Like many of the world’s best entrepreneurs, Scott Wooten didn’t set out to found a business. He simply spotted a gap in the market: you couldn't find quality Charlotte merchandise that wasn't tied to major sports teams like the Panthers or Hornets, and that seemed like a missed opportunity. So he reached out to his college roommates, Chris and Jerri, and launched a little side project between his DJ gigs and managing his event business.
“We just wanted to make a hometown pride brand for Charlotte that didn't exist,” recalls Scott.
For two years, “we couldn’t give a shirt away,” recalls Scott. But then, something started to shift. With greater demand came greater opportunity—and greater risk. Scott and his team knew that they needed to keep expanding their product line and scale, while keeping things simple for their small team.
Attracted by MakeMine’s expertise and existing factory network, they partnered with the company to help them reach their new and expanding goals.
Since the partnership began, 704 Shop has:
When you're trying to build a premium local brand, being stuck with standard blank t-shirts and hoodies creates significant limitations.
"Anybody can make T-shirts, hoodies and hats pretty much as long as you have a business license," explains Scott. "But you're not in control of anything other than your purchasing power. The sizing is the sizing, the fabrics are the fabric—-that's what you can do."
Attempting to expand their manufacturing capabilities would have either meant dealing with middlemen or trying to navigate a mass marketplace like Alibaba, navigating complex communication with overseas manufacturers and a lack of transparency in the production process.
These issues weren’t just about backend operations. As a hometown pride brand, there was an upper limit on the size of their market.
“We’re operating in such a small footprint,” says Scott. “We’ve got two million people that live in greater Charlotte or in the surrounding area, give or take. When you're playing in that small little pool. It can be more difficult to scale.”
They had yet to reach that upper limit, and yet they knew that as greater success came, they’d need to be able to quickly develop new product lines to meet the needs of bigger clients, pivot their business model, and take advantage of new opportunities. And that wasn’t going to happen with their local t-shirt print shop.
704 Shop needed manufacturing experts as scrappy as they were to help them get where they needed to go.
They found just that in MakeMine.
From the get-go, MakeMine provided 704 Shop with direct access to vetted manufacturers, custom fabric sourcing, and streamlined communication—all while maintaining competitive pricing through consolidated volume.
“When you work with MakeMine, your pricing gets better because they can leverage the volume that they get from some of their other customers,” says Scott.
Rather than being one of many smaller companies, de-prioritized on a production line, 704 Shop was bundled into MakeMine’s wider operations, ensuring they always had a prime spot in terms of production timelines and pricing.
“Our operations were simplified because we just had to talk to one person,” says Scott.
This new manufacturing capability allowed 704 Shop to target an underserved market: mid-tier colleges and universities that wanted premium custom merchandise. While schools like UNC Charlotte had partnerships with major brands, they weren't getting the same attention as larger institutions.
“Anyone can make a t-shirt that says ‘Charlotte’ on it,” says Scott. “With MakeMine, we can make a track suit that's never been created before, we’re making micro-collections, all with fabrics of higher quality than some of the mass brands.”
"The quality of things that we were able to produce increased significantly."
The partnership with MakeMine transformed 704 Shop's business model and capabilities:
"They just opened up the door for us to be able to make whatever we want," says Scott. "If we really wanted to and could hit the minimums, we could make shoes, lacrosse sticks, all kinds of crazy stuff."
Not that they’re making any of that ‘crazy stuff’ —yet. But if it made sense, or they wanted to test a new product line, they could, while keeping risk low to the business.
This is exactly what they did at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. A big opportunity opened up when the city of Charlotte offered 704 Shop a government contract to produce masks as they scrambled to meet the community’s needs. That’s not a capability the company would have been able to quickly add before MakeMine. With MakeMine, all they had to do was reach out to their account manager, send in their design files, and sit back as the MakeMine team matched them with a factory that could rapidly produce their new product.
“We wouldn’t have had the opportunity to do any of that stuff without them,” says Scott. “Because we had the relationship built like this, the factories overseas already understood. They already wore masks. It wasn't like we had to develop something.”
With their manufacturing infrastructure in place with MakeMine, 704 Shop got to hop on a critical business opportunity and grow.
And that growth just keeps on keeping on. The brand expanded from basic local merchandise to creating premium collections for:
Today, 704 Shop continues to expand their collegiate partnerships and is preparing for major events like the 2025 PGA Championship in Charlotte.
The journey hasn't been without challenges. Scott is candid about the stresses of growing a creative business in today's economy. But through their partnership with MakeMine, 704 Shop has found a way to maintain their creative vision while scaling production capabilities.
With a streamlined manufacturing infrastructure to gird them, where they go next is just a matter of what they dream up.
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