Meet Aaron Ko | Hair Scissor Designer & President of Moto Shears

We had the good fortune of connecting with Aaron Ko and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Aaron, what role has risk played in your life or career?

Risk is an opportunity to take a leap of faith.

The first risk of my life was to drop out of college and take a one way ticket to New York City and start my life.

In my first year of college, I wasn’t happy with myself or the education. I turned to heroin and took on a nasty addiction that led me to the hospital. I almost lost it all. In some ways I feel like I’m on my second life, everything I do from here on out is a bonus.

That summer, I got clean and enrolled back into school thinking I had another fresh start.

I relapsed again.

I knew if I stayed in this town, going to this school. I would die. Dark feelings for a young man.

I took a one way ticket to NYC to start my life without any money, degree or advantage that would help me make it in the world.

Finally, I was alive.

I risked my first job and stability in NYC and quit without the backup of having another job. I hopped onto craigslist and applied to every job for a month.

I was hired by a hair shear sharpener in the beauty industry, and years later I started my own shear company.

A company where I didn’t have to compromise and would be able to apply my own values and beliefs alongside the product.

That being said, hair shears are very expensive. They average around 600-800 dollars. They aren’t affordable tools, even though everyone needs them.

10 years ago, I started the first financing and payment system in the industry with no paperwork or credit check. A system that has helped about 10,000 people get better shears to help them expand their craft and put food on the table.

I risked losing money if people didn’t decide to pay, but I knew it was more important for the cutter if my company provided the opportunity to invest in oneself.

Better shears=better results=happier clients in the chair.

To my honest surprise, almost all stylists followed up with payments. Years later they would tell me things like,

‘You helped me start my career when I had nothing. Thank you.’

The risk paid off and brought me something else unexpected. Respect.

I risked an education and life path that was given to me for a chance to follow my heart, and create an original life.

I’m happy I chose the latter. Risk gave me a company, friendship and self worth.

What should our readers know about your business?

In the beginning, Moto realized that there wasn’t a lot of good information or education about scissors, and the agenda of most companies is to put the most expensive scissor in your hands.

Moto realized over time that the most expensive shear isn’t the best shear.

The best shear is the one that suits your cutting style the best. This is apparent in our consultations.

What are you currently cutting with now? Are you a wet hair cutter, dry hair cutter? What techniques are you trying to achieve?

Knowing this would help us place the appropriate scissor in someone’s hand and the shear a stylist instinctively picks up first, is the best shear.

Moto became privy to how cutters actually cut at any given time and we that’s how we met people’s needs and had a massive word of mouth growth.

The shear industry has improved significantly, but when I started 10 years ago the shear industry didn’t have a good buying culture. The shears are difficult to obtain, they’re expensive, usually without warranty and no financing options, and you couldn’t try them before purchasing.

Moto set out to change this and this is what we are most proud of and excited about.

We set a new standard the industry follows today. We provide reasonable pricing, free trials, no paperwork financing and warranty.

Advantages the cutters 100% deserve. To see it catch on across the industry has been really satisfying.

Moto got to where it is today through a road trip. 10 years ago, I decided I wanted to drive through America and see it all. I brought a bag of shears along with me in my truck, and figured my road trip would end if no one decided to buy shears along the way.

I started in Seattle and nearly sold out in Portland. Spending a couple weeks in each city, I got to visit so many salons door to door and unexpectedly become a part of the hair culture in each city.

I was living an all original American dream and living my life as the only national traveling scissor salesman, while trending new payment systems.

I got to where I was, because I listened and gave the industry what they asked for, that they deserve proper rights when purchasing quality shears and flexibility.

Moto has faced many challenges. Especially when trying to work at the corporate level. As much as I wanted it to work, I eventually had to walk away. Corporate beauty values are different from what made me successful and happy.

Never compromise your values for money. Otherwise, what is the point of starting a company where you and your peeps aren’t free? That is the greatest lesson I’ve learned.

Having power, influence or money doesn’t mean you’re free at the end of the day.

Creating your own career and getting to solve industry problems that better people’s lives and cutting experiences? Priceless.

What we want people to know about the bran is that we notoriously have the best customer service in the industry. No one else even comes close. DM us over instagram. We’re here for you!

We want the world to know that,

“To invent your own life’s meaning is not easy, but it’s still allowed, and I think you’ll be happier for the trouble.”

-Bill Watterson (author of Calvin and Hobbes)

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?

If we were both rolling into the city, the first stop would be Les Ba’get for either Bhan Mi or Pho.

In my humble opinion, Houston has the best Vietnamese food scene in all of America.

Since it is our day off, we’d swing down to Alabama Icehouse and play some basketball and shoot around with the locals.

Of the four major cities in America. New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston. Houston by far is the friendliest. The only way you wouldn’t fit in is if you’re allergic to people.

That being said, a week long trip in Houston is getting to know the people. There are hundreds of thousands of scenes, but the one I know and can get you deeply into is the local beauty industry.

There is a distinct satisfaction to be able to wake up at 10:30am and get to your first appointment by noon. It doesn’t matter if you don’t make the yellow light.

The vibe is welcoming, stylists are here to have a good time feeling different shears in their hands and hearing your horrible dad joke.

I love that each salon has a different smell, decor, candy bowl and selection of beverages. Also, salons have the cleanest and most accommodating bathrooms you’ll ever use in public. No more Chick Fil-A emergency sessions.

After the laughs, walking out with a few sales and cold seltzer in hand. It gets addicting to go to the next salon and repeat the same thing all day.

By the time lunch or dinner rolls around, the sales are great! The reward, we can eat anywhere our stomachs desire. So google it, nothing is off the menu.

Doing business in a city allows you to be a part of the ecosystem. Instead of simply observing locals, you get to be one. Know the culture, values and how they live in the city.

So that being said, the first salon I’d take you to is ‘Beauty Vibes’ by Paula Cheek. She’s the first stylist I ever met in Houston and 10 years later we’re great friends. We get crawfish whenever it is in season.

Her husband Kevin, I’ll never forget when we were having a day adventure, stumbled into a bar and the bartender let us hold an Astros World Series ball out of the glass.

In short, we’d get to eat, drink and be merry among all the people who make Houston beautiful.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?

Nicila F and Chris Jeon

I blacked out somewhere on Frenchman st. in New Orleans and when I came to, I was asking a girl if I could buy a cigarette off her for a dollar.

Shortly, another guy came into the picture and was trying to buy the whole pack and a bidding war started over her cigarettes. It was comical, the way I met Nicila on a warm October night in the musical, liquored chaos.

If you’re lucky, in the right setting and timing, someone will share their dreams with you, and you’ll get the chance to listen.

Nicila wanted to open a business that combined a brewery and a flower shop. It honestly seemed just like her even though I barely knew her.

Perhaps listening was enough, but I took the liberty of putting together a hand drawn business plan of how to put it together. I hoped it would help her keep her dreams close.

Over the few years, we kept in touch. She was also a traveler and leaving the states to go back to London.

The Olympics were happening, I’d never been to London, why not take a little adventure. Maybe we’d get to link up.

It didn’t work out, but you never know how one person will lead you to another person.

And also, I was an expert in the business of blacking out and started my journey in Picadilly Circus.

I boarded a double decker bus and met a peculiar passenger. He was opening beers with his iPhone. The glass shattering each time the cap touched the glass.

He offered me a beer and the rest is history. Our night ended at 2am at the River Thames drinking a bottle of Jameson dry and putting a note, rather our wishes into the bottle and tossing it into the river.

I never knew his name and we had no way of ever meeting again, so I went to KFC at 3am where I would find a Korean kid trying to order 30 wings at closing.

This is Chris Jeon. His story is published all over the media.

‘Arab Spring Break’.

A 21 year old UCLA math major who left his $9000 a month internship at a financial firm in search of real experience. He found the rebels in Libya. Needless to say, shit got real.

All I really wanted to know was, why do this?

His simple answer was, ‘empathy’.

He wanted to have empathy for others around the world going through experiences he couldn’t even imagine. He was willing to die to find out, and share their humanity.

I was inspired. I wanted to know that feeling.

We both flew out of California, so I drove down the coast and spent some more time with him.

In the coming week I found where I needed to go.

La Rinconada, Peru. The highest city in the world that also featured a Wild West gold mining culture.

50,000 people. 17,000 feet and no police.

I heard people being mugged and shot in their sleep when I was going to bed at night.

On a lighter note, in 2012 I had the opportunity to become the first Korean American to work in the mines and film the lives of everyone I worked with.

We had a great time. I made friends, got drunk all over town, had a gf and a dog while I was there.

Years later, I would help a handful of people visit La Rinconada, and provide them with the information of who to contact, so they could explore with their own eyes safely.

And after that, I’d find myself in the middle of the Rohingya conflict and the Karen genocide in Burma.

But this is a story about Nicila and Chris. Two people who were no way connected, but both let my heart grow.

The streets anywhere seem beautiful and the people walking them.

Their midnight cigarettes may be the thing that puts you on top of a mountain.

Shoutout to Nicila, Chris and all who live with heart.

Website: https://motoshears.com/

Instagram: @motoshears

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/aaronyooha