704 Shop Mailbag: 2018
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We recently asked our newsletter subscribers to give us feedback on how we could improve and/or questions they might have. Here are some of the responses:
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V neck T-shirt’s !!! I love love love your T-shirt’s but sometimes
would like to have a slightly feminine edge to my T-shirt collection. We've sprinkled out some v-necks over the past year and the honest truth is that they just do "ok." It's a constant request for more v-necks, however the requests don't match up with the sales. V-necks are a type of shirt that people really love or hate, so some people will never ever wear a v-neck and the majority of people will wear a crew neck. We'll continue to explore adding more v-necks here and there this year, we just need the purchase rate to grow more :)
- I saw you had a section in your email just about ideas and things to grow the company, well what if you had a fan shirt creation? Where you allow a member of the community to pitch you ideas for shirts and if you like them, you turn them into a special edition shirt? I say this because I have a design for a shirt that I think the community (and the Carolina panthers) will absolutely LOVEEEEE!! The problem is I don't have the skills or knowledge to make the shirt. I'm not looking for money or royalties or anything, I just want to pitch the design to your company, in hopes you like it and want to make a limited edition, and sell my idea on your super high quality, highly comfortable shirts. Please let me know your thoughts ???? We're always open to new ideas and will always listen. Shoot us an email :)
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Congrats on the good year and wishing you the best for 2019! Love your stuff and looking forward for what's to come. I don't have any specific suggestions as to what you could improve but I have 2 things I'd love to see. They probably aren't that practical, but I figure it doesn't hurt to toss them out there in case others have said the same thing and you were just waiting on a few more people to want them as well.1) I would love it if you guys did a polo/golf style shirt. I don't have to wear full button up shirts to work but they do ask us to wear collared shirts, so something like this would be sweet. - You aren't the first to ask for this. Technically, we could source polo shirts and put our logo on it but there's nothing special about that. We're researching and working on our own designs. It will take some time but perhaps you'll see these make it to life in 2019.2) (This one probably has even less demand) I would love a shirt repping Mountain Island Lake. It's probably a pipe dream since there aren't that many of us out here compared to other neighborhoods of Charlotte but like I said, I'm just throwing it out there. - I'm actually glad you asked this because I'm not sure we've ever addressed our stance on neighborhood specific shirts before. Our mission is to bring the community together and neighborhood shirts go against that model by dividing our community into smaller sections. Not to mention, we're niching down a niche that is already small in grand scheme of business logistics. There are probably only 3 or 4 neighborhoods that could actually carry enough sales on a singular shirt or hat but then most of those neighborhoods are actually niched down within themselves. For example, Wilmore and Sedgefield could technically be considered neighborhoods themselves but are in Southend. There are too many negatives and opportunities for people to feel left out if we were to do it.
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Been loving everything y’all do, especially the hornets and panthers gear. Have you ever thought about doing some local college branded apparel (like 49ers) but for NCSU, UNC or Duke? Imagine there would be demand but I get that there is a large outlay of dollars for any new designs. We've considered it in the past, however our approach to this is similar to the question above. We could certainly do the bigger schools you mentioned, but then would be leaving out ECU, WCU, UNC-A, UNC-G, Wake Forest, and so on and so on. Not to mention the tons of people in Charlotte that went to schools in South Carolina. Ultimately, if there's an opportunity that we see that makes sense we are open to it, but we aren't looking to break our model for a quick dollar.
- Just wanted to reach out and let you guys know that you are doing an amazing job! Not only do I absolutely love your products, bu I am truly thankful to have had the opportunity to meet each of you and see you guys continue to grow. If there is anything at all that I can do to help out, feel free to reach out. Thanks for continuing to produce high quality products and for showing off what all our beautiful city has to offer. Can't wait to see what all 2019 has in store! Thank you! It means a ton to have the opportunity to have this type of impact on the community. We certainly couldn't do it with you!
- Suggestions: Pop ups in South Charlotte (Ballantyne) - We are no longer doing small scale pop ups. We made the hard decision to only do 2 or 3 major pop ups per year because it splinters our inventory and we cannot deliver the same experience at a small scale pop up as we can in our flagship store. We have the store if you really want the in-store experience or you can always order online if the store is inconvenient to you.
- Network and collab with High Schools - This is already in the works :)
- Do A Pittsburgh Steelers Theme - Not a Chance. We are die-hard Panthers fans and our mission is to represent our home town to the fullest. You'd never see a Pittsburgh company do a Panthers themed item - think of it the same way for us. Black and Blue forever.
- Keep More Stock! I have walked in your store multiple times (around 5) and not been able to find the size I wanted in the product I was looking for. I am a 2XL and you there are more "healthy" North Carolinians' than fit ones. Get a few extra of the larger sizes. - We're always adjusting our stock to try and match demand, however this is an ever changing process and there is no magic formula that works every time. It may be helpful to know that we release new items on Friday's at 8 am online and 11 am in-store. We send out an email Friday mornings to let you know what's new. The best bet is to make sure you purchase a design you like on the release day. We have an aggressive release schedule that doesn't allow for a lot of restocks on a regular basis. We are creators so we always want to create new designs instead of restocking the same things over and over.
- Wonder if a special collection ever crossed your mind. By that I mean, one of connective threads, I noticed, for your brand is communal representation. I wonder, though, how your branding can be reflected more universally. Will the "803" get a shout-out? What about a classic line of gear, for instance, "212" emblazoned on a leather/varsity bomber? Just curious to see how the brand can style other local aesthetics into your offerings even for the native CLTers, or transplants, with whom your design offerings resonate. - We're focused on hometown pride in the 704. While we never say never, the 803 and the 212 will not get a product from 704 Shop. 212 specifically, (New York for those that don't know) certainly doesn't need more attention. We're trying to bring attention to Charlotte and our home town. The 803 is definitely our homies to the south, but we aren't experts on that area and we're sure someone who grew up there could capture the culture of that area better than we could. If we do things universally, we will not niche down to specific areas. It will be more broad in content and thought.
- It's hard for me to get down to the store due to work so I try to shop online. Adding a filter to shop by size would make it easier to find things and save time. - Totally, get it. We're working on a solution for this but finding out it's a lot harder to implement than we thought it would be. We'll continue to work on this. Excellent idea.
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I could look on your website. But, do you have a Charlotte or 704 Pride shirt and or hoody? I am always looking for gifts for my brother. He is a conservative style gay - if that makes any sense at all. Another thing he would probably like is a nice padfolio with something about Charlotte or 704 on it.Just a few ideas/ questions. Thank you and best of luck for your business in 2019. We actually partnered with Charlotte Pride this past year and hope to do so again this year, however we are currently sold out of our Charlotte Pride gear at the moment. New items be back around July of this year.