My name's Sam W Martin. In 2013, I started Apothecary 87. The following is my story, about how Apothecary 87 came to be.
I spent most of my 20's working at the top of my industry as a mixologist & bar consultant. I had a CV far beyond my years. However when I started my own company in the bar industry, I found it very hard to be taken seriously, as I looked too young; at this point I decided to grow a beard. I soon found that not only did people take me more seriously, but they remembered me! This was excellent marketing and branding for me, so I decided to keep it.
After a while I realised my beard needed looking after and conditioning, so I spent many moons researching the best ingredients to make a beard oil that was all my own. Having tried many brands out there, I found a lot of them to be too feminine; being a man, I decided my beard oil should smell like a man’s beard oil!
It didn’t take long for my friends to start requesting that I make them some of my beard oil. On top of this I had seemed to grow a bearded following on several social networks, all asking what products I used and how I maintained my beard. Since everyone seemed to be asking how to get hold of my Original Recipe Beard Oil, I thought I would look seriously into going into production.
As I was starting out on this new venture (and still thinking of a name), my Grandad passed away from Prostate Cancer. It was at the end of September ’13, and I decided to honour this great man’s memory. I would use something of his in the name. He was 87 when he died and as I was born in ’87, I decided it was a sign that it should be a part of the name. With my love of all things vintage and because I was mixing my own beard tonic, I named it Apothecary 87.
I also wanted to do something to help fight the horrible illness which affects so many men and which my Grandad had so valiantly fought. So I created a moustache wax and supported Movember. We have continued to research other ways our company can support men's health.