What Hockey Taught Sawyer Hannay About Hustle

It started with a $400 gamble and a field full of friends—and turned into a national brand.

Emily Cave Boit reconnects with her longtime friend Sawyer Hannay, founder of Country Liberty and former pro hockey player. 

They trace Sawyer’s roots from a small town in New Brunswick to the NHL draft, through European hockey leagues and tough setbacks—including a devastating concussion—before landing on how he turned personal pride and grassroots hustle into a nationally recognized Canadian lifestyle brand. 

From lugging shirts to bonfire bashes to locking in a deal on national television, Sawyer’s story is a raw and real testament to resilience, reinvention, and remembering where you came from.

Listen For:

0:01 From Sign-Holding Fan to Podcast Guest A Full Circle Moment

3:40 Why Cheering for the Leafs is an Act of Emotional Bravery

7:43 Graduation Day Call You’re Drafted to the NHL

11:24 Birth of Country Liberty A European Culture Shock Sparked It All

17:36 Field Parties Tank Tops and Startup Sales

24:12 Dragon’s Den Secrets What You Didn’t See on TV

29:44 150 Stores and Counting Country Liberty’s Retail Explosion

CONNECT WITH GUEST: SAWYER HANNAY

Country Liberty Website | Country Liberty Instagram | Sawyer’s Instagram | LinkedIn 

CONTACT EMILY:

Instagram | Website

Transcript

Emily Cave (00:01):

Hey everyone. Welcome back to episode 18 of You Are More with Emily Cave Boy, I am so excited to have my friend Sawyer on the podcast today. He is the founder of Country Liberty former hockey player and just an incredible human being who's actually followed me from way back when in the You Are More Days when it was just a website. So we kind of joke about that and talk about that in just both of our journeys the past 10 years. So welcome Sawyer to the UR More podcast. Well, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. I feel like you have been such a loyal, you are more follower journey since the website days. I feel like I have an old photo of you holding a you are more sign, oh God in 2015 or 2016 to now on the podcast. Crazy Journeys for us both to get us to where we are today. But take me back in the beautiful background. Take me back to your days growing up in Canada and the Maritimes and all of that.

Sawyer Hannay (01:28):

Sure. Yeah, so it's funny you mentioned the photo. I remember vividly the apartment I was living in university that was in Frederickton, new Brunswick. So that's where I went to university. But I grew up in Rexton, which is where I am now splitting my time between here in Nashville. I grew up just a small town, country boy here in, grew up on some family land about three or four kilometers from where I'm sitting right now. Grew up surrendered by cousins and extended family and relatives and we had a family lane where there was a country lane where everybody on the lane was related. So we had a lot of really good sense of community growing up, which I was very fortunate to have and which eventually inspired my business and my brand Country Liberty. But yeah, just grew up like any regular small town kid playing outdoors a lot and just coming home with grass stains and bumps and bruises and fighting with each other and just being reckless. Little shithead honestly at times. But my father was really passionate about hockey and my grandfather too, both diehard Leaf fans. So naturally I played hockey and just kind of

Emily Cave (02:47):

Sorry about that playoffs. I thought the leaves were going to go far. I am not going to lie.

Sawyer Hannay (02:53):

Well, it seems like they had kind of the best run at Florida in my opinion. Bottom biased opinion. They were up three to one in game three up to nothing in the series and blew it in classic leaves, fashion blew it. And then everybody in Toronto's freaking out and east all the English Leaf fans because usually it's the French folks that cheer for the Canadians out here. So all the English fans are freaking out. But yeah, devastating, tough team to cheer for. I mean they won in 67. My father was born in 65, so his entire life he turns, he just turned 59. So his whole life he hasn't seen win. So hopefully I do in my lifetime.

Emily Cave (03:40):

But Leafs fans or Leafs were the motivation for them to love hockey and eventually for you to fall in love with hockey as well.

Sawyer Hannay (03:49):

Yeah, yeah, I think so. I mean, my father and his brothers played hockey just locally growing up and opportunities back then, especially on the east coast, wasn't no one went anywhere playing hockey back then. And so then when my age group, that started to kind of change a little bit, so I got really interested. I was never a superstar or anything. I was on our local teams. I feel I was always above average, but I wasn't a superstar. And then when I hit the midget age, I got better and got taller and just kind of grew into my frame and got more confident in those things. And it was then when I started hearing from major junior teams and where I'm from knowing one, there was somebody that played major junior maybe 20 years before me, but that was kind of it and it just wasn't really a thing.

(04:41):

I used to watch the Monkton Wildcats once a year, but it felt like the NHL to me watching those guys. So I never really thought that was in the cards for me. All of a sudden it was, had a really good year in midget. Talked to all the teams with some advice from a hockey mentor. They made the suggestion that there's certain teams you don't want to play for major junior. So I started, once I talked to every team and realized I had choices, I kind of played the game a little bit, told certain teams I wasn't going to play major Junior and then told my one team that I wanted to go to that I was going to. So they drafted me and I got to go to the team I wanted to, which was Halifax. They were rebuilding. They just, before I got there, they traded everything for Brad Marshan. So full circle, he just won the cup.

Emily Cave (05:33):

I love marshy. I texted Katrina when he won. It was, oh, I love Marcian.

Sawyer Hannay (05:40):

Yeah, he's been having fun the last two weeks.

Emily Cave (05:43):

Oh yeah, he's one of my favorite. Yeah, he was one. He was the first Bruin we ever met. We went there for Thanksgiving and then he was actually the last Bruin sequel be Alive. So I have a special connection with Marshy for sure. That's funny that, yeah, he was at Halifax too.

Sawyer Hannay (05:59):

Yeah, so Marcy Leaf Killer. I love him too because I trained with him one summer actually, and I got to know him and I got to know his brother Jeff and I met his sister in university and the Maritimes is a small area, so I've always rooted for him. I hate when he scores against the least, but besides that, I'm always rooting for him. It was weird this year in the final because I like Marshan and I think Florida had the best team, but I wanted to see a Canadian team win too, and I wanted to see McDavid win. And so either way I wasn't upset with who won in the final, but I was happy for Marchand and I love just how wild he is right now too. Just parting his face off doesn't give a shit. I love it.

Emily Cave (06:43):

He's amazing. Absolutely love that family. And Katrina's incredible too, but so Halifax with

Sawyer Hannay (06:53):

The moose. Yeah, we were in a rebuild because we sold the farm to acquire Marand before I got there. So we were the worst team in the league the first year. We didn't make the playoffs second year, but I had a good year my first year and then that's what got me drafted. And again, I didn't expect to get drafted. There was a draft pick from this area like 25, 30 years prior, just something that really didn't seem possible for us or for me. I was never, like I said, a superstar, but I just kind of was a role player and played a certain style that could translate to the next level or so they thought. So yeah, I was drafted. My agent told me to go to the draft. It was in la. I had an agent. I didn't have an agent before and then a month before the draft or something I was told, you need an agent.

(07:43):

So I got one and spoke to a few NHL teams and then he told me to go to the draft in la. I didn't go. It was the same day as my high school graduation and I wasn't sure I'd get picked. I still didn't really believe it. And I got picked late in the seventh round. So I got a call while I was at my family graduation party. They were like, Hey, this is the Vancouver. I don't even remember who it was on the phone. I blacked out, but it was like, Hey, this is the Vancouver Canucks, we just selected you in the NHL draft. And I was stoked. And they're like, basically, I hope you're in shape. You're coming to town in three or four weeks for a death camp. I'm like, yeah. I'm like, oh my God, you got to hit my local gym here.

Emily Cave (08:27):

No beers for this high school grad.

Sawyer Hannay (08:31):

Yeah, I mean we celebrated that night, but I quickly right away I was like, yeah, I got to get into shape and I still wasn't in good enough shape in hindsight, 17 years old playing against going to camp against grown men. But that's kind of how it started. Got picked and went to a few camps, had a really good relationship with the scout that essentially drafted me. Darryl Young, he's Halifax based. He spent a lot of time with me on the ice, early mornings, like five 30 skates, no pucks, just working on foundational stuff and things like that. So really bonded with him. And then Vancouver went to the Stanley Cup final, lost to the Bruins in 2011. So they had a really good team. Marcie again. Yeah, exactly. This is really a full circle

(09:25):

Conversation here. But so they had a really good team, hard team to make, and then we were negotiating a contract. They didn't end up signing me. We were negotiating a contract and then I got a really bad concussion to a point that I couldn't read or write. I was in a dark room for two months. It was really miserable and lost my contract opportunity with them because of that. And then they eventually sent me to Europe and they're like, listen, we don't want to sign you because we don't want to give up a contract spot basically for you, but we want you to go to Europe and play under a former NHL coach there, PR PGE and develop over in Europe and whatever. So I left junior a year earlier, like my 20-year-old season for junior. I didn't finish major Junior, I went to Europe and then there was an NHL lockout. So then all these NHL players flood overseas. Of course I was 19, just turning 20. I get pushed down the depth chart so I'm not playing very much. And I left about a third or halfway through that season and finished my major junior in. I came back to Halifax. They had their three 20 year olds already set. You're only allowed three.

(10:39):

So I was the fourth guy, odd man out. I get dealt for a bag of pucks to Victoriaville, so into a different division. Had a blast, loved it there. Lived in Quebec for the first time, barely any English in that town. It was really cool life experience. Halifax went on to win the Memorial Cup that year. So the year I was traded, they had McKinnon and Ali and Joanne and fur studs. They won the damn cup. So I was there for the dark ages fighting 20 times a year and just grinding it out, riding the bus after losses, taking abuse at practice because we were not winning. And then I get dealt and they win. So

Emily Cave (11:24):

Funny how that happens in life sometimes.

Sawyer Hannay (11:27):

Yeah, shit happens. I mean whatever. It is what it is. And then when I was in Europe, that's when I got inspired. I was proud of where I was from. I was traveling around a lot at this point and I was like, I want to represent this feeling somehow don't know really how that's where the concept for Country Liberty came about. And then I signed a deal in the American League, got sent down to the East Coast League, and when I was in the East Coast League, I was debating going back to school. I was like, I'm not that good. There's a lot of really good players for me to make it to basically the NHL to meet my ambitions in terms of the career I want to have and the money I want to make and all of that. I don't want to just grind it out in the miners forever.

(12:14):

So I was like, am I good enough to get there or not? And at the time I was like, probably not. I had a hard look in the mirror and just said maybe I should hedge my bets and have a backup plan. So I went back to school and had a full ride scholarship left pro, went back to school and then that's when I started Country Liberty. I was like, Hey, I'm here. I can't get cut or traded. I'm taking all these business courses, so I might as well start a business in real life and just apply it to all my courses and also have classmates working for me in directly. So then it just started at school, selling on campus and selling out of my, we had a four bedroom apartment, but there was only three of us. So the fourth bedroom was a little country liberty room. I love it. Yeah, just started wheeling and dealing and that's when I met you I think was right in that time period. Within months anyway, maybe the year before, give or take, but right

Emily Cave (13:12):

In that, yeah, it's in that time period.

Sawyer Hannay (13:13):

Yeah, that time

Emily Cave (13:14):

Period. Yeah. That's so crazy, dear hockey background to business background. Yeah, 10 years ago you made the mug, you got to reenact that. I feel like

Sawyer Hannay (13:26):

I'm not doing that. No way.

Emily Cave (13:27):

You have to do a before and after a glow up, if that makes sense. That's awesome. But I was going to say, I feel like what a lot of people don't appreciate or maybe not appreciate, but don't realize what the hockey life or any athlete life is. You are away from your family and friends so much. So I love that. That's kind of also what inspired Country Liberty. I know in Colby's situation, he played in Swift Current. I'm very close with his billet family still to this day. I don't know if you had billets. Oh yeah, bill, its don't get enough credit. I say all the time, I'm like, you've taken teenage boys at the most expensive grocery bill time at questionable Choices time, but also at a time where you guys are vulnerable and fighting for your dream. So yeah, I give a lot of credit to billet families, but I do love that Country Liberty was started all because of that. So yeah, tell us a little bit more about the Country Liberty. Obviously I can see your hat right now, but for people that don't know and then what you learned through hockey and now up to where Country Liberty is today.

Sawyer Hannay (14:46):

Sure, yeah. Country Liberty is a country lifestyle clothing brand. I started it with 400 bucks in university. It was one design and 12 T-shirts is how I spent the first 400 and sold those for 20 bucks a pop. First sale was to my father, hardest sale of my life still to date. He nickel and di me. I was like, dad, I'm just trying to start something here. I'm broke as hell. Put myself through school. He's like, no, I think it's overpriced, but it's funny, he still has that shirt and he brings it up at once a year and he is like, yeah, one day you'll buy this shirt back for a whole lot more. Put it in a trophy case or something.

Emily Cave (15:22):

That's so cute.

Sawyer Hannay (15:23):

Yeah, he teases me about that. But yeah, I mean that's how it started. Again, just wanted to represent where I was from. I was proud of where I was from and I was kind of pulled out of that environment. And I was in Europe, which was like, I haven't been back since, so I don't know what it's like now, but back then, this is before Instagram, this is before FaceTime. I would Skype my parents. It was just a different time. And I was a kid with a missing front tooth, long hair hockey player that you could identify in North America as a hockey player. But over there they just thought I was broke without a dental plan. They didn't get it so focused on soccer. So it was just a weird cultural shock for this small town kid to just find himself in the middle of Europe by himself at 19, just trying to figure it out.

(16:11):

So all of that kind of inspired, and it didn't have to be clothing because my passion wasn't really fashion. I just wanted to represent where I was from, and then I took the easiest, what I felt the easiest way out was like, oh, I'll just wear it. I'll just wear my pride. And like I said, I was putting myself through school. Of course I had a scholarship, but I overloaded and did summer courses and didn't have a summer job. I felt really old in university when I started at 21. So I just got through it really quickly and wasn't making much money. So I had a few extra a hundred bucks and that was it. And I was just like, okay, I don't mind if I lose it, it's fine. Hopefully I get it back was my original ambition. And then it just kind of took off around campus, my hockey team, my hockey connections around Atlantic Canada, and then everybody in my hometown really supported it and really gravitated towards it and just kind of grew from there after the 12. It's funny, just last weekend I was at a charity softball tournament and a girl I went to high school with was like, Sawyer, we hear you share all these business conversations about the early days. And she's like, we want to hear the real truth. And I'm like, what do you mean? She's like, tell them about the party. So I used to host this great big field party band. Oh yeah. Crazy. Such a makeshift event too. We build

Emily Cave (17:36):

This, this is so maritime. My mom's from the Maritimes, and this just reminds me so much of her.

Sawyer Hannay (17:43):

Yeah, yeah. I mean it was in a farmer's field. We'd build the stage the day before we'd be having beers, building it. So was it safe? We don't know. We built a dance floor, had big bonfires, like pallet fires, 20 feet high. So we used to do those once a summer in June to kind of kick off the summer. And it started before I went to Europe, because I was going to Europe, I was like, I want to have a huge banger of a party before I go. But one of those years, we hosted that for four years, but one of those years I just started Country Liberty and I printed 50 tank tops and I showed up at the party with these 50 tank tops and people started buying them for $20 a piece. They were excited. They weren't really sure what I was doing. I wasn't sure what I was really doing. It wasn't a business at that time, but I just wanted to, I don't know, have people wearing these shirts. And we sold them all. And then from there, that 62 now in market. And that's what compounded and kind of took off. And that party was a really big start to it. We had 50 all at once, just out and about

(18:50):

And people started conversation and stuff around it at that time.

Emily Cave (18:57):

I remember those tank tops. I know exactly what those tanks are you talking about the ones that is kind of looks like a guitar pick a little bit. Yep. I remember. Those are the ones. Yeah, I remember those. That's amazing. So once you finished school, you kind of took on this country liberty, and obviously now it is doing so well. Tell us a little bit now about how many products you have. I know you guys were on Dragon Den, so a little bit about that experience and where you are today now.

Sawyer Hannay (19:37):

Sure. Yeah. So I was at school, I accelerated my degree for a few reasons. I thought I was going to play pro again. So as you know, the younger you are, the better opportunity you have. So I wanted to speed through that and I did. But then by the time I finished Country Liberty had enough traction that I had to decide do I want to pursue hockey or do I want to pursue business? And honestly, just the longevity of business versus hockey, I felt like that was kind of the safer bet. One of my teammates in the East Coast League got his wrist stepped on and he was early thirties and he can't play hockey, can't work. He was uneducated, he had a wife and kids, he was stressed about how he's going to support his family. And just watching that as a 20-year-old, I was like, I don't want to be in that position.

(20:26):

So a lot of those thoughts went into my head and I said, I'm going to give this business thing a chance. And then I played in that semi-pro fighting league in Quebec, which is just a complete zoo for money. I was a supply teacher during the week, so I supply teach during the week, travel to Quebec every weekend and play hockey for cash. And then, I dunno if I should say this, but I would bring back cheap Quebec beer and sell it to my buddies and stuff too. So I was just scrappy any way to make money to get by because Country Liberty wasn't a real business yet, but I was working evenings, a weekends on Country Liberty, and it just kind of grew from there. One store led to another and our website picked up slightly very slow and steady, but our stores were growing quicker, so we started gaining stores.

(21:23):

And then I eventually got into Studio, which is a big retail chain out east here. So that was our first big break, and that was when I was able to step away from these other jobs. I was working and just work full-time on Country Liberty. It could support my lifestyle. And I remember where I live now, I have starlink internet here, but if it wasn't before starlink, there was no internet here. There's no high speed, there's no dial up, there's nothing. So I used to go into town and go to the little local diner and work, get a coffee and a cinnamon roll and work for six hours. And as you know, in university culture, that's normal. You go to a cafe and you do your work well in a small town like this, there's no schools or anything. They're just like, why are you loitering for hours and hours? But the owners were great,

Emily Cave (22:16):

Go home, you weirdo.

Sawyer Hannay (22:18):

Literally I felt like a weirdo and people will bring it up. They'll be like, I remember when you worked at Seaside. And I would be like, yeah, I had no source of internet literally, and I couldn't afford an office. So I worked,

Emily Cave (22:30):

Thank God for Seaside,

Sawyer Hannay (22:31):

Thank God for Seaside. Honestly, Denise, shout out the owner, she put up on me for a long time. She did not make money off my tables because she'd generate $10 in sales for six hours of a table. Being taken up was not good. ROI, but she's a good sport. I got a little office with no bathroom, just a little room for a couple months. And then I eventually moved into still not a real office, my old school, they ended up selling classrooms. They rented classrooms to whoever needed them for whatever. And I ended up renting a classroom and multiple classrooms and worked out of a school for a long time. But that was the early days. And then just two years ago, we built a brand new warehouse and distribution center in my hometown here in the industrial park, A nice big, beautiful barn, arminian style, something I'm really proud of. I designed it and was the general contractor on the project. So now we operate out of that. And we also have partners now in Nashville too that we fulfill and distribute with. So a long ways from inventory in the spare bedroom and working at Seaside, but humble beginnings for sure.

Emily Cave (23:40):

For sure. And then when did you go on Dragon Den? What was that experience like?

Sawyer Hannay (23:45):

Yeah, dragons then that was late 2020, so that was in the thick of COVID. I applied for it the year before I think, or two years before. And I got rejected. And then I found out that when I got on it the second time, they said that the clothing industry is one of the hardest industries to get on with because there's just a lot of them and a lot apply

(24:12):

To

(24:12):

Go on. So first time, whatever, I guess my business wasn't interesting enough. And then the second time it was, so I did a pitch in, they travel around the country and they do pitches in every province. So I went to my provincial pitch, didn't prepare, didn't really, because the first time I was rejected, so my ego was a little bruised and I was like, ah, fuck, whatever. I'll go do it, but I'm not going to get upset about it. And I went and winged it, which was probably the best thing for me. It was really candid, did really well in that pitch. They moved me on to interviews and stuff via Zoom. I did those must have passed those tests. And then they eventually invited me to Toronto to film. But the interesting thing about COVID was there was so much up in the air, you probably remember you couldn't leave the province, you didn't know what the rules were.

(25:02):

Every two weeks the rules were changing. Do you test? Do you not test, do you quarantine? So I ended up driving to Toronto. Wow. I had to quarantine a week in Toronto and two weeks when I returned, and then I was there for a week. So it was a whole month commitment to get down there. Wasn't allowed models, wasn't allowed any physical contact with anybody. I was 25 feet away from anybody at all times. But I went on the show, I was really prepared for that one. I didn't want to embarrass myself on TV V and just had a good day. I was the first pitch in the morning. I was there at 6:00 AM My pitch was at eight or 9:00 AM really prepared, really feeling good. Numbers were good. Business was in a good place. So I felt confident pitched, got a handful of offers, and then one of them actually turned into a deal with Lane Maryfield later. But what's interesting about that show is you agree to a handshake deal on tv, but the real deal doesn't happen until months later. So we filmed August 30th, I think it aired November 12th, and I didn't actually sign a deal until February.

Emily Cave (26:19):

Wow.

Sawyer Hannay (26:21):

So the show was promoted like, oh, Sawyer got a deal. Country Liberty got a deal, and there was no actual deal contracted. It was just a handshake basis. They do a complete investigation of your business, look all through your books, look through everything, and then negotiate the real deal, which is off screen. But from the TV show's perspective, they just wanted to the entertainment of Oh, the deal

Emily Cave (26:46):

Reality tv. Yeah,

Sawyer Hannay (26:48):

I mean it's fake. So much of it was fake. My pitch was like seven minutes on tvd, but I was in there for an hour. So they edited it, they made it

(26:58):

Look.

(26:59):

Yeah, it made it look dramatic and suspenseful and stressful. And I didn't, they were so far zoomed in on my face and with the lights, my eyes looked like they were light green. It was just like everything was different than what it is, what it really was in

Emily Cave (27:15):

Reality. But media reality is insane.

Sawyer Hannay (27:20):

Yeah, it is. I mean, you probably get reality TV invites and stuff like that do you with your socials?

Emily Cave (27:28):

Yeah, so I actually, well, I have a few friends that were on the Bachelor, and then I actually had The Bachelor reached out, and it was actually right before I met Colin reached out and wanted me to come on the show, which I remember picking up, this is actually the best part is I pick up the phone and I don't know who it is, they say who they are from New York or whatever, and they're like, I think they were trying to do maybe, I think this is maybe correct, I could be so, so wrong. But they were trying to do, from what I understand, a widow widower situation. I think they were reaching out to a few of us, us or just grasping stories a little bit. And for me, I was like, I'm not competing over husband's desks. That's not going to go well. But I do remember my shock on the phone when they called and they're like, yeah, if you want to move forward, you have to do, they do a background check, physical test, and then a psych kind of whatever. And I literally remember blurting out to this poor director, and I was like, I'm not going to pass that I have PTSD.

(28:48):

She was like, okay. I think they meant more addiction or anything, but I just blurted out that I wouldn't pass this psych exam on to go in the path.

Sawyer Hannay (28:56):

So they think you're an addict

Emily Cave (28:58):

Recently. But I was just like, Ugh, Emily, you just blurred at the most randomist things. But I do know, yeah, I know how the Bachelor in reality TV and all that kind of works just from a few friends. So it's definitely not what people think that they see on tv, but even hockey is like that. I feel like people get so invested in the team and all that, but you remember when they're off tv, they're normal human beings as well.

Sawyer Hannay (29:23):

Yes,

Emily Cave (29:24):

Exactly. Yeah, no, I definitely know all about that type of stuff. Or even socials. Everyone thinks that about socials, but

Sawyer Hannay (29:36):

Yeah, exactly.

Emily Cave (29:36):

Country Liberty now, how many products do you have? New arrivals? How can people support?

Sawyer Hannay (29:44):

Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't even know how many products we have. Honestly, so many. We're literally dropping 10 hats today, so it's new all the time, new stuff all the time. That's kind the name of our game.

(29:57):

We're always innovating because new, you can have a good run with a product for six to 12 months, and then it's dead in the water after that. So it's always coming out with new stuff and new and exciting stuff. We're in 150 stores now across Canada. So in Canada we're in all the studio stores we're in, we just launched last week in Boathouse, so we're not in all of their 90 stores yet. Yeah, we're in about just under half. And I assume we're going to be moved into most of their stores here in the next couple months. We are in Lids as well across the country, and then a ton of great independent retailers as well. Online country, ca, we're in two stores in Nashville, whites, mercantile and Dasher, and obviously online you can find us there. And we're going to be in a whole lot more stores here in the next 12 months in the US as well. That's kind of my objective. In addition to managing the team, I'm really laser focused on the US market, specifically the southeast. So going to try to crack into that market. It's the big leagues down there though, a lot more competition, a lot more challenging, but not the, we're not up for and nothing I'm not confident that we'll have success in. But yeah, right now it's across Canada and stores, two stores in Tennessee and online. And soon to be more, I assume we'll get into probably 200 stores by Christmas in Canada, and then the US is kind of more of a question mark, but

(31:35):

By next summer I'm sure we'll be in a few dozen.

Emily Cave (31:37):

Do you design them all yourself?

Sawyer Hannay (31:38):

No, that's why it's nice. So originally I was heavily influenced on the design. I was doing everything.

Emily Cave (31:46):

I'm like, did you design the hat you're wearing right now? It's pretty cool. So do I give you credit or do I give someone else credit?

Sawyer Hannay (31:51):

Thank you. No, this was a team effort. So when it comes to hats, because I love hats, I'm more involved with that, but we have a team and we kind of judge it on the consensus of the team of what we do and how we do it. The hats, I have a lot of input, so I did have a lot of input in this one, but for garments and stuff like that, I rely more on the other team members, but we're all part of the conversation, so it's hard to say one person designed something usually group effort.

Emily Cave (32:20):

Amazing, amazing.

Sawyer Hannay (32:22):

Yeah,

Emily Cave (32:22):

That's awesome. And then one more thing for you, go, I know you're super busy, but I also know that you are big into construction. Tell us a little bit about that, and if you're on the maritime East coast and want to rent

Sawyer Hannay (32:36):

Houses

Emily Cave (32:37):

That you've built

Sawyer Hannay (32:39):

Outside of Country Liberty, a business partner and I built a little tiny home resort. We have six tiny homes in one, two bedroom. It's all brand new. It's on 35 acres, it's outdoorsy. It kind of looks like where I'm at right now, 10 minutes off of Ski Hill, it's called kaa. And our website is just kina house, so you can check us out there. We're on Instagram as well and all the things. But yeah, tiny home, just nature escape basically. The idea was I started a log cabin resort and built it and sold it since, but it was called Liberty Village, which was basically trying to offer the country liberty experience to people from maybe the city or outsiders and just you can come spend a couple nights with us and experience that lifestyle that I'm so proud to have grown up in and still live within.

(33:31):

So then Kaino was basically just a new and improved version of that. So same thing, it's just a great place to go out and kind of hang out and be out in nature and maybe jump on the ski hill or maybe travel down to the ocean, go to the beach. There's lots of hiking, there's lots of things to do that are all outdoor based in that area. So that's kind of why we chose that spot. But yeah, that resort, we're looking to expand it now to, we just finished our first year of business with Kina, so we're just kind of getting our feet wet and figuring things out. But I think that we're going to, over the next year or two, probably expand more units. We're talking about maybe an event center, maybe a wedding venue. We're just kind of excited about the opportunities that are there now that you've got a year behind us

Emily Cave (34:18):

For sure. Well, you've done amazing from small town country boy to hockey player to now running an incredible clothing line, and now this as well. So good job. You've come far from the You are more mug days.

Sawyer Hannay (34:34):

Oh, the You are more mug. I know. I would do another promo for you, but I can't do the mug thing, man, I cringe just thinking about that. Oh my God,

Emily Cave (34:44):

I appreciated that. I mean, I was on the website for years, so,

Sawyer Hannay (34:47):

Oh God. Don't tell me that. We could scrape the internet.

Emily Cave (34:51):

Don't worry. It's gone.

Sawyer Hannay (34:53):

Good, good,

Emily Cave (34:53):

Good. Well thank you so much for coming on and yeah, hopefully a lot of people will be able to check out Country Liberty because it is awesome and I love everything that it stands for. It makes me miss home that much more.

Sawyer Hannay (35:05):

Oh, awesome. Well, thank you very much, Emily. It was great. It was great chat with you. Thanks for having me on.

Emily Cave (35:09):

Yeah, no problem. Bye.

Emily Page (35:26):

Thanks for listening to you or more, Emily. Would love to hear from you. Reach out via the text link in the show notes and let her know what resonated. If you enjoyed this episode, share it with a friend. Don't forget to follow the podcast and leave a rating to help others find the show. Thanks for listening.