Running a brewery already asks a lot of you—dialing in recipes, managing staff, booking events, keeping regulars happy, and constantly promoting what’s on tap. Adding “merch manager” on top of that can be the thing that quietly falls to the bottom of the list.
That’s where Driftwood Design Co. fits in. We act as your off-site merch department: designing, producing, and delivering brewery-branded apparel and accessories that your customers actually want to wear, without you having to juggle a dozen vendors or guess at what to order next.
Below is a look at how we handle the heavy lifting from idea to finished product.
Step 1: Turning Your Brewery’s Story into Wearable Art
Good merch starts long before ink ever hits a shirt. It starts with your story.
Instead of handing you a catalog and asking, “So what do you want?”, we start with questions like:
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What makes your brewery different from the one down the street?
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What beers or releases are people constantly asking about?
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Is your vibe more “neighborhood hangout,” “metal taproom,” “farmhouse and flannels,” or something else entirely?
From there, we develop artwork that fits your brand instead of fighting it. That might mean:
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Clean, logo-driven designs for core merch you’ll stock year-round
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Bold, illustration-heavy graphics for special can releases or collabs
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Subtle, tone-on-tone embroidery for staff and VIP pieces
You can come to us with a fully-baked idea, a napkin sketch, or nothing but a general direction. We’ll create concepts, gather your feedback, and refine until the design feels like something your regulars will grab off the rack without thinking twice.
Step 2: Choosing the Right Garments and Print Methods
Design is one half of the equation; the blank canvas matters just as much.
Breweries have specific needs: garments that can survive a hot brewhouse, chilly patios, long shifts behind the bar, and a lot of washes. Driftwood helps you choose:
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Shirt and hoodie styles that balance comfort, durability, and price
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Hat and beanie options that match your aesthetic (and your climate)
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Appropriate print/embroidery methods for the look you’re going for
We’ll walk you through trade-offs like:
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When to use soft, water-based or discharge inks vs. bold plastisol
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When embroidery makes more sense than printing (like on hats and heavier garments)
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When to keep it simple and when a specialty print or extra placement is worth it
The goal is to create merch that feels premium without blowing up your costs—or disappointing customers with stiff, scratchy shirts they’ll never wear again.
Step 3: Production You Don’t Have to Babysit
Once designs and garments are approved, we move into production. This is where a lot of DIY merch efforts stall out: multiple vendors, misprints, delays, or boxes of shirts that don’t match the proof.
At Driftwood, this phase is streamlined:
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Art is checked and separated specifically for the print or embroidery method
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Garments are ordered from reputable suppliers we use every day
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Printing and embroidery are handled with consistent, repeatable setups
You get clear timelines and realistic expectations, not vague promises. When your order shows up, you should recognize it instantly from the mockups—same colors, same placements, same overall feel.
Step 4: Smarter Ordering and Inventory Planning
Breweries often get stuck in two extremes: either you under-order and sell out of the good stuff immediately, or you over-order and sit on boxes of odd sizes for months.
We help you avoid both. Over time, Driftwood can help you:
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Decide how many pieces to order for a first run
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Choose size breaks that match typical taproom traffic
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Identify which designs should be “evergreen” and which should be short-run or seasonal
For example, a clean logo tee or hat might become a staple you restock regularly, while a wild design tied to a limited release may be a one-and-done drop that creates urgency. You don’t have to figure that out alone; we’ll share what we see working across breweries with similar audiences.
Step 5: Getting Merch Into Your Customers’ Hands
Once everything is produced, you still need to get it in front of people. We support a few different ways of doing that, depending on how you run your business:
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Taproom-first: We bulk ship to your brewery, ready to hit your merch wall, your bar top, or your event booth.
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Events and festivals: Need a one-off run for a festival, anniversary party, or collab release? We can plan quantities, styles, and timelines so you’re not scrambling the week of the event.
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Online store support: If you sell online, we’ll help you pick products and prints that ship well and make sense to restock.
The end result is straightforward: instead of chasing tracking numbers and juggling multiple vendors, you get boxes of merch that are ready to sell.
Step 6: Learning What Works (So Each Drop Is Better Than the Last)
Merch isn’t just “make some shirts and hope for the best.” Over time, you can treat it like any other part of your business: test, learn, adjust.
We encourage breweries to keep an eye on:
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What sells out first (and in which sizes)
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Which colors and garments move fastest
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Which designs your staff reaches for most often (they’re walking billboards)
When you share that feedback with us, we use it to guide the next round:
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Double down on best-sellers
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Retire or tweak designs that didn’t land
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Adjust size runs and ordering quantities based on real behavior, not guesses
Your merch lineup becomes more dialed in with every order instead of starting from scratch each time.
Why Partner With Driftwood Instead of Going It Alone?
You could keep trying to piece together merch on your own—ordering blanks from one place, using a different shop every time you need printing, hoping the art works on a shirt the same way it does on a beer label.
Or you can treat Driftwood Design Co. as your brewery’s dedicated merch partner. We:
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Translate your brewery’s personality into designs people want to wear
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Handle printing and embroidery with consistent quality
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Help you plan and refine your lineup so you’re not guessing on every order
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Free you up to focus on what your customers actually come for: the beer
When your taproom is full of people in your shirts, hats, and hoodies, that’s not just extra revenue—it’s marketing you couldn’t buy any other way.
You keep brewing stand-out beer. Driftwood Design Co. will make sure your merch lives up to it.