The Shesquatch: How Naked River Brewing's Lady Bigfoot Tap Handle Got Made
Updated October 2026 by Brad Lugar
Quick answer: The Shesquatch is a sculpted resin tap handle Steel City Tap Co. designed and built in 2020 for Naked River Brewing Company in Chattanooga, Tennessee: a lady bigfoot in a swimsuit, holding a green canoe with the brewery's name along the bottom and a six pack in the other hand, with NAKED RIVER around the base. It replaced a wooden canoe paddle handle we had made for the brewery two years earlier. The first run was serialized, half in blue swimsuits and half in red, and the handles outlasted the taproom. Naked River closed in July 2025. The handle is still out there.
Who was Naked River Brewing?
Naked River Brewing Company opened in November 2018 in an old trolley car factory on Reggie White Boulevard, south of downtown Chattanooga, with a brewhouse, a Texas style barbecue kitchen and a dozen or more taps. The name was the pitch. Naked meant transparent: nothing hidden about what was in the glass. Their hashtag was #keepitnaked, and they leaned into it.
The brewery closed on July 20, 2025 after a farewell party the night before. We built two handles for them over those years, and the second one is the reason people still search for the brewery's name.
What was the first Naked River handle?
In 2018 we made Naked River a wooden canoe paddle. Half the run was stained green and half blue, with the logo on the blade. It was a good first handle: simple, on brand for a river town, and cheap enough for a brewery that had just opened its doors. It was also the same shape as a lot of other wooden handles on a lot of other walls.
By 2020 Naked River wanted to turn the marketing up. Chattanooga had grown into a real beer town and the tap wall at any given bar was crowded. A paddle does not win that fight. A seven inch sasquatch in a swimsuit does.
Why a female bigfoot in a swimsuit?
Everybody has a picture of a sasquatch in their head, and it is always the same shaggy guy walking across a blurry field. Naked River did not want the average sasquatch. They wanted the one nobody had seen, so the brief became a lady bigfoot, the Sassqueen, in a swimsuit, because a brewery whose hashtag is keep it naked should not put a parka on its mascot.
The back and forth was fun and short. Our team floated a few ideas further down the risque end of the scale. The brewery kept us honest. We landed on a swimsuit, a canoe with the name along the hull, and a six pack, which covers the three things Naked River sold: the river, the beer, and the joke.
What made the first run collectible?
The first edition was serialized. Half the handles got a blue swimsuit, half got red, and each one carried a number. That was the brewery's idea and it was a smart one. A numbered handle is a thing a bar owner keeps when the keg runs out instead of tossing it in the drawer, and a thing a collector will trade for.
It worked. The brewery stopped pouring in 2025 and the handles did not go in a dumpster. They went home with people. A tap handle that outlives its brewery is a strange kind of success, but it is a success, and it says something about what a sculpted character does that a printed handle never will.
What goes into hand painting a handle like this?
Every Shesquatch was cast in resin and painted by hand through our shop in Birmingham, Alabama. Hair is the hard part. Flowing hair on a seven inch figure is a hundred small brush strokes, and it has to look like hair from the far end of the bar, not like a brown blob. The face took the most time per unit, and the face is the reason the handle stops people.
From ten feet away you see a bigfoot. From three feet you see she has a face, a swimsuit, toes and a canoe with a name on it. That second look is what a bartender gets asked about, and that question is what the handle was built for. We walk through the sculpt and paint process in How a Sculpted Tap Handle Gets Made.
What should a brewery take from the Shesquatch?
Two things. First, a character handle has to be a character. The joke, the pose and the props are what make it memorable, and they came from the brewery knowing exactly who they were. Second, the handle is marketing that lasts. Naked River's draft accounts are gone, but the handle is still out there and still turning up in search. For the other side of that argument, read Dr. Robot and Do Custom Tap Handles Sell More Beer?
What does it take to order one?
Fully custom sculpted handles like the Shesquatch 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 a logo, can art, 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 Shesquatch tap handle?
The Shesquatch is a sculpted resin tap handle Steel City Tap Co. built in 2020 for Naked River Brewing Company of Chattanooga, Tennessee. It is a lady bigfoot in a swimsuit holding a canoe and a six pack, hand painted, with the brewery name around the base.
Is Naked River Brewing still open?
No. Naked River Brewing closed on July 20, 2025. The Shesquatch handles from the serialized first run are still out there.
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.