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(Left to right) Scott Wooten, Jerri Shephard, and Chris Moxley founded 704 Shop in 2013. STYLE

704 Shop’s Big Crown

In hard times for retail, apparel store covers faces, losses with hometown masks

BY VIRGINIA BROWN PHOTOGRAPHS BY LOGAN CYRUS

704 SHOP

1616 Camden Rd., Ste. 140 704shop.com THE SOUTH END APPAREL STORE 704 SHOP, which a trio of UNC Charlotte alumni founded as an online venture ve years ago, su ered through a hard April for retailers everywhere. COVID-19 had disrupted the supply chain, shipping took longer, and customers were stressed—which meant that Scott Wooten and partners Chris Moxley and Jerri Shephard were, too.

Since 2017, when 704 Shop moved into its physical space on Camden Road, the team had released a new Charlotte-themed product nearly every week—shoes, socks, shirts. In late March, they had designed and sold T-shirts that raised about $6,000 for COVID-19 relief e orts. But as retail shopping came to a halt, the store

(Top left) Charlotte-themed face masks with the “Queen City” crown logo have been a top seller during the pandemic. (Above) The shop obtained a license to sell apparel with the city-owned logo. (Left) As of early June, Wooten estimated the 704 Shop had sold 6,000 masks.

704 SHOP’S BIG CROWN

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added a new kind of staple to their lineup: Charlotte-themed face masks.

They’ve become an unexpected hit. U.S. Representative Alma Adams of Charlotte wore the black mask with the white “Queen City” crown logo on the oor of Congress in late May. Mayor Vi Lyles wore the same model when she met with demonstrators outside the Government Center in June. The shop obtained a license to sell apparel with the city-owned logo and also sells masks in blue camou age, gray, and green, and with its stylized “704” logo and “CLT” in Old English lettering. They come untouched with two lters for $18.

When Wooten and his team placed their rst order for the masks in April, they ordered 500. They sold out online in 20 minutes. “We vastly undershot the demand,” he says. “We’ve been buried