“Hand-crafted” is liberally and often unjustly used these days but perfectly applies to the process of making maovember pins.

Design is done in-house and goes through a rigorous series of revisions. The approved images are then printed and painstakingly cut out by hand. Finally the image is assembled in a intricate process that involves a pin base, a backing layer, a protective plastic cover and a fastener. Word is it takes years to master the craft although Julian Tavalin of Tavalin Bagels and Andy Horowitz of Andy’s Craft Sausages did so in a few hours.

They put those skills to use last night to create the first batch of maovember pins. Changes to this year’s pin include a bolder design, new fonts and a higher mustache motif that make it an attractive substitute in photos for those who lack upper lip hair (see models above).

Pins are now on sale in limited quantities and will be released in larger numbers over the weekend. In the next few days, a list of venues selling pints will be posted on this site and and they will also be available at The Corner Melt maovember party Sunday, which will include Knob Creek shots with PBR chasers for 30 yuan as well as Brass Monkeys, with all proceeds to charity (see details here).

Maovember focuses on quirky events for good causes. Our 2022 partner is Library Project, which has furnished thousands of reading rooms in rural schools. Learn more about Maovember here. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.