean. No, no, no, no, no. You know. That's, that's his wheelhouse. Yeah. That's his deal. He loves it. He loves it. Yep. Well, good. Yeah. I think we'll continue with that. Of course, I'm still working with you guys on the Ridge Reaper side of things and continue to be filmed. We love you, man. As well as. You're the Ridge Reaper. As well as Cam Haynes, Remy Warren. Yeah. Yeah. You know, a few of these other guys that are super good at what they do and, and fit with Under Armour. Been involved with Under Armour for a lot of years. So, anyway, you can find it out there. Everybody that's listening, you can find it out there on YouTube. Also be on UA.com, I'm sure, at some point. Yeah. And. Yeah. We've got, you know, pretty much, you know, YouTube is, is, you know, great place to find us with Ridge Reaper.

Um, and, uh, yeah, we're, we're working on some different things for our website. So stay tuned to that. And, uh, we're, we're going to keep, we're going to keep growing it. We're going to keep growing Ridge Reaper and really excited and, uh, really appreciate everything you've done for us, Jason. You're, you are the Ridge Reaper and, and, uh, you know, now you just got a good family that surrounds you, you know? Well, we love it. Uh, so anyway, on behalf of Epic Outdoors, want to just say how much we appreciate you spending some time on the podcast with us. Of course, of all the viewers and everybody that's a fan of Ridge Reaper, Under Armour and Epic Outdoors. And, uh, just really appreciate the partnership we have with you guys. You're awesome and very progressive. Of course, we are as well. And we're growing fast as a company and, uh, and just going to continue growing and doing

what we do best, you know, and, uh, partner with good, solid partners. And that's what we like. And, uh, anyway, just can't, can't tell you guys thanks enough and, uh, really appreciate you spending some time with us on the show. Thanks, buddy. Really appreciate you having me on. All right, buddy. We do gotta, we do gotta talk about the Canada hunt someday. It's unbelievable. It's a story. It's a story that'll stay with me forever. So. It's a good one. All right. Sounds good. Thanks, Brian. You bet. Thanks, buddy. Thanks, man. Thanks, man. Thanks, man. Thank you.