Draft House Studios is a t-shirt brand from the mind of F. David Carter. Draft House Studios has a singular theme and that is draft beer and I can certainly appreciate that.

…the name “Draft House Studios” was conceived — the perfect name for a company that will serve as the birthplace of only draft-beer characters that would appear as beers in mugs, steins, glasses, and goblets.

Draft House Studios T-Shirt Review

The t-shirt itself is a preshrunk, Alstyle #1701 100% ring-spun cotton T-shirts, according to the website. There was no Alstyle branding on the tee itself. The t-shirt in the photo is a medium but is quite loose-fitting, like a large standard American Apparel but shorter. The material is heavier and feels stronger but it’s hard to tell how good it is until you wash it a few times. It’s a creme or tan color.

Even without all the packaging and extras (which I will get to later) the t-shirt has a premium vibe to it. I’m not talking about the cotton because frankly it is fairly standard. But simply the fact that there are five print areas tells you that a lot of work has gone into this t-shirt. There is the logo print on the right hand side of the chest, the main print of Halvard on the back and a “Series 1” logo on the bottom right of the front of the t-shirt. Across from that there is the number 4 in a circle which refers to the number in the limited edition series that this t-shirt is a part of. Finally there is a printed logo/care label on the inside of the t-shirt.

I’ll talk about Halvard (the back print) first.

Halvard the viking is a battle-hardened, extra-stout brew that hails from his native Denmark.
As tough and flavorful as they come, Halvard has been invited to Draft House Studios to show the new beers a thing or two about character.
Unknown in this country, but a decorated veteran brew in his native land, Halvard’s robust character is already a favourite of drinkers at the draft house, although other beers think he’s one tough, hard-nosed, stubborn SOB.

Not my words. I don’t really know what that’s about but I think it’s just a fictional background story for this character. It’s nice to add a little fun to product but I’m not really interested in that type of thing. When I am buying a t-shirt I rarely wonder about the background story. I just want something that looks good and hopefully makes me look good.

What I see when I look at Halvard is a scary looking old man. I couldn’t tell instantly that it was beer. If I came across this somewhere I would think that Halvard really is a Danish beer brand and it was a promotional t-shirt. While I appreciate it takes skill/talent to create art like this, it doesn’t really do anything for me. The style comes across as old-fashioned.

The print is very well done and despite having two layers and the use of plastisol ink, soft enough.

Branding

Well, there is a brand logo on the front of the shirt. The Draft House Studios logo is also quite old-fashioned and I’m not sure why it’s in snow. There is also smaller logo on the inside neck printed label. I think that one would have been enough. As mentioned above, the Alstyle tags were removed. There was also some branding on the envelope and extras which I fully support.

Extras

There were lots of extras. The best of them being a coaster with the same character as your shirt. It’s a leather coaster with a cork base and is pretty good quality I imagine, the leather side and cork side weren’t a perfect match though so it comes off as cheap. On the back it is signed by the artist and it is numbered to match the shirt. In this case 4 of 150. The coasters are limited editions like the shirts.

There is also a certificate of authenticity to go with your limited edition shirt. It says my shirt is no. 4 of 100 so perhaps there are more coasters than shirts.

On top of that there are a couple of stickers, a logo sticker and a “movie-spoof” sticker. I think it’s a parody of Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon. They are big postcard sized stickers. What do people do with these, I wonder?

There are also a couple of hang tags on the shirt. There was a thank you card and even some beer nuts. I think I should mention that everything came in perfect condition, wrapped up in bags and the shirt was wrapped in gold paper with another logo sticker on it. I think the bag also had a logo sticker on it,

The detail and thought and probably even love that has gone into this project is astounding but here’s the thing. For most people, they just want a t-shirt. What do most people do with all the extras? If you are like me, they will all go in trash. OK, in this case, I ate the beer nuts and I’ll probably use the coaster, unless my daughter thinks it’s too scary.

Website and Selection

The one thing I like about the website is that, like the t-shirt package, it has a lot of detail and a lot of time has been put into it. The site is dated though and can be a little confusing to navigate. I’m told that it will be updated very soon though. There are only three t-shirts to choose from though, all of them original beer characters.

Pricing

The package above sets you back $32.99 which isn’t so bad. I know you can get tees much cheaper but this is an original limited edition shirt that you won’t find anywhere else. And there are a lot of extras. If this is the type of thing you like I would even say it’s a bargain.

Wrap-Up

This was a tough review. Because of all the effort that has gone into this product I only wanted to say positive things but the reality is that while the shirt and print are good quality it doesn’t do anything for me. It’s not something I would wear and I’m not sure who would want to buy it. There were a lot of extras with the shirt but apart from the coaster and the beer nuts, what can I do with them? I don’t want to keep them around just to gather dust.

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