Bulger had been running a modeling agency called Creative Options Associates (COA) with his photographer partner Chris Nelson.

The first formal company office was in a iconic converted SFFD firehouse at the corner of 16th and Albion Streets in San Francisco, where the gang showers, commercial kitchen, hose tower, and rooftop were often used in photo shoots.

In 1994, Brush Creek Media (Bulger's company, named for the town of Brush Creek in Butte County, California where he maintained a summer cabin) moved its office and Bear Store to 367 9th Street in the South of Market district, which is the center of San Francisco's gay leather district and around the corner from Rick Redewill's Lone Star Saloon.

In 1994, Beardog Hoffman purchased Brush Creek Media Inc. and began expanding the company into several special-interest gay magazines and video series.

Under the new direction of publisher and editor-in-chief Steven Wolfe and photographer Teddy Mark, the format was updated in 2010 to better reflect bear movement and LGBT community, covering broader aspects of masculinity.