All roads lead to Manhattan: How Aaron Decker ’97 turned Exit 313 into a brand connecting Wildcats
By Ashley Pauls
K-State Alumni Association
Exit 313 — to some drivers, it’s just an ordinary road sign on the side of the highway as
you travel through Kansas.
However, for K-Staters it’s far more than that — it’s a sign that they’re almost in
Manhattan, home to their alma mater and a place filled with memories and purple pride.
Aaron Decker ’97 has harnessed the power of that nostalgia to connect fellow Wildcats,
first through a Facebook group called Exit 313 and now with a line of merchandise that includes hats, replica signs, shirts and more, as well as a podcast called Echos from Exit 313.
Decker never knows where he’s going to see one of his branded items pop up. K-Staters
wore Exit 313 gear to the Aer Lingus College Football Classic in 2025 in Dublin, Ireland.
Wildcat fan Jeff McQueen ’83 recently was spotted on the Today show wearing a Powercat jacket and an Exit 313 hat.
“The name Exit 313 felt like a natural fit for me, because, you know, that's the exit
that you take to get to Manhattan. And there's so many people that are familiar with
that. It resonates,” Decker said. “It's like, ‘OK, I'm getting off the highway, and
this is going to take me to my happy place.’ You're leaving everything behind, and
then you're racing towards everything that you love.”
Coming to K-State
Decker’s “K-State origin story,” as he likes to call it, begins with his family’s
military ties. His father, a retired U.S. Army chaplain, was stationed at Fort Riley
during Decker’s sophomore year of high school after seven years of living in Germany.
When it came time to choose a college, Decker decided to give nearby Kansas State
University a try.
That decision shaped the trajectory of his life and his future career. He studied
in K-State's A.Q. Miller School of Media and Communication and for three years ran
a nightly talk show on the campus radio station. He also was involved with the university’s
theater department and remembers participating in plays at Nichols Hall and the Purple
Masque Theatre in WWI Memorial Stadium. As if that wasn’t enough to keep a student
busy, Decker also worked part-time in the newsroom for Manhattan/Junction City radio
station KJCK, covering K-State athletic events.
“I really leaned into trying to do everything that I possibly could at K-State, because
it was a fantastic opportunity to really get engaged with what I was interested in,”
he said. “I felt like at K-State, if you wanted to get involved, there was a pathway.”
He met his wife, Nikki Prentice Decker ’98, during his time at K-State, and after
graduation they moved to Los Angeles. Life eventually brought the Deckers back to
the Midwest, and they raised their family in the Kansas City-area. Their son, Sam,
is now a junior at K-State.
‘One big, giant pep rally’
Decker launched the Exit 313 Facebook page back in 2010 as a side project, never imagining
what it would eventually become. At the time he was running marketing for a company
and wanted to learn more about social media. Facebook, which started as a platform
for college students, had now expanded to allow anyone to join.
Decker saw that businesses were beginning to start their own pages, and he decided
that starting a K-State group just for fun would be a great way to learn best practices
and tactics for social media.
The Exit 313 page now has around 42,000 followers.
“The best way to describe it is, it's just one big, giant pep rally for K-State,” Decker
said. “I try to keep it positive. There's a lot of people that love their university,
obviously, and they want to support the university through thick and thin.”
Expanding the brand
Decker remembers sitting in Bill Snyder Family Stadium during the 2023 football season
and chatting with his wife about growing the Exit 313 brand and placing the logo on
clothing and other products.
“We were having a conversation about merch and like, ‘Should we do this? Should we
not?’ And then we were like, ‘Yeah, let's go for it.’”
They started with a hat featuring the Exit 313 highway sign.
He sent a photo of the hat to a friend from his college days, actor Eric Stonestreet
’95. The concept was a hit, and the very first box of merchandise that Decker mailed
out was to Stonestreet.
Decker remembers posting about the launch of his shop, and then just a couple minutes
later, a notification popped up on his phone, announcing the first order. Stonestreet
shortly thereafter, shared through his massive social channels and then the orders
just kept rolling in. Due to popular demand, they’ve even added a line of merch featuring
Exit 303, which is the eastbound entryway to Manhattan.
From the beginning, Decker said that it was important to him to use as many local
vendors as possible to manufacture his products. For example, he connected with Jared
Jackson ’98 from the National Sign Company in Ottawa, Kansas, to produce the replica
road signs.
“We're trying to find Kansas vendors, particularly K-State owned businesses, to do
this,” Decker said. “I've been fortunate enough to have a couple of stores reach out
to me and say, ‘Hey, we want to carry your products in our store.’”
Growing into the future
Decker said that for him and his wife, the biggest thrill is seeing one of their products
“in the wild.
“Probably the ultimate highlight for me is we went to Dublin and went to the game against
Iowa State. We had a lot of fun, and we had a shirt made for that event. We sold out,
and the number of shirts and hats that I saw at that game from stuff that we shipped
from right here in our basement in Olathe, Kansas, it boggled my mind. Anytime I go
to a game and see someone wearing one of our products, it's pretty cool. I'm very
thankful for that.”
Managing Exit 313 in addition to serving as CEO of Multi Service Fuel Card, a national
fuel-card company, certainly keeps Decker busy. However, he wouldn’t have it any other
way. He is grateful for the support from his family in running the Exit 313 business.
“We're just going to continue to look for new ways to add products to the marketplace,
but then also grow the podcast and grow the social media footprint,” Decker said.
“My ultimate goal, and I know I'll get there someday, is to have more people on that
page than can sit in Bill Snyder Family Stadium.”