Local Legend Tap Handle: How Schilling Cider's Boombox Bigfoot Got Sculpted
Updated October 2026 by Brad Lugar
Quick answer: The Local Legend tap handle is a sculpted resin handle Steel City Tap Co. designed and built in 2021 for Schilling Hard Cider of Seattle, for their semi-sweet Local Legend cider. It is Schilling's sasquatch, in sunglasses with a boombox on his shoulder, standing in a stand of evergreens under a topper that carries the Seattle skyline and Mount Rainier, with a wooden Local Legend sign at the base. It was sculpted, cast and hand painted through our shop in Birmingham, Alabama, and it is still one of the handles people point at when they ask what a cider handle can look like.
Who is Schilling Hard Cider?
Schilling was founded in Seattle in 2012 by Colin Schilling and Mark Kornei and grew into one of the largest cider makers in the country, with production in Auburn, Washington and cider houses in Seattle's Fremont neighborhood and in Portland. The brand is built on characters. A flamingo fronts Grapefruit and Chill. A koala in board shorts is on Big Zesty. A giraffe in a helmet flies Excelsior Imperial Apple. And a sasquatch with a boombox is the face of Local Legend, a 5.2% semi-sweet cider made with Pacific Northwest apples and heirloom bittersharps.
Schilling is still collecting hardware. In 2026 they brought home three World Beer Cup medals. When a brand that invested in its characters orders a tap handle, the handle has to live up to the can.
What was the brief for the Local Legend handle?
Discover the Local Legend. That was the campaign line, and the handle had to carry three things from the can: the sasquatch himself, the Pacific Northwest he comes from, and the attitude. This is not a bigfoot hiding in the woods. He wears shades and carries a boombox. He has been sighted, and he does not mind.
The Pacific Northwest part became the topper. The Seattle skyline runs across the front with Mount Rainier behind it, which places the cider without a single word of copy. The attitude is in the pose: one hand up holding the boombox, the other down, chest out, walking toward you.
How was the handle made?
The character was sculpted in three dimensions first, checked from every side, then molded and cast in resin. The photo above is what a run looks like before the paint goes on: a rack of identical sasquatches waiting for hair, shades, a skyline and a sign. Every one of those details is brushwork.
Color is what ties the handle to the brand. The blues and greens on the topper and the base match the Local Legend can, so the handle and the can on the back bar read as one thing. That matching is the part most breweries underestimate. A great sculpt in the wrong blue looks like somebody else's cider. We walk through the sculpt process in How a Sculpted Tap Handle Gets Made.
What did the release look like?
When the first run shipped we put out a short release video with our hype man MJ doing the honors. It is still the best thirty seconds of a bigfoot you will see today.
Why does a cider handle need a character at all?
Because cider shares the wall with beer, and the beer handles are louder. A cider brand that wants the glance on a crowded tap wall needs a shape and not only a logo, and Schilling already had the shapes. Putting the sasquatch on the handle was the cheapest way to make a hundred bars carry the campaign for them.
The other reason is the bartender. "The bigfoot" is easier to ask for than a cider name. That one word is worth more than any logo placement on a flat handle. For more on that, read 7 Ways to Design a Beer Tap Handle and Do Custom Tap Handles Sell More Beer?
What does it take to order one?
Fully custom sculpted handles like Local Legend start at 100 units, with price breaks at 100, 250, 500, and 1,000+. We do not charge new customers a design fee to draw their handle. Every order runs through our shop in Birmingham, Alabama.
Send can art, a logo, or a phone snapshot of a sketch on the custom tap handle quote page, or look through finished work in our resin tap handles and custom tap handles.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Local Legend tap handle?
Local Legend is a sculpted resin tap handle Steel City Tap Co. built in 2021 for Schilling Hard Cider of Seattle. It shows Schilling's sasquatch in sunglasses with a boombox, under a topper with the Seattle skyline and Mount Rainier, for their 5.2% semi-sweet Local Legend cider.
Can a cider company order a sculpted tap handle?
Yes. Cider, seltzer, coffee, kombucha and cocktails on draft all use the same faucets as beer, and we build character handles for all of them.
What is the minimum order for a custom sculpted tap handle?
Fully custom tap handles start at 100 units, with price breaks at 100, 250, 500, and 1,000+. Stock handle shapes printed with your logo start at 12 units, and a blank stock handle can be ordered one at a time.
Do you charge for tap handle concept drawings?
We do not charge new customers a design fee to design their handle. Send a logo, can art, or even a phone snapshot, and we come back with concepts to react to.
Will a custom handle fit our existing faucets?
Yes. Our handles use a 3/8-16 thread, the standard on US beer faucets, so they install without adapters or special hardware.