“When you wear camo, it’s a statement that says, ‘This is who I am. You don’t have to be a hunter to appreciate and wear camo,” he says. It speaks to more than just people with a passion for hunting. “Pairing Keystone Light with Realtree to create this camo collaboration brings Keystone Light into the conversation that rural consumers are having. The partnership is one aspect of a campaign to win over rural drinkers and win back lapsed consumers, says Matt Lafferty, marketing manager for Keystone Light. The effort’s led by a partnership with Realtree, the popular hunting lifestyle brand whose camouflage gear has become the go-to choice for hunters and outdoor enthusiasts. Molson Coors’ leading economy beer is tapping opportunity in rural areas with a multi-pronged effort this fall under the banner “Smooth is in Our Nature,” a nod to the niche Keystone Light has worked to carve out in rural, outdoor culture. That afternoon, Bill flew out for the SHOT Show.įor the rest of the story click here to go to the Realtree website.Keystone Light is on the hunt for rural drinkers. I had naked mannequins waiting at the SHOT Show, and I was sitting in Columbus waiting to get pants sewn." "I rushed it to the manufacturer and they made the basic garments by Wednesday morning. ![]() "I finally got the fabric on Monday, and the show started that Thursday," says Bill. But the airline sent the box of fabric to Columbus, Ohio, instead of Columbus, Georgia. At last, Bill was on his way home with about 30 yards of the printed fabric to be made into garments for the show. Bill had begun working with Eastbank Textiles, and they met the printing challenge just one week before the Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show. The problem would be resolved, but with no time to spare. "But I couldn’t tell them that, so I just sent them some more photos." "I didn't have any garments," Bill recalls. I had only one suit and no additional fabric, so I kept sending photos." When December rolled around, the buyers were clamoring for garments. "We couldn't get the pattern to stay on the pants," he remembers. Every month for about eight months, he sent the images to hunting clothing buyers across the nation.īut Bill couldn't send sample garments, because the camo was doing too good a job disappearing. Using local mills, Bill navigated the printing process until he finally had a set of camouflage clothing to photograph.Īlways the promoter, Bill began to photograph the garments on bowhunters in tree stands. ![]() Bill believed that by layering the images of twigs and leaves over a vertical bark background, he could create a three-dimensional appearance that would match a variety of terrain-and make his pattern distinct. Meanwhile, he was constantly searching for ways to separate his company from the crowd.Īnd that is how Bill came to be sitting in his parents' front yard one day in 1986, with paper and colored pencils, sketching and coloring the bark of a giant oak tree that grew there. Bill was pinching pennies and fishing bass tournaments on the side to create income. But the commodity garment trade was a tough, low-profit-margin business that depended on high volume-not easy for an established company and nearly impossible for a startup. Spartan manufactured t-shirts at a local mill, which were sold to a variety of large retail customers across the country. Bill had entered the hunting industry in 1983, when he started Spartan Archery Products in a back room of his father's boat dealership in Columbus, Georgia.
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