Hoodies for Any Season

A lifelong angler, fishing guide and seasoned entrepreneur, Ashton is the co-founder of Steely Zips, which produces outdoor performance hoodies. Designed for people who love the outdoors, and especially fishing or skiing, the waterproof and wind-resistant grear can be worn as an outer layer or as a mid layer under a shell. After graduating from Hampden–Sydney College in Virginia with a bachelor’s degree in history, he moved to Ketchum, Idaho, to pursue his passion of fishing and photography. He worked as the assistant to legendary photographer David Stoecklein, who captured iconic images of the American West and worked with corporations such as Chevrolet and Jeep, Canon USA, and Bayer. After Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, Ashton began working as a freelance photographer, and produced his first book of photographs, Fly Fishing in Idaho for Stoecklein Publishing in 2006. His second book, A Celebration of Salmon Rivers, was published a year later, in collaboration with the North Atlantic Salmon Fund (NASF). It featured Ashton’s photographs, taken over a period of two years, from the 50 greatest Atlantic salmon rivers in Canada, Europe, and Russia. The foreword was written by the thenPrince of Wales, now King Charles III, and all profits were donated to help save Atlantic Salmon. Steely Zips seeks to promote awareness about the need to protect wild stocks of sea-run fish, including Atlantic and Pacific salmon and steelhead trout, which the company says, “are in a battle for survival.” “From overfishing stocks to dams to warming oceans, sea-run fish are not returning to their home rivers to spawn the next generation. The entire ecosystem is suffering as a result. Passionate anglers and outdoorsman need to step up.”