Greg Moore, President of Charlie Hustle
I grew up mostly in the Kansas City suburbs and loudly proclaim that pride as I’ve moved around the United States. Charlie Hustle is a staple of the city also boasting about its pride for local sports teams, universities, and organizations on their t-shirts and other products for customers to wear everywhere they go.
I was actually in Kansas City visiting for a wedding, acting as a tour guide for my non-native college friends reuniting for the weekend when I got an email back from the President of Charlie Hustle himself, Greg Moore, saying he’d be glad to help out with my Capitalism for Good project.
As a newly weepy millennial woman immensely identifying as a KCMO local driven by a desire to uplift and highlight businesses that are doing things the right way - I’m honestly tearing up as I write this a few days later remembering how excited I was to see that (no judgement zone, right??).
I mean, they make PAUL RUDD’S FAVORITE T-SHIRT. You know, the same Paul Rudd that invited everyone to party at his mom’s house after the Royals won the World Series? Or as the rest of the world might know him: Paul from Clueless and THE Antman.
I didn’t know it was possible to love this company any more, but I have to say that I sure do. Greg was incredibly kind, patient (especially through tech issues….), and truly humble. It’s no wonder that Charlie Hustle is thriving, growing, and is run by a solid team of employees keeping the ship moving forward. While he might use the phrase “we’re just making t-shirts” to keep his staff from stressing too much, it’s clear that Charlie Hustle is so much more than that. Their commitment to staying true to being a company that makes t-shirts for everyone and to give back to the community however they can is truly admirable.
In this interview, Greg talks about how it’s that community-based focus that drew him to Charlie Hustle. He comes from a family that also truly believes in helping the community and he saw that in practice as they were a part of the start of the Dream Factory of Kansas City, dedicated to “making dreams come true for critically or chronically ill children.”
When asked who he saw out in the community doing things the right way, he gave a shout out to Patagonia & Ruby Jean’s Juicery.
Additional shout outs: Chase McAnulty (founder). The Big Slick (May 30 & 31, 2025), Buck Mason, Children’s Mercy, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Girls on the Run, Kansas City Rose Society, KC Pet Project, Made in KC, Marine Layer, Nelson Atkins Museum, Rally House, Royals Foundation Scheels, United Way, Veterans Community Project, 1K for KC, and, of course, Travis Kelce & Taylor Swift.
Want to feel good about buying a high quality t-shirt that stands for all things good? Buy one from Charlie Hustle (specifically their Communi-TEES).
Early and bonus shows as well as curated discussions and merch are available on Patreon.
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Transcript
Hey folks, thanks so much for coming to the Capitalism for Good Podcast. It's here where we'll focus on exploring how we both make and spend our dollars to benefit the greater good. Folks, today we have Greg Moore, the president of Charlie Hustle. And when I tell you that I was excited about this interview, I don't think that even does it justice.
So, Charlie Hustle is a staple in the Kansas City community. They're at the forefront of showing Kansas City pride, partnering with nonprofits and other for-profit businesses, really trying to be out there promoting the community and promoting good within the community. And they're one of the first companies that I thought of when I was brainstorming, who do I really, who do I want to talk to and to hear more from? And it just kind of happened that we, I think I sent an email to, I don't know what random email I found, maybe just even just the customer service email. And I was in Kansas City visiting for a wedding, touring people around, my friends from college, and already like being the tour guide that I like to do, and kind of pointing out things that I loved about a city that I used to live in for so many years.
And I was sitting at a hotel room with my friend Rachel when I saw that the president of the company responded to that email and was like, sure, I'd love to talk to you. I'd love to help out with this project. And he could not have been more gracious, kind, humble, and interesting.
I am really excited to share this interview with you all. And I'm really excited to share this company with you all. As you will hear about, they have expanded well beyond just the Kansas City community, well beyond the Midwest. So they are available kind of all over the place. So hunt them down, take a look, see what you can do, and see the things that they are partnering with. Because they are something, they're a company to really be proud of.
And I am so proud to be able to share this interview with you all today. Enjoy. Thank you so much for being here.
Do you mind introducing yourself a little bit about Charlie Hustle? And maybe take us through the journey of like how you got to be kind of connected to, connected to, I mean, running Charlie Hustle.
Yeah. Well, thanks for having me. My name is Greg Moore. I'm the president of Charlie Hustle Apparel Company. Been here almost seven years. And yeah, Charlie Hustle, we've been around for 14 years.
Our owner and founder started it 14 years ago, Classic Origin Story. He started it in his parents' basement. And the reason was his mom worked for your gear for sports and really kind of developed the licensing department there. Meaning that she worked with colleges and universities on their logos and marks and whether people had approval to use said logos and marks on apparel. And so Chase at an early age had a front-row seat to this crazy business, and he wanted to start and disrupt that apparel market for colleges. Because two decades ago, people would just throw logos and marks.
There was nothing creative or unique about it. And he loved, absolutely loved 70s, 80s t-shirts, especially those old graphics. And so he set out to start a t-shirt company with that in mind. And it just so happened that KC Heart, he threw in there at the last second, that was the one that took off. Helped by a number of things, whether it was the Paul Rudds of the world or Big Slick or up in the community. But the Casey Hart has definitely been established as our Kansas City's unofficial logo, and Charlie Hustle has been a part of that story. And so that's really the story of Charlie Hustle. Since we've really dove into a lot of things. Community has always been at the forefront.
How we can support Kansas City, how we can support charity. And because of that, it's really allowed our brand to grow even more. To get outside of Kansas City, we really dove into collegial licensing about three years ago and that took Charlie Hustle into areas that we never thought we'd be. So how I became part of all of this craziness was Chase is by far and away a creative. He's a visionary, meaning he has an idea every five seconds. He's slowed down a little bit because now he has three kids.
But, you know, seven years ago, we met because I worked for an e-commerce company up north and he happened to be there and we were both getting coffee. And I said, Hey, I just want to say, I really love what Charlie Hustle is doing. It's a really cool company. He goes, tell me more about yourself. And so I did.
And short of it is, I'm a Kansas City boy. I went to high school and grade school around here. I went to the University of Missouri for broadcast journalism. I worked in publishing and then met my wife, got my MBA from San Diego State. And from there, I got into software development, which then led me to an e-commerce company heading up their development team. And then they were like, you want to help out with marketing? And I said, sure. And so I learned all about SEO and Google Ads. And seven years ago, Chase needed a right-hand person to really kind of organize the chaos.
And as much as he had all these great ideas and he could design, he needed someone to organize the business and know what they were doing on platforms or being the chief of staff. And that's where I came in. And so it's been a really good partnership. I've loved every second of it. And here we are 14 years later as one of the best small companies out there.
Yeah. Truly a staple in the Kansas City community, for sure. Since you brought up the college logo licensing. So that was one of the things that I was looking at. I hadn't realized how much you guys had expanded past. I mean, I knew obviously Kansas City and like Kansas and Missouri sports, but you also have where for like Nebraska, Colorado, Iowa all over.
I know you've got a brick and mortar store in Kansas City. Plus there's e-commerce that kind of gets you into all markets. Are there any plans or thoughts to have brick and mortar stores in any other areas outside of Kansas City?
Yeah, we always thought about it. And we've looked, whether it was the St. Louis or the Omaha or even here in Kansas City. Country Club Plaza is the heart of KC. But when you go south, Kansas City, that's where a lot of people really live. When you go north Kansas City, there's a ton of people up there too. So we've looked, it's really hard to manage brick and mortars.
And we partner with a lot of wholesalers who are really good at it, whether it's the Made in KC's, who are all around the Kansas City surrounding area. And then we have a strong partnership with Rally House, which has 70 plus stores around the country. That's all collegiate material and they buy from us. And then Dick's Sporting Goods, the college bookstores, Scheels is a great partner. And so because of that, the appetite to really get into brick and mortar, even more for us and us controlling it with our team and staff, it's probably just that one store and every once in a while will pop up. And whether it's a downtown store for three months or a Crown Center store for a few months, and we've had success with that.
I imagine also just e-commerce alone, like that part of our society allows you to be able to expand without having to deal with having all of the things that come from managing a brick and mortar store. Is that right? I mean, I'm sure other headaches in general as well, but.
Yes, it does. It makes it easier to go to market and be adaptable. And we can just do, we can pull a lot more levers. For example, if, you know, our product team has an idea and the design is hilarious and funny, but we are sitting there as an ordering team going, I have no idea what to do here. Online, we could do like a pre-sale and not take on that inventory as a small business and see how it does. And then we're not like honed in on, well, we ordered 48 units, but there's only three sizes and small and so we're sold out. Instead, now we let like the customer demand it. And if there's five smalls, great, we can order for that and have it turn around in two, three days. That just doesn't exist in brick and mortar.
And the customer has changed so much where when I started here in 2018, the retail store was by far and away, not only our most, took in the most revenue, they were the most profitable. And that quickly changed. You know, we dove really into the website and then we dove into wholesale. And the fact of the matter is wholesale, yeah, you're allowing upfront money to expand the brand and that's worked very well. And then online, yeah, it's less risk. We're open 24-7, and there's a lot of benefits there. Brick and mortar, though, don't get me wrong. It's like, especially on the plaza, you get people that will stay on the plaza for events that they're in town for, and they see, oh, that's a really cool store Charlie Hustle has. It's popped in. Oh, my gosh. Yes, this is a great way to remember our time here in Kansas City.
Yeah. I can tell you, I mean, I am a great test case for your online store. Before living in Louisville, Kentucky, I lived outside Seattle, Washington, and, you know, just having the tie to Kansas City again. Like I said, I think of Charlie Hustle as kind of a staple of the city. Great birthday presents, great things when I'm feeling homesick and I want a t-shirt, when we're winning the World Series or the Super Bowl, like to be able to like find t-shirts and like get them shipped in time. Amazing. Thank you very much. I will give you my money for that time and time again.
We appreciate you being a fan, so thank you.
Can you talk a little bit about your process? You were talking about like choosing designs and like how does that work? Do you have an entire creative team that's dedicated to that? Are you getting recommendations for suggestions? Like how does that whole process work?
It's crazy and we've changed it I think every six months I've been here. Because it's hard, it's really, really difficult. There's a reason that a lot of apparel out there is just putting a logo on a t-shirt or a hoodie. You know what separates us is the quality of the garment, which we do pay a lot for, but it's worth it. And then those unique designs. And so part of it is being very referential. You know, we might not come out and say this is a Kansas City Royals t-shirt. It might be something like Crown Town or very like playful. And so it allows us to be very unique and different.
But internally, like we've had, we've had as many as six product designers on staff. Now we kind of lean into more the freelance. It allows us more adaptability as well as like, it allows us to differentiate and see, you know, maybe there's a young talented artist out there that they have a knack for this thing, designing for a restaurant, or they have a knack for this, or this person's really good at KC Hart.
But the constant has always been Chase, our founder. He is a creative through and through, and he obviously, this is his baby, this is his company, and he has a really good pulse on what makes a Charlie Hustle design. And it's not as easy to say it or write it down as we can in a lot of other processes.
For him, it's almost like a wizard making their potion that you just kind of doing it by feel. And that's a lot of the kind of secret sauce that we have. He does that. Now, we have people, whether it's me or a product manager or our VP of product operations, that he can trust and he can convey his message. And we know maybe the button's depressed to get the design on the apparel the right way.
Can we, you mentioned the quality, the quality of Charlie Hustle products. And I know we're talking a lot about t-shirts and you have more than t-shirts available. But t-shirts alone, I have always been impressed with the quality of the products. I have just solid colored like navy white t-shirts because they last, they are higher quality than like your $10 target shirt or whatever that is. Do you find that that is a selling point or how does that factor into your calculus?
You know, we surveyed our customers, this was about three years ago. Because a lot of what we did internally was assumption based. It was, oh, people, you know, people just like that were made in the USA, or they like that they're supporting small. And those assumptions actually ended up, they're valid, but they were not in the top 10 of things that are consumers. So when like 30,000 of our fans sent back survey results, it was honestly like, yeah, unique designs, that played a part. But by far and away, it was the quality of the garment.
And so you heard soft, you heard comfortable you heard, I can watch this thing 300 times, and it's still that quality. And so that is so important to us because the, our manufacturer is the same manufacturer as Buck Mason, which is a really cool LA clothing store. And then Marine Layer, which is more of a national brand out of San Francisco. And their t-shirts, Marine Layer, for example, well, they're 45 to $50. And that's the same quality we have with our blank garments. So just before we put a print on it, we actually learned a hard lesson.
This was about, yeah, four years ago. You know, we were in the mode of, how can we cut our cost? You know, we're a small business. You got to find every angle you can. And so when we looked at our cost of goods, by far and away, it was our garment cost. It was insane. And so we worked with another manufacturer, and we did it for just our hoodies and crew necks. And that year, our hoodies and crew necks were manufactured by another company. We saved over six figures. And it was so like game changer for a small business. But just to give you an idea, our returns from online customers are about 3.5%. For an apparel company, you're usually looking at 8 to 10%, if not more. And we're like 3.5% or we were. That year for our fleece, so our crew necks and hoodies, we were more in that 10% range. And so it wasn't worth it.
We really sacrificed quality and it wasn't the same field. We got a lot of comments about that. Our reviews weren't as great. Our return rate went up. That we immediately switched back. It wasn't worth it. And same with T-shirts. We used to be the same as a lot of small companies out there when I started, where we would go to Gildan or American Apparel and we would just buy the blanks and we sew in the tags. Well, that can be a very cheap outlet, but you wash those things, they deteriorate. And so, there was a choice we made so that we could remain relevant and that quality and that thing that people love. And it was to invest in our product garments and it's paid off.
Yeah, sure has. It's kind of similar to talking about like the calculus of making those types of business decisions when you're trying to decide who to partner, what products to put out, those kinds of things. One of the things that always stuck out to me about Charlie Hustle is one year connection to the community.
You mentioned Big Slick. Put a pin in that. I want to go back to like true charity works. But there's also an element that I have noticed of Charlie Hustle where you support and almost make a stand for your Kansas City Heart of America company. Sometimes those things can be controversial whether it is deciding to put out a pride shirt or deciding to put out a shirt that will raise money after the shooting at the Super Bowl parade that could be taken as a stance on gun control and like all of these things where people could potentially draw certain conclusions. Does that factor into the calculus at all?
Does that make you think like maybe we should, do we really want to say this or is it vice versa? Is it like, no, we really need to come out and say like, this is for everyone, this is what we stand for? Or do you try to like let things speak for itself or follow the community? What's your thought there?
Yeah, it's difficult. We can't help everyone and at the end of the day, we're an apparel company, like canceling a little hunger as much as we want to. But the way that I've always told people and the way that Jay situated Charlie Hustle is the KC heart is a unifying logo. You look at it and it makes you happy. You look at it and it's for everybody. It's for everybody in Kansas City. It doesn't matter what color you are, what your sexual orientation is. It doesn't matter if you're old, young, whatever. That KC heart is meant to kind of beat our chest and say, yeah, I'm in Kansas City and I love it. Or I've visited Kansas City and I love it. That's kind of been our philosophy. Our former rallying cry was evoke happiness. Now it's celebrate your story. But they're both hand in hand. We just, we're here to make people happy. And when you put on a T-shirt, you know, that should make you happy.
And so yeah, there's things that we've done. We've always celebrate pride. We always have a new collection release. Now it's more in mid-May so that people are ready in June. But like, it's kind of a year-round thing. That to us isn't controversial. That's celebrating people. And if you don't want to buy the T-shirt, and because you don't like that for whatever reason, then that's on you.
In 2020, you know, face masks were a thing. And I don't know if that was controversial. But, you know, months later, there's the Black Lives Matter protest. And we did a collection for it. And yeah, there were some comments. But overall, it was like, people understood we were trying to give back to other communities. And we did.
And probably the most controversial thing we've ever done by far and away. And apologies, I forget the year. I think it was 2022. In January, our Kansas City Chiefs won a huge playoff game. Patrick Mahomes' wife gets really excited, sprays champagne. And Chase texted me that night and said, it is crazy how much slack she is getting from other fan bases, from our fan base. And it's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. And I said, you know what? We have her contact information. We should do something. And sure enough, Chase proposed to Brittany Mahomes, Patrick's wife, what if we did a t-shirt, a big campaign, and we gave back to an anti-bullying campaign?
We made it happen in 24 hours. Where, and she was all in. And all it did, it was a gold t-shirt in red print that said Team Brittany. And we gave back, we raised over $35,000 for Red Card KC, which is an anti-bullying organization, 501C3 here in Kansas City, that helps kids recognize and report bullying. And she had one Instagram post, it just blew up. I mean, we sold over 2,000 units of that t-shirt. And it kind of shows that a lot of companies steered clear. They were like, no, we're not going to touch this. That's Brittany's thing. And we were like, whoa, whoa, whoa, she's one of us. Like she's a Kansas City person. Like we're going to defend her and we're going to raise money for a great organization. And we did. And so I think, yeah, we have internal conversations. You know, there's a lot of, you know, hot button issues out there now.
We released a dog, you know, stuff last week. And we heard a lot from the cat people.
There's always going to be controversy, even when you think there won't be controversy.
Always. But our MO is, you know, we're just an apparel company. We're out, we're having fun and we represent Kansas City. And, you know, the way we see it, we're not just representing one individual. We're not just representing one group of people. We're representing all of Kansas City.
I love that so much. I am also a little disappointed that I hadn't been, is keyed into knowing what, because I also would have been a purchaser of that team, Brittany, especially, I think I was in, I think I was still in Washington at that time. And it was, I got questions about it all the time. Like, what do you think of her? And I was like, I don't, I don't know. Like she's here, I guess that's great. But like, I don't know. I don't have a strong opinion, but like people had thoughts. People probably still do, but Oh, they still do, yeah.
But I like that it's almost, it almost sounds like you're turning controversy or potential controversy or certain moments like into a more positive thing. Like you're flipping the script and like taking ownership of it. It's amazing.
That's exactly what we do. I mean, the last two elections we've done like a vote t-shirt. We were not about to get into like this person.
Yeah. But like a rallying cry to like, just do your civic duty, go and vote and celebrate that. We always try to find that angle and make it a little different to where it's something that, yeah, maybe not millions will get behind on, but maybe thousands will.
Has that been something that has been a theme or an interest of you throughout your career, to be in the business of either giving back or standing for certain purposes or anything like that?
For me personally, definitely. It's honestly what drew me to Charlie Hustle. I like small businesses. There's just something about it where you can get your hands involved in a lot of different things. You learn so much, it allows you to be adaptable. There's something about that. I don't want to sit at a desk and just do the nine to five gig. More power to people that can. I come from a family of four siblings.
We're all different. My dad was a news anchor. He would come home and he would tell all these stories. He was telling other people's stories. He was really involved. My mom, she was an English teacher. We never made grammar mistakes. Both of them had it and they both came from nothing. They both were raised really poor.
They instilled in all five of us, like, hey, you go and do what you want to do. Make sure that you're working hard and good things come to those who hustle. But you got a whole swath of people that if you don't build that community, it's not going to matter. You're looking to be on a yacht somewhere in the middle of the Caribbean, great if that's your dream. But who are you dragging along with you? Who's your tribe? Who are you making better and who are you helping? And so for me, like my parents helped start Dream Factory, which is like a localized make-a-wish here in Kansas City. And my dad would drag me along to every single event.
Didn't matter if it was a Chiefs game that maybe a seriously or chronically ill child got to meet Chiefs players or a baseball game, or even like a picnic or seeing what their dreams come true. And what it taught me was, you know, it wasn't all about me. It wasn't, oh, I want to go meet Bo Jackson or I want to meet Joe Montana, or I want to see this Chiefs game.
It was like, here's a kid that in all seriousness might not be around in a couple of years. And their hardships completely outweigh anything you have in your head and can have convinced yourself that is weighing you down. And it gave me a great perspective of, there's so much more to this world that when, you know, I have two young children and, you know, when I move on, I want them to know that their daddy made an impact on this world, on this country, on this city, so that they can do that as well. So it's not, you know, when they grow up, yeah, I was this or I was that. It's “what legacy did you leave? And how did you affect others?”
I'm gonna take a little bit of a left turn here, but I'm so curious. So if your dad was a news anchor, you have a degree in broadcast journalism. Your mom's an English teacher.
Have you yourself dabbled or considered a career in anything within the broadcast or the journalism field? Or maybe this is an and question as well. How do you take those skills and use them into your position other than right now in this exact moment?
Yeah. I wanted to be on ESPN Sports Center when I was growing up. I loved sports. I loved all the stories involved. I loved the games. I loved, I would turn off the volume when I was little, and I would announce the games myself. Or if I was playing video games, same thing. I would turn off the sound. I would just announce it the whole time. And so that always appealed to me. And that's kind of what my dad did. And I loved writing and my mom gave me that. And so it all made kind of sense. That's why I went to Mizzou. They have a great broadcast journalism school. You work for the NBC affiliate there. And I did. I was a producer. I was a reporter. I was an anchor. And it was like a month before graduation.
And here I was sending out my tape and getting the low level offers around the country and trying to decide what I really wanted to do and where I wanted to go. And I had to report on a car accident on 63 Highway. And when I got there, the mom was there. Her son had just passed away. And I think it had, I only think it had been an hour. And I had to put a microphone in front of her face with my camera and ask her how she felt, what she was thinking.
And it changed. I like, I could not do it anymore. It made me think like, I don't want to, I don't want to be that person that is part of their worst day ever. And, you know, even in sports nowadays, let's say I'd gone the sports route. That still happens. Sports is not what it was 50 years ago, or as though, how do you think about that game? There's so many social dynamics now. There's so much, you know, you got athletes getting in trouble. There's so much money involved. Like, there's moral items that no matter what, if you're in news, there's always that bad side, and you're the person having to get those answers. And so that turned me off from it, where I just didn't have the same passion. And it made me pivot, where I wanted to do more.
I mean, again, my hand's dirty, and telling other people's stories, sure. And I think that's the thing that, you know, broadcast journalism taught me was, I want to celebrate stories, and I want to, you know, t-shirts, hoodies, crewnecks, those are part of those times. The KC Hart vintage blue t-shirt, that became part of the Royals going back to the playoffs and World Series stories because Paul Rudd wore it and said, this is my lucky t-shirt.
The Team Brittany story I told earlier, that was part of a story in time that now I can harken back to and say, that was really fun. The face mask, you know, we launched face mask in April 12th, 2020. And that's just a little of that story. Like that year was so busy because we got the Nebraska license. We started a 501c3 charity. And then I still remember being on the phone with our lawyers and they said, this might blow over. I would not shut down your plaza store. We shut down our plaza store and we continued to pay every single employee. We kicked every single employee out of our office for two years. And we continued to, you know, pay them wages. We still got things done. We still made things happen.
And so, you know, what journalism provides you, and when you're, you know, even in your role, you're asking other people questions. One, you learn a ton. But it teaches you to become an expert really fast in certain fields. And that's what I became. I could retain a lot of items and then put a puzzle together really fast because you always had to remain adaptable. And whether it was as a chief operating officer, as the president here at Charlie Hustle, there were so many times when I've had to pivot really fast or get very creative on things. And that journalism background helped me out so much and has served me so well.
I love that so much. And this is really like just a passion project. It is a personal selfish research project that I have where I just want to talk to other business owners and leaders about the things that they're doing in the positive decisions that they're making, because so many of us have stories and experiences with companies like taking advantage or making some decisions that we might not agree with.
And the saying exists that people leave managers instead of leaving jobs for a reason. But I am constantly thinking about just like we all pivot, we all have needs to pivot. The skill of adaptability and being able to continue to thrive and survive is so key. But yet at the same time from a business owner or from a business leader perspective, we're looking at like, you need stability in order to sustain through all of the chaos that is life. So this is a big, long loaded question to be like, how do you view that as a leader? You know, things are changing. It feels pretty volatile sometimes. Our economy is up and down. Rules and regulations change all the time. Like, how are you managing to find stability to be able to, you know? Like you said, you kept your employees there for two years. Like, that's amazing.
How do you, how do you build a business model that allows for that while you're still planning to pivot and adapt through all of these different things?
Yeah, wow. Yeah, great question. At the end of the day, it's like dealing with a team, dealing with employees, I'll say, but, you know, teammates is like raising kids. And I don't have all the right answers. I have no, there's a lot of days where I'm like, I have no idea. But, you know what, my kids, you know, they're turned 10 and 7 this month. What they love is that I will always show them empathy and compassion first. I'm always going to listen to them. And so they can trust me. I'm never going to just immediately get mad or reactive. And I always tell them, you know, when they make a mistake, I want them to tell me about it. And then we're going to talk about, like, what they learned. And it opens itself up to, like, great conversations. And so, like, our kids will tell us things that I bet other parents, they have no idea about their day. Like, we're always curious. And it teaches them to be curious. It teaches them to be kind. And so, basically, like, leading from a place of good intentions and of just, like, pure love.
And so, with the Charlie Hustle team, and we've been everywhere, you know, we were as many as 27 full-time employees a couple of years ago. And now we're, like, in that 20 range. But, you know, whether it's a constant, they know, oh, Greg is here. And if Greg's not here, I can get a hold of Greg. That's one, but it's really, like, you know, every month I have a check in with my direct reports. And then every quarter I meet with every single person.
So if you're fulfilling packages in our warehouse for our online customers, you're still meeting, you're still getting FaceTime with me. And that's not, you know, posturing. That's like a that is your opportunity to be like, do you understand the strategy of the company? Do you understand where we're going? Where do you want to go in your career? You know, what, what are the things that are really bogging you down or stressing you out?
Or the things that are making you really happy? And just being there and listening and like, again, just wanting to help out. That goes such a long way where you have like really, really good conversations, really intelligent conversations to where it's not about micromanaging. It's not about like, oh, you did this wrong. And, you know, you're on a 60-day probation. It's more like, hey, you're an adult. I trust you. And did you learn from it? What did you learn? Great. Make sure it doesn't happen again. That's fine.
That kind of open environment has allowed us here at Charlie Hustle just have like a really close team. We had actually a consultant come in a couple of months ago, and they were meeting with me in the afternoon and they said, I'll be honest, I'm really surprised. You all had lunch together up there and it wasn't because it was paid for, it wasn't because, that does not happen at other companies.
It's like, well, yeah, because we get along, we've been through it, we all make things happen. Our ideas come to life and it doesn't matter. It's not the Greg show or the Chase show. We listen, we want people to really excel and that makes us all really close and we're looking out for each other. Even if that looking out becomes, hey, I don't like it here anymore and I want to explore something else outside of Charlie Hustle. Great. Let's get you there. Or hey, I have this friend that would love to be part of Charlie Hustle. How can we help get them there?
Let's talk about it. It's really hard when companies look at those profit and losses, look at those assets and we all just become numbers on a page. When you're doing small company work or you're doing charitable work, and honestly, if you're a big company or mid-size, you got to take a step back and realize like, man, I'm not the only one getting this to the top of this mountain. I need a team and how are you going to make that team go? Just like what I do with my kids. You got to listen to them, you got to lead with your heart, and you got to make sure that we're all rolling in the same direction.
I one time had a mentor of mine that I still go back to 15 years later for advice and questions. I try to keep this in the forefront of my mind at all times of managing employees is not just within the confines of this job. If you're going to be a true mentor, you should be mentoring people throughout job changes, career changes, all of those same things. You never know when that person is going to come back and be your VP one day or be your client or wherever that is. It might take 20 years, but you got to be able to let those people grow and really treat them as people regardless of what their role in the moment might be.
Oh, yeah. When I started at Charlie Hustle, I just developed a catchphrase, and it was like there was so much stress. People didn't know what's happened. One, I was a change. I was trying to have more visibility and accountability. I was trying to get our metrics lined up and things that could really give us a better infrastructure as well as grow. And some things worked, some things didn't. But at the end of the day, if someone got stressed out or I got stressed out or if someone's mad, I would always say, we're just making T-shirts. It became that calming force that even if that's not a true statement, it was more, take a step back. What are you really mad about? Or what are you upset about? Or is that really it? Or what are we trying to do here? Yeah.
Obviously, Charlie Hustle and your background, like so much of it is associated or tangentially related to sports. I grew up in a sports family, playing sports, watching sports, it's a big way we connect on things. And I've always carried those types of philosophies and themes into my work life. I'm sure everyone around me is so annoyed at the amount of times that I compare CEOs to coaches and general managers and quarterbacks to team captains and to team leads and all these different things. Everyone's got their own role, everyone's got their own specialty, we got to all work together with the same vision and same goal. Do you share any of those types of philosophies of overlapping business and sports at all?
Oh yeah. I mean we use all the metaphors around here too. But look at Charlie Hustle.
Your name alone.
Yeah, Charlie Hustle is a very old colloquialism and, you know, Pete Rose, RIP, like that became his title. And like our business model is so predicated on, like yeah, the KC Hart, sure that's hometown pride, but even the KC Hart, a variation of it was on the sleeve of the Kansas City Monarchs in 1942 when they won the New Year's League Baseball title. And yeah, and then even like, what has made us really successful is like the ability to tell stories when they happen and be in those moment.
And so Chase have won what, three Super Bowls here in the last five, six years. We were part of those stories. We were making t-shirts, even if they were referential or they were in conjunction with the Kansas State Chiefs.
You know, the KC Current is one of our most popular professional franchise licenses. And it's because it's like, well, the team's really good, but like a stadium that's on the riverbank in Kansas City by downtown, like, that's really fun. KC Rose, we have a license with Bobby Wood Jr. And when he came out last spring and said, the boys are playing some ball, we immediately had a t-shirt that said that with his signature on it, and it became one of our best sellers.
And so sports and our business have always intersected to the point where our largest revenue months are when the Chiefs won the Superbowl, or the one in company history was when the KU men's basketball team won the basketball title in 2022. It was because it was such a big celebration, a big moment, that people were clicking by because it was like, you never know when that stuff will happen again. They wanted to celebrate it.
So we've been very fortunate that sports teams, especially in Kansas City, have done so well, and it's helped Charlie Hustle really succeed. But it's also the lesson we learned where the KC heart, for example, there's a reason it means something for people who have either lived and born in, even been through Kansas City, because it's a heart with the interlocking KC. And it's like perfect.
It's so simple and it means something to us. It means something if you've experienced something in Kansas City. To do that and just say flippantly, let's do a STL and a heart and that's how we'll get a St. Louis crowd. Or let's go to Des Moines or Omaha or Oklahoma City or where have you and just do the same thing. It doesn't work. And so we had to pivot years ago and say, how do we get into other markets. Well, what do people care about? They care about the colleges and universities that are in that market, whether you're an alum, whether you're a student there, or whether you live in the area and it means something to you. And why does it mean some to you?
Well, sometimes education, but for the most part, it's those student athletes, it's those sports. And so that's how KC Hart taught us a lesson. But yeah, we have Iowa Hawkeye fans, Nebraska Cornhuskers. We now have the University of Texas Longhorns.
Oh my god, good for you.
We have Arizona and BYU and Utah. And it's like all these-
You're not even Midwest anymore.
It's true. It's like we say middle of the map, and it's still pretty true. But now we have West Virginia, University of Central Florida.
And those fans buy from us because, again, those logos, those marks, those designs mean something to them because those are stories that they tell. So it's not just like the, hey, so and so leading this project here, Charlie Hustle, you're QB1 or man, you really hit a homerun, or that was a slam dunk project. That's fun, like sports colloquialisms and stuff like that.
And that's definitely a part of our culture. But it's more about really celebrating stories through apparel. And at the end of the day, a lot of that is sports.
Yeah. And kind of thinking about a similar thing and just like partnerships and meaning. We, I put a pin earlier in your connection to non-profit work, charity work, things like The Big Slick.
What other types of partnerships? Like I want to give you an opportunity to plug other partnerships that you have going on, events, anything like that that we haven't touched on that is important to kind of highlight.
Yeah, I feel like we've worked with every 501c3 in Kansas City. And it makes it really fun. Because there are some cool stories out there. By far and away, my favorites, KC Pet Project, that we call them communities, where we give back proceeds, try to give them like a month, 30 days of awareness. And we amplify them. And we try to do like 12 or 15 of those a year. But KC Pet Project, the Nelson Atkins Museum, the last two years, they've done like exhibits. They did Monet two years ago. And so we did like a Monet KC heart. Those are really fun. Obviously, we're always involved in Big Slick. That raises the ton for Children's Mercy. And that's really fun.
Coming up here soon, right?
Great branding. But it's like the little small ones that people will come up to me and say, I would have never known until you all did a t-shirt. I believe it was last year, we partnered with Girls on the Run, which is an organization that really promotes little girls, just becoming active and really taking great pride and finding confidence through that and that campaign did so well.
It was a really fun campaign that seen here in a month. We worked with the Rose Society, which is a 501c3 in Kansas City that helps loose park, is a park right off the plaza, and they have a beautiful rose garden. We'll work with them on a KC Heart t-shirt. They'll raise money for what they do. And that stuff's really fun. You know, outside of that, we were part of 1K for KC. That was actually Chase's brainchild, and it raised funds during COVID, the height of COVID, where unfortunately there were people that lost their homes. And we helped do the money we raised. We raised enough to like house and pay rent for a hundred different families.
And we're an apparel company. Like we're just making T-shirts. Or even when the unfortunate shooting happened at the Victory Parade, because we are located in the East Crossroads. That's a half mile away from us. And we were packing Super Bowl orders. When they listed off, because then we worked with United Way and raised funds through a T-shirt that we did. When they listed on the news, like who had donated the most to United Way to help those families that were affected by the shooting. It was Travis Kelce, $50,000. It was Taylor Swift, $50,000. And then it was Charlie Hustle, $50,000. And those are the type of things that we're always trying to be a part of. And so yeah, we have some plans.
We'll celebrate Pride again this year. We're going to do a partnership with the Barons Community Project this year. We did a really cool shirt just a month or so ago with the Royals Foundation for their reading program. And that shirt has sold very well. It's helped raise a lot of funds. And the aforementioned Rose one. But that's one thing. We will always listen to 501C3. And if there's a way that we can help, whether it's a gift basket, a t-shirt campaign, or even swapping a gift card, that's always been really important to our DNA.
Yeah. I know that you said that you say this slogan so that you can drop the temperature down of certain situations, but that alone is just proof that you guys are so much more than just selling t-shirts. It's so incredible. You guys are such a great example of how you can build a solid business, you can build brand loyalty, you can build a community that also employees people, at the end of the day, a lot of us have to have jobs. You can build that around principles of good and promoting other organizations.
I can tell you that from my background in the non-profit world, it is invaluable to have a company give free advertising and awareness by just having your logo, whether it's like, even if it's something small like on the back of a t-shirt or in an Instagram post or something like that, to be able to not spend your donations on those kinds of things and to also not put your brain into it so that you can serve your clients however you're doing it, it is monumental, it's huge. And that's a good point because that's, you know, often people are like, well, how much did you raise from this campaign or that camspaign? Well, in 14 years, we've raised like $2 million to local charities and you have big slicks involved in that. That's unheard of for a small company.
But like we've had campaigns, you know, even in the last couple of years that, you know, maybe the check I was writing was more of the $500 variety. That's just one aspect of it because you're right, at the end of the day, you're being promoted on a company that people are following. We have over 100,000 followers on Instagram and we're amplifying that brand, that organization.
And I've heard from these organizations that, you know, because of that campaign or because they sell a t-shirt, you know, we actually had great conversations with some of our people that donate to us. And then we got new people, you know, that were donating and it wasn't just the t-shirts. It was beyond that.
It was because, yeah, we, or, you know, whether it was a month or six months or a year, we put a microphone, we, well, we provided the microphone for them and they amplified their organization and told their story and it led to even bigger things. Yeah.
I love that so much. Okay. My final question before I let you go here is, in this can be anything big, small, there's no really restrictions here, but what's another either person or company organization that you want to shout out that you see is out there doing it the right thing, the right way. Whether that's a boss of yours, an old coworker, someone that you're a customer of, could be absolutely anything.
Oh, man. I'm going to cheat a little bit. I'm going to do more of a national one than more of a local one.
So nationally, like, I mean, kudos to everything that Patagonia does. You know, they're in the apparel industry as well, but they do so many things that a CFO or a finance person or the advisory board would be like, do not do that. That is ludicrous. And they do it. And again, in a smaller scale, it's kind of like what we do at Charlie Hustle, where it's like, yeah, it's not all about the money. We want to make a difference. They do that all the time. And they really truly are making a difference, even in things that, you know, people might find controversial or might not find as important as some of us, which is whether it's, you know, the environment or the ecosystem and giving back to nature. Like, I think they deserve all the flowers they get.
But locally here in Kansas City, Ruby Jean's Juicery is a really cool story. And Chris Goode, I consider him a friend. And it's like, it's so weird to think, like, making juice and healthy food would be a good business model. And he made it happen. And he has a really cool, unique story, you know, about his mom and why he did that. But he literally opened Ruby Jean's Juicery, which from our headquarters is maybe like a mile or two away up the road. And he went in an area where not a lot of people were building and making things happen. And he did it. And he made a business that not only did people like seek out because it was unique, whether it was, you know, a juice that was healthy and a good lifestyle choice, he put it in an area that he didn't need to. He could have easily have put that in an area where there was a lot of money and a lot more consumers. And he didn't, he wanted to invest back into what he did. And so I bring that one up because one, they're delicious and they do a good job.
But Chris is a really good human being and he's done so much more than Ruby Jean's Juicery, which is starting to get a lot more national distribution. He, you know, he served on the parks and recreation in Kansas City because he sees the value in those areas, especially as we continue to get more and more into this 21st century, that's a lot of it's unavoidable. You know, you've got to lean in the technology and, you know, I have a seven and 10 year old that they'll be on screens, but the importance of having that sense of belonging and community in all areas of Kansas City and all areas of this country, that's what I grew up in, where you went to the playground and you met people and you had shared experiences and you were active and you ran outside and you learned to problem-solve in real-time. That is so valuable and important probably even more so today than it was when I was growing up. For Chris to make time for that and do that while also running a small business is definitely to be commended as well.
I hope that's so much. I'll put links for both of those in the show notes, this show as well. Thank you so much for doing this and taking time, multiple days out of your day to try to arrange this. I really, really appreciate it. I wish you all the best and thank you so much for being here.
Thank you, Andrea. Yeah, I appreciate this. I'm glad we didn't have any tech issues this time around, it was a fun conversation. It's always fun to talk about just the journey of Charlie Hustle and everything I've seen.
