Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
In 2019, Kevin Kelly woke up to an email from the White House. Despite his initial skepticism, it was real. The Trump administration had invited Kelly and his bottle opener company, Snake Bite Co., to represent Missouri at the Made in America convention in Washington, D.C. As he prepared for the event in just six weeks, Kelly thought back to a piece of art he had created in 2017: a gold-dipped crucifix with a headless Jesus, called “The Evangelical Vote.” He stuck the work to the cover of a Bible and later handed it to then-President Donald Trump.
“Tongue firmly in cheek,” says Kelly.
Snake Bite Co. earned a spot in the president’s formal remarks on the White House lawn that day, and as cameras shot to an American flag suit–clad Kelly, national interest in the St. Louis entrepreneur and maker.
Kelly, whose career has zigzagged from graphic designer to photojournalist to agency owner to tech-startup co-founder, created the company in 2014 with a friend, whom he bought out in 2017. Among other influences, he credits the city for his drive. “I always call St. Louis the eternal underdog,” he says. “There’s something about being in St. Louis that inspires you. There’s this inherent and unspoken humility that you can’t find in other places, and a uniquely American authenticity.”
Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
So how does a business owner build off of presidential praise? He was booked first for one minute on a Fox & Friends segment and another for three minutes later on, but he needed his next move. It came when he received a call from the owners of Cherokee and Texas (2623 Cherokee), where he produced his bottle openers, asking whether he was interested in buying the place. Once an agreement was in place, Kelly named his new business Well Made Workshop.
The COVID-19 pandemic served as inspiration for his first product: face masks. “I realized it wasn’t necessarily a capitalistic endeavor as much as it was just a necessity,” Kelly says. The shop was capable of designing and producing masks at an accelerated rate. After just two days in business, Kelly purchased $600 worth of textiles from fabric retailer JOANN and discovered new use for 5,000 yards of leftover Taiwanese elastic that he unearthed in the shop.
The first batch of masks with the simple box pleat design went to North Side Community School. Soon, Kelly and his team were creating 300–400 (made of organic cotton and a poly-cotton blend) each day. A ninja-style design would later end up in the hands of actor Jason Momoa, who (thanks to a connection through Climb So iLL’s Daniel Chancellor) is seen modeling a mask inspired by his arm tattoo on Well Made’s Instagram.
Despite fabric and elastic shortages, Well Made created nearly 10,000 masks in the first two months and nearly 4,000 as part of the collaboration with Momoa and Climb So iLL. Even Cinematographic equipment maker RED Digital Cinema became a client. But Well Made, with appliances like its eight Kwikprint Model 86 “Big Bench” stamping machines, can create so much more.
Now Kelly wants to focus on product design and unique one-off projects. The team recently helped create custom typography for Hi-Pointe Drive-In’s Good Burger car.
There’s time for fun, too. Exhibit A: the nearly 8-foot-tall cut-out of that famous Bernie Sanders–in-mittens meme on Kelly’s Instagram.
“I want the products that we make to be strangely excellent and from a place you wouldn’t expect,” he says. Leading a shop’s second life during a pandemic “needed to be answered through a creative approach, flipping something on its head,” he notes. “I think that’s how St. Louis needs to think as well.”
