About
For eight years, I served as a Navy FMF Corpsman. After the military, I went to work in metal stamping factories — night shift, twelve hours at a time, on concrete floors under fluorescent lights. It was honest work. It paid the bills. But over time, it took more than it gave.
I was good at the job. I just wasn't good with what it cost me. I never felt healthy. I never felt like I was contributing to anything that mattered. And while I was spending my nights indoors in the dark, the life I actually wanted was happening outside.
That feeling is why First Rise exists.
"I'm still in that plant. Still working toward the exit. First Rise is what I'm building on the way out — and the reason I keep going."
I hunt, fish, hike, and camp every chance I get. Not because I'm searching for something. Because I already know where I feel most at home. Out there, I'm clear. I'm myself. It's that simple.
First Rise Outfitters is the brand I'm building around that truth — apparel and goods for people who feel the same way. People who don't need to be convinced to get outside. People who are already there.
This isn't lifestyle apparel for someone who wants to look the part. It's made by someone who's up before the sun, in the cold, in the quiet — for people doing the same thing.
The name has a double meaning. First rise, like the sun breaking over a ridge before anything else moves. And first rise, like a fish taking the fly before the world wakes. Both happen early. Both reward the people willing to show up.
That's who this is for.