Originally featured in Snowboard Magazine 11.1: The Product Collection

Saint Archer Brewing Company is a modern example of the California Dream: Build a company from scratch with a collective of artisans, musicians, photographers, filmers, surfers, skaters and snowboarders who share a vision and love cracking open an ice cold craft beer.

“I was in Puerto Rico for a surf contest and an alcohol brand approached me about Taylor Knox investing and becoming an ambassador,” says Saint Archer Brewing Co.’s President and Founder Josh Landan, who worked for years as a filmmaker and athlete manager in action sports. “With who Taylor is as an athlete, his goals, and his reputation over his 21 years on tour — we didn’t really see it being a good fit, nor any of the potential energy drink sponsors out there.”

That’s when the light bulb went off. “How come there has never been a beer that’s come from us?” Landan wondered. “It’s always the been big beer brands throwing millions of dollars at our demographic and nobody really paying attention. Well, now I know why, because it’s hard as shit to do what we’ve done.”

The next week Landan was with his best friend and pro skater Mikey Taylor working on a new movie when he brought up the idea. They decided a craft beer would be the best fit and called mutual friend Paul Rodriguez. They met with Paul the next day — that was four years ago — and Saint Archer Brewing Company was born.

“If you think about it, the general public doesn’t really know anything about the beer they drink and they don’t really give a shit,” Landan says. “There’s no story behind it.”

[videocaption]The Path Unseen with Saint Archer Ambassador and co-owner Paul Rodriguez Jr.[/videocaption]

That’s when the branding “ah-ha” moment happened and Landan knew his action sports experience gave him an undeniable edge in craft beer marketing. “Coming from action sports, it’s all marketing. Craft beer is just the opposite — there is zero marketing and it’s all about the product.”