When Apothecary 87 first launched, we wanted to be more than just another male grooming brand making beard oils, pomades and shave creams. Our goal was to create a way for like minded people to come together, a movement. And with this movement, we wanted to encourage people to express themselves and who they were. This movement was named The Man Club.

The Man Club stood for everything we felt it should and it was a great way to be a part of something. But we needed a symbol, something that would showcase The Man Club and would allow us to put an image to this movement of self expression.

When brainstorming at our first office, a co-working space in Doncaster named Helm, the team would hit a soft ball at the wall of the office with a toy baseball bat. One day, something clicked, and this bat...this club...was named The Man Club. It was almost the perfect symbol for The Man Club movement, yet something wasn't quite there... Our influence as a brand has always been 1920s British & Americana, and everything around this, yet The Man Club's first bat was a toy plastic bat. We needed something that would be more us.

After another batting session, this time thinking about what The Man Club itself should look like, we decided to talk to some woodworkers to create what we felt The Man Club should look like. (See below, image of The Man Club held by Zac Herdman)

This initial batch, we created 500 units. As a small company, we were surprised how quickly these took off. People loved them, they were a strong symbol for The Man Club, and they looked amazing hung on a wall. It wasn't long before they were gone.

The following year, we wanted to release more, but we felt that they should be different. We approached a different manufacturer, and decided to change the design for release number 2 of The Man Club. The new edition would be lighter, sleeker, and have a tribute to William Charles Martin, the Grandfather of Apothecary 87 founder, Sam W Martin (by the way, it's Sam writing this blog). The tribute was his signature on the side of The Man Club, it was a way to remember the inspirational person he was and the lessons he taught, especially by not being afraid to be himself. Thus, the second edition of The Man Club was born. (See below, image of The Man Club held by Matt Robinson, owner of Mister Robinson's Barbershop)

Recently, we have wanted to take The Man Club to the next level. We aimed to create a design really true to the era of our inspiration, the 1920s, and so we set out to find someone to help us achieve that.

We came across an American brand, based out of Minnesota, Pillbox Bat Co. Instantly, we fell in love with them, what they stood for, and what they had built. The classic designs, the authenticity of their brand, it was perfect. We had found our partners for the third edition of The Man Club.

After lots of talking and planning, we had created our latest design with them. This time, truly taking inspiration from the 1920s, using Ash wood to create an authentic looking version of The Man Club. Some details we kept the same, making sure to still have William Charles Martin's signature, but this time branded into the side. We also wanted to add some more details, so Pillbox Bat Co suggested we add an enamel pin to the base of The Man Club's handle. The details were amazing. 

After the in depth talks and chats, The Man Club was ready to launch, and that brings us to the present day!

We are so happy to announce the latest release of The Man Club. Not only as The Man Club itself is the best design it's ever been, but also because we get to release something with so much meaning to us. 

There will be 5 batches released, with a maximum of 50 per batch. Meaning only a small run of 250 are available! We hope you like the latest edition as much as we do! Hurry to get yours.