Our Whiskermania Experience!

by Derwood Willhite July 31, 2015 3 Comments

The Derby City Whisker Club invited us out to their Whiskermania beard competition to support the Active Hero’s foundation for veterans, and being a veteran-owned business there was no way we could turn down the invite to support this awesome cause. So I loaded up the Jeep stacked full of products, merch, and donations along with “Robert” my product shipper. Then we trekked from Colorado Springs to Louisville, KY and back again this past week for Whiskermania 2015 and I must say it was an absolute blast!

 

We rolled into Louisville on Friday morning to the hotel dowtown and found ourselves looking out our window at this spectacular city full of historic architecture that made us feel right at home!

View from our hotel window

Friday evening we walked just a few blocks to the beard competition meet and greet at Against the Grain Brewery and Smokehouse which was nestled right inside the Louisville Slugger Baseball Stadium. We were immediately greeted by Ryan and Patrick of the whisker club and they made us feel right at home. The smokehouse delivered to our table a few pounds of pulled BBQ pork and some awesome appetizers. After a hearty meal the venue started filling up with some of the best looking bearded gentlemen from around the country! To top off the evening, we were entertained on the patio by a talented local bearded band called “The Quiet Hollers”.

Here I am outside the meet and greet at Louisville Slugger Stadium

On Saturday around 5pm we drove over to the Tim Faulkner Art Gallery, which was an awesome vintage art warehouse where the event was being hosted. The whisker club gave us a prime vendor table right next to the Active Hero’s organization in the center of the building! Once 6pm hit, the line into the venue started growing with spectators and competitors anxious to kick off the night.

The evening was kicked off with the opening musical act “Hoot Von Woot”, a talented 2 piece folk/bluegrass style husband and wife team.

Hoot Von Woot Jammin at Whiskermania

Once 8pm (competition time) rolled around, there were around 300 folks enjoying the drinks, beards, and music in every inch and corner of the warehouse. I found myself full of excitement as I got to meet many Vintage Beard Co. repeat customers from the Kentucky area that came out to the event to compete and hang out with us. The event kicked off with some excellent fake beard categories and lead on to 13 other categories with at least 100 competitors or more who came out to show off their beards and support the great cause for Active Hero’s! After every few rounds of the competition the bearded event band “Slow Joe Crow & the Berserker Blues Band” entertained us during the breaks.

Selling some products! Hopefully the oil will help soften up some of that metal...

As the night drew on we had many new customers coming to purchase our products, and many of which used our products right away to support their beards and stache’s for the competition! One particular gentleman by the name of Owen Hicks strolled by our table and asked if we had a strong hold wax to style his mustache out for the competition. We spoke with him about our Death Grip and he immediately made his purchase then headed off to style up with it to compete. As is turns out, he competed in the “Full Beard & Styled Mustache” category during the event and he became the 1^st place winner while using our Death Grip!

 

Owen Hicks - 1st Place Winner Full Beard & Styled Mustache using Death Grip!

As the event came to a draw, the crowd was still going full steam ahead and the night slowly came to a close with BIG bearded success. Through the raffles, ticket sales, and the silent auction The Derby City Whisker Club was able to raise over $5,500 for Active Hero’s. We finished off our evening by donating some beard products to the whisker club to thank them for being so kind to The Vintage Beard Co. and for their hard work all weekend. We then packed up our table, said our goodbyes, and started to plot our return next summer. After a long tired drive back to Colorado, we were happily greeted with a pile of emails, orders, and followers from our new bearded friends in Kentucky!

I personally want to thank Ryan Gore, Patrick Fette, Active Heros and the rest of the DCWC for being such wonderful hosts and we hope to see you all soon!

Scroll below for more images & captions from the event!

Trends come & go… Vintage Lives Forever!

-Derwood (owner) & The Vintage Beard Co. Team!

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