By now, RVA locals are more than aware that the popularity of craft beer is not only on the rise, but has been dominating the city’s local scene for the past few years. What we didn’t know was that there’s been something missing all along in our growing love for well-made, damn good craft beer… an equally well-made, and damn good-looking, growler to house our craft beer.
By now, RVA locals are more than aware that the popularity of craft beer is not only on the rise, but has been dominating the city’s local scene for the past few years. What we didn’t know was that there’s been something missing all along in our growing love for well-made, damn good craft beer… an equally well-made, and damn good-looking, growler to house our craft beer. Jordan Childs, the founder of Shine Craft Vessels, lived in Connecticut with his wife before deciding to move back to Richmond to follow what Childs describes as their “entrepreneur spirit.” Neither one had a set plan for what they were going to do, but luckily for them, they didn’t have to wait long to discover it.
Design and beer are two of Childs’ greatest passions, and he founded his company in 2013 after realizing there was something significant missing from one of these, and that he could use his knowledge of the other to fix that void.
“I’m a big fan of going to breweries on a Saturday and day drinking, and I would always leave with a growler,” laughs Childs. “But they were glass, and I broke so many of them. They’re not manufactured for long-term use, and I’d always thought I’d rather have a reusable one. Then I could just bring it on my own terms, and not have to worry about it getting beat up.”
A former Lego employee, Childs used his experience with the toy company as inspiration for Shine Craft Vessels. “The thing I loved most [about Lego] was that it was a conceptual creative company, but also based on design,” Childs explains. “So that’s how the concept [for the growlers] started… I thought, ‘This is a really good chance for me to flex my design muscle in a category that I’m really stoked about.’”
After the idea was born, Childs and his wife decided to invest some of their own money into making 100 growlers. “We had no expectations past the first 100,” says Childs. “We said if they didn’t sell, we’d just have badass presents for all of our friends and family.”
It was critical to Childs that Shine Craft products be based in VA. “You can make a product overseas and keep it 100% outsourced and get really great profit margins, but there’s not a lot of heart to it,” he says. “We thought if we’re going to do this, we really want something to be proud of. We want to have conversations around it and at the same time, in some small way, be able to contribute back into the state economy.”
The growlers spent about 6 months in the product development and production supply chain, and finally came to market during March of 2014. The growlers were featured on Oh Beautiful Beer and Gear Patrol, and within two weeks all 100 growlers had sold. The customers were mainly a beer and design crowd, whom Childs describes as “a hybrid group of people that love craft beer but at the same time have a curated lifestyle and design gear preference.”
Childs said that aside from sending out five growlers to different influential bloggers that were friends of the couple, they didn’t really advertise. Once the growlers showed up on the blogs, the product spoke for itself, and orders for more took off. They made a second batch of 500 vessels, which also sold out immediately, and by the end of 2014, Shine Craft Vessels had sold over 3,000 growlers.
“It was always about figuring it out as we went, and I can’t believe we’ve made over 3,000 now,” says Childs. “To go from March, where we were putting our own money into it, to October, when we got three amazing partners that have invested capital and time into the company… is out of the stratosphere.”
Childs feels that word of mouth has definitely played a role in helping the company’s rapid growth. “It’s almost like an advocate for the brand, which is the most important thing in the world,” he says. “Every one of those 3,000 people that have bought one are walking around with a sense of pride and can talk about [the growlers].”
Childs explained the creative process that goes on within the studio of Shine Vessels, a place that not only houses the talent of Childs and his wife Kim, a vintage retailer, but four other studio partners that have been vital in the success of Shine Vessels: website developer Drew Dayberry, graphic designer Elizabeth Sobka, photographer Kate Magee, and strategy consultant Ben Cheney.
“We started the studio with the idea that e-commerce, design, and creativity could come here,” says Childs. “Everyone who works here has his or her own gig, but we all contribute equally and have an equal share in what happens inside the studio. We keep a really healthy assortment of talent here, and so when there’s a project that one person is working on and they need a photographer, or e-commerce developer, or account management/strategy, it can automatically go to someone here. There’s this continuing loop of profitability and collaboration.”
Childs says they all shared a vision of wanting to be in Richmond (all of them either graduated from VCU’s Brandcenter or grew up in the area) while also working in a space that allowed for a free creative environment without having to answer to anybody but themselves. The studio has an essential theme of “no parents, no rules.”
Since first coming to market in March, Shine Craft’s customer base has gone global, with many growlers having been shipped to the UK and Australia. The growlers are durable stainless steel and are intended to be so well made that they can be used the rest of your life. The growlers are put through a number of similar processes that breweries put their brewing equipment through, which makes them stand out against other products on the market. Their design not only allows people to take the growler to their local brewery to have it filled, but is incredibly easy to travel with. The current growler size is about the same amount of beer as a six-pack, and although Childs says you could get a sincerely healthy buzz by drinking an entire growler by yourself, Shine Craft Vessels looks at their growlers as a being a social focal point.
“You can fill a Shine Vessel and take it on a hike and share beers at the end of it with your buddies, or take it off the trail and bring it to a dinner party in the West End, and still be proud to keep it on the table,” Childs says. “We want to walk both those lines, and no matter what the situation is when you’re sharing a beer from one of these [growlers], there’s always going to be a conversation that happens around it, because nobody’s ever seen it before. There’s a community thing about sharing a beer in general, so to combine that with the personalization aspect of the growlers, is an awesome thing to see catching on.”
The growlers are only available in one size, 64 ounces, but Shine Craft Vessels is currently in product development, and beginning this spring will be offering a wider range of growler choices. One of these is a double-walled version of their original growler, which means the new growler will be vacuum-insulated. People will be able to leave it in the sun for 24 hours and have the contents remain the same temperature as when it was filled.
Shine Craft Vessels will also begin to offer more colors, and a smaller, 32-ounce growler. The brand hopes the smaller growler will allow them to cater to more than just craft beer enthusiasts, reaching people looking to carry coffee, cider, etc. Light apparel like hats, t-shirts and backpacks can also be expected in the spring of ’15.
Childs says it’s important to him to keep Shine Vessels as direct-to-consumer as possible. The retailers the company is currently working with were selected on the basis that they could make a close connection with the customers–but really, Childs hopes most customers will continue to buy directly from the company. “I would rather that people go to shinevessels.com or visit us at a pop up,” he says. “That [way], customers not only get to meet us, but they can actually hear from the founders’ mouth why Shine Vessels is important, why it’s worth buying, and why it will last you.”
Shine Craft Vessels can be ordered directly from shinevessels.com. Keep up with the company on twitter @ShineVessels, on facebook at facebook.com/shinevessels, and on Instagram @shinevessels.
