Made In West Virginia

About the design and the idea...

   This idea started with our buddies Brad Kinder and Ben Coll (Taxx Dog Thousandaire and Krooshal T. Doggins, respectively) over at Big River Records. We'd be hanging out and they'd say that something "likes to party", meaning that it is an thing of excellence and utmost quality - e.g. "Van Halen likes to party!" This caught on pretty quickly, and entered into the lexicon as a way to say that something was awesome. Those guys, being the wordsmiths that they are, are doing this sort of thing all the time. 

   At first, we wanted to do a really simple design, so that the phrase itself "West Virginia Likes To Party" was the focus. You can see an early draft (the green one) here. We might still do a sticker of that version, actually. Still really like it... We ran the idea past Ben since he provided part of the inspiration, and he was immediately insistent that it needed a great deal more of our illustrative flavor, hence the WV PARTY SEAL was born. 

   This shirt is meant to not only celebrate the fact that we like to party here in WV (which we totally do, and do it well) but the fact that we do it in so many different ways. We do it through music, we do it through adventure, we do it through our connection to the land under our feet. A rafting trip is a party, a dude nailing a kickflip is a party, a gnarly guitar riff is a party, hanging out in a field looking at the starts with solid friends is a great party. All these things, and an innumerable others, LIKE TO PARTY. We can make a celebration out of anything, and the fact that we're surrounded by the beauty of WV and amazing people only make it easier.

  Speaking of amazing people, we were lucky enough to snag local musician, bartender extraordinaire, and philanthropist Tyler Grady for our model for this shirt. If there's a guy that embodies the ethos of liking to party, Tyler fits the bill. He's got his fingers in all kinds of amazing musical projects here in WV, namely Sleepwalker, and Goodwolf. The video for "Last Year" by Goodwolf captures the feeling of kicking around WV in the summertime so well, we knew that Tyler was the perfect fit. Get into local music, people! To start with, check out Twin Cousin Records, and the aforementioned Big River Records. AMAZING music is being made in WV. 

Goodwolf – Last Year from Geoff Hoskinson on Vimeo.

   So that's about everything that went into this one. We hope you like it!