Tom Watson has always been one of the sharpest dressed players in any game his team is in.
His love of sports and sports jerseys has led him to create a business that will make sure the competition looks good, too.
Beer League Jerseys is up and running and 30-year-old Watson hopes it changes the way competitors look at how they prepare for a game.
“I’ve always made sure that a team I played for was dressed better than any other team,” said Watson. “I remember back in Grade 7, I played for the volleyball team and convinced teammates to get custom jerseys, so it’s always been with me.”
Watson doesn’t have a design background and never went to school for the skill, but rather he works at his family’s taxi business and relies on a business education.
“I kind of taught myself. I didn’t do any post-secondary education on design or that type of thing,” said Watson. “I play sports all the time, any sport, and I see how much people try to put into their uniforms and how much pride each competitor has for their game.
"A lot of people dedicate a ton of time to beer-league sports and it is good for them to represent the team and league well.”
The designs are all Watson’s and he ships them to a printer, gets the orders ready.
One of his favourite designs so far is the Pineapple Express jerseys he has for his baseball team.
“I love all things tropical, so the Pineapple Express is a big one for me as it's very colourful and Hawaiian looking,” said Watson. “I can do anything up, though. Just takes a conversation with the person who wants the order to find out what it is they’re looking for.”
While some jerseys are pretty straightforward and have a theme that is easy to identify, there are some that come from conversations with Watson’s buddies that maybe not everyone will understand, which he says makes it more fun.
“Mostly everybody knows the baseball player Wade Boggs, but not everyone knows of the almost mythical things he’s done outside the game, or so they have been told,” said Watson.
“One of the stories about Boggs was of him drinking 100 beers in a cross-country flight," he added. "It was made even more famous on an episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. We have a jersey that plays on that.”
While he is only just getting started, Watson says he hopes to have people reach out to him in time for the start of hockey season, but he says orders shouldn’t too much of a problem.
“I just put the post up a couple days ago about starting the business and already people have been calling. It’s pretty cool and hopefully gets busy,” said Watson.
For more information, head to the Beer League Jerseys website.
