Great American Warrior: Amy Robbins, helping women with Alexo Athletica

Los Angeles, CA: When people go out for a run to exercise, they generally feel better afterwards. They get their body moving, break a sweat, and hit that short-lasting, deeply euphoric state known as a “runner’s high.”

But what about going out for a run only to go through a terrifying experience? That’s exactly what happened to Amy Robbins, founder of Alexo Athletica.

During a routine jog out in the remote outskirts of Los Angeles where few people roam, Amy was approached by a van full of menacing men who harassed and heckled her. They eventually drove away only to stop the van and turn around back towards her. 

That’s when she really began to fear. 

“As they were coming back that was the first time that I had my oh no moment. What am I going to do? Those thoughts started playing in my head. Where am I going to run, where am I going to go? I can’t fight them off, I can’t outrun them, what am I going to do?” Amy said. 

She continued, “I actually started doing the only thing I knew to do which was to start praying and I said, ‘God please get me home safely and if you do, I will do something with my second chance’. I had no idea that that second chance was going to set me on a path to my purpose.”

Alexo Athletica

After that terrifying, life-changing ordeal, Amy went out and acquired a permit to carry a gun. No longer was she going to feel that way again. 

But she hit a roadblock. Amy couldn’t find a line of workout clothing that also could store and carry a handgun. She refused to settle on “one or the other” and went to do some research.

“I started looking at the numbers, I started seeing that from 2007 to 2015, women getting the conceal/carry license had increased by 500%! That was a big uptick,” she said. 

Amy was already known as an ambitious person who always rose to challenges. Her next challenge, create clothing with gun storage for women. 

“I had no background in design, I had no background in manufacturing. But I knew that I wanted to keep women safe and I wanted to give them fashionable, functional options,” she said.

Amy rolled up her sleeves and got to work. She reached out to every contact she had, every potential partner she could find, anyone, anywhere who could be a part of her new journey to help put her ideas in motion.

But it wasn’t until a choice encounter on her way home from a convention that she finally found the missing piece and partnered up with a manufacturer who was interested in her ideas. 

And that’s how Alexo Athletica was born. 

Amy freely admits it wasn’t easy. She had hurdles, obstacles, and unforeseen challenges that tested her limitations. Now she offers advice to other women interested in entrepreneurship.

“Any time you start a business you’re going to have ups and downs. I would say that you’re probably going to have more downs than you do ups. That is why I believe a lot of businesses, especially within their first and third year, they don’t succeed. It’s the unknowns, it’s the challenges that you’re continuing to face,” Amy said. 

She continued, “Each and every time something didn’t go the way we thought, it was a learning opportunity for us. So instead of trying to look at it, getting frustrated, getting down, we said the mission is bigger, the purpose is bigger than any of these setbacks so we’ve got to keep forging ahead.”

Sound advice. 

Learn more about Amy and her company by visiting https://alexoathletica.com/

You can also follow them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/AlexoAthletica 

A Message from Trudy Jacobson

“Amy used her terrifying experience to fuel her mission of helping other women protect themselves, that’s admirable.” – Trudy Jacobson
Also subscribe to Trudy Jacobson’s YouTube channel to watch the other Great American Women interviews at https://www.youtube.com/@trudyjacobsonta