The Los Angeles Designer Who Wants His Wolf-Owl on the Moon
Mongolia's state-led cultural branding has produced mixed results. Jesse Gilbert, a Los Angeles founder, thinks a mythical wolf-owl, a rooftop ger and lunar ambitions can do better.
In 2017 Jesse Gilbert bought wowls.com for a brand that did not exist. Nine years later WOWLS is a pre-order storefront, AI-rendered concepts and a stated lunar-mascot ambition. Mongolia Weekly recently talked with Jesse.
What is a WOWLS?
Part wolf, part owl, hatched from a story Gilbert invented about a Siberian borehole. "The creatures at the center of it come from a story I invented," he says. "I have always called the concept tongue-in-cheek."
The Mongolia connection predates the brand
Before WOWLS, Gilbert built WhiteKhan.com, an AI-assisted series about Roman von Ungern-Sternberg and the Jews of Mongolia in 1920. "I came for the history and stayed for the design language," he says.
What does WOWLS actually sell?
Nothing has shipped. WOWLS is in a pre-order and inquiry phase, with manufacturing to be prioritized by demand. Physical sales to date are zero.
Then the ideas get stranger.
The AutoYurt is a ger reimagined as a vehicle-mounted rooftop shelter, deployed by an electro-pneumatic arm, aimed at remote workers, overlanders and anyone priced out of fixed housing. The visuals are AI-assisted renders derived from his hand-drawn blueprints. No physical AutoYurt exists. He cites early exploratory talks with Southern California design and manufacturing partners, naming TEG and Tandem Design. The plan also includes plush robotic tactical companions. Nothing has been mass-manufactured.
One concrete example.
His example is the Hero Cargo-Track Pants. The nomadic problem, as he frames it, is staying mobile across hostile terrain while keeping tools and gear secure, seated or in motion. His answer adapts a Brazilian jiu-jitsu side-drawcord waist for rapid adjustment without pinching, with ripstop utility pockets angled for seated access while driving. The trim uses the hammer pattern and the three tongues of the flame from the Mongolian flag.
And the Moon?
The defense connection needs untangling, and Gilbert untangles it himself. His outreach to defense innovation channels, including USAF Tech Connect, concerned a separate project, KhanBMS.com, which models drone-swarm command on the Mongol decimal military structure of arvans (арван), myanghans (мянган) and tumens (түмэн). Those talks were exploratory and did not close. The WOWLS lunar mascot remains a stated ambition, a mythic counterweight to the sterile aesthetics of the space industry, specifically Unicorns.
There are over 1,800 Unicorn companies, which are privately held startups with a value of over USD 1 billion. Gilbert believes WOWLS! are cooler than unicorns and will provide a brand taxonomy more suited towards lunar ambition and next-gen superintelligent automotive and VTOL concepts.
You are an American selling Genghis Khan. Who gave you permission?
"I do not claim to represent modern Mongolia or speak for its people," Gilbert says. "My work is an artistic and commercial homage to a specific historical era and aesthetic tradition." He compares it to Japanese or European historical aesthetics adopted by brands worldwide. The goal, he says, is "an appreciation-driven commercial bridge."
On trademarks, he says the brand rests on "original creative storytelling," noting that a third-party mark exists in a separate category. He did not share registration records. On Mongolian collaborators, the answer is not yet. He cites exploratory talks with Mongulai.com on custom hats and traditional crafts, and argues that building momentum first is the only way to open doors for cross-border partnerships.
Why Ulaanbaatar, and why now?
Gilbert secured wowls.asia this year as the brand's digital anchor for Mongolia and Asia. He is looking for a partner in Ulaanbaatar, "someone who understands both the culture I am borrowing from and the digital market I am trying to reach."
The wider universe.
Gilbert's Mongolia-related work extends past WOWLS. KhanBMS.com applies the Mongol decimal command structure to drone-swarm management software. He is also launching Isreel.com, a film company based on his book about Jews in 1920s Mongolia and the pogroms under Sternberg. He is a dual citizen of the United States and Israel.
A note of skepticism.
The confirmed record is a domain bought in 2017, zero physical sales, AI-rendered products with no manufactured stock, no trademark registration on record, no formal Mongolian collaborators, and exploratory defense talks that did not close. The case for watching anyway is the contrast. The government's Go MonGOlia campaign, run by Edelman, claimed 155 million people reached, yet the visitor rebound came mostly from neighboring China and Russia regardless, and related cultural-diplomacy spending ended in alleged corruption probes.
A founder with no official ties and no place to hide starts with one advantage. He cannot sell credibility he does not have. He can only show the work.
Gilbert is looking for a digital marketing partner in Ulaanbaatar. Strategists, marketers and entrepreneurs interested in the project can reach him through wowls.com/biz.
About the author
Jesse Gilbert is a Los Angeles-based designer building WOWLS, a Mongolian-inspired lifestyle brand. He likes to say that "winning the space race starts with securing one good domain name." wowls.com
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