Toxey Haas was born January 21, 1960, in West Point, Mississippi. He began hunting at the age of six and wanted to be invisible to the game when he was hunting. He said, "I always dreamed of being invisible to the game while in the woods."  After graduating at Mississippi State University, Toxey followed a path that became a career in camouflage. At twenty-five, he decided to duplicate dirt, bark, sticks, and leaves onto fabric. He called this first pattern "Bottomland."

He founded Haas Outdoors, one of the countries largest manufacturers of camouflage in 1986 and registered the Mossy Oak trademark. Haas Outdoors licenses five hundred manufacturers to produce patterns. Today the company based in West Point spends 1.2 million dollars annually on marketing alone.  Dirt and bark and leaves are big business among the hunters of the country and for them "Mossy Oak" is a household name. Along with the business, Toxey has a television show called "Hunting the Country" and publishes two magazines a year.

Mossy Oak was the first to utilize the computer to produce camouflage.  Originally artists created the patterns by hand.  Today digital photographs and computer programs that manipulate them produce the images that become shirts and pants.  "Our Break-up pattern was the first one to use digital images and Photoshop,"  says Larry Moore of the research and development department.  

Toxey is still hunting , but finds time for his wife Diane, daughter Sara Frances, and twins Daniel and Neill. He says, "My mind belongs the my work, my heart belongs to my family, but my soul belongs to the woods."  Haas, founder and CEO, has put his knowledge of hunting and business to work making Mossy Oak the leader in hunting apparel.

Work Cited

Haas, Toxey. "Toxey Haas." http://www.mossyoakproperti es.com/aboutus.asp. Nov 11, 2003.