Here at Bird Dog Bay, we get a lot of comments on our brands name, as well as the naming of our products… The usual questions are Where is Bird Dog Bay? or What is “Dog Park Dos” or Who is Gus the dog?…  Even more common than those questions is the always entertaining, Who the hell comes up with all these names?!?

Steve enjoys brainstorming new ideas, especially when it comes to naming. Every mailer we send, every tie we design, is carefully, yet in the same manner casually named. A lot of times Steve will ask our opinions, and sometimes to give him ideas for design names… Yet at the end of the day Steve Mayer is a master tie namer!

The name of our brand, Bird Dog Bay, is a perfect example of Steve’s ability to conjure up humble and spot on names. Steve rescued Gus, our friendly mascot and lousy “Bird Dog” from a kill center in Illinois…Every morning Steve would leave his home for work, and Gus, would stare our sadly from Steve’s “Bay” window of his home on the west side of Chicago. Eventually Steve began designing our line of neckwear in that very home. Bird Dog Bay, really has come to represent home, wherever that may be… From the inlets of New England, to the warm Gulf waters of South Florida, to the Pacific Bays of California…

What we sell is a very unique product. Our neckties are seen as gifts, collectibles, and to some a simple addition to their everyday attire. We have Texas Longhorn ties, sock monkey Christmas Ties, Fly Fishing ties, Cowboy Ties, Dodo bird ties, Golf ties, American Flag ties, and the list goes on and on… Of course our fan favorite Dog and Hunting ties always come back every open season, yet all of the other ties, are carefully scripted colored, and named by Steve.

One example of a name, I enjoy, is “Birdie on Three”… A whimsically hand drawn white bird is hazardously yet playfully picking up a golf ball on the third tee of a golf green colored tie. A birdie also refers to the ever eluscent (at least in my golf game) stroke under par after the completion of  a hole… This tie is just one of the many examples that depict whats in a name here at Bird Dog Bay.