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Brandon Wettstein, a sophomore at American Leadership Academy Queen Creek, sells T-shirts he designed, celebrating the Town of Queen Creek.
The son of Lynnette and Kelly Wettstein has lived in Queen Creek for seven years and in Arizona for 15 years with his parents, two siblings and a dog.
He started his business venture at the beginning of the year, featuring T-shirt designs, apparel and accessories that highlight the town.
For an entrepreneurship class required of all ALA students to learn skills such as creating a business model, marketing the business, tracking expenses and profits, working with business vendors and suppliers, he chose to design shirts to celebrate Queen Creek since he noticed a lot of local clothing and accessories promoted a certain school or event but not the town, specifically.
“So, he wanted to create something that celebrated just the Town of Queen Creek itself and he felt others would want to wear something to represent Queen Creek too. We live in a great town with great people that is unique and beautiful, he is proud of where he lives, and is proud to wear something that represents Queen Creek,” said his mother, Lynnette Wettstein.
Hometown Swag Shop, which began as a small project for the 15-year old has grown into “an idea to connect a community through wearing apparel and accessories,” that display a certain pride of living in Queen Creek, according to Brandon Wettstein’s website at hometownswagshop.com.
He lets people know pride for a town is not defined by the number of people, or the number of miles in it, but about connecting people from different places and stories to create a community.
“This line of custom-designed graphic T-shirts and accessories celebrates Queen Creek, Arizona --- sunshine, desert beauty, beautiful weather, the San Tan Mountains and other landmarks --- so many things make up Queen Creek, but most of all, it is about friends, neighbors, raising families and being home,” he wrote on his website.
“We hope you will sense our pride to be living the QC life, and will enjoy this special introductory collection.”
Hometown Swag Shop is a small, home-based business flaunting the QC Collection, which captures the essence of Queen Creek through the display of colors and a cactus or simply a logo or outline of the town.
“The designs Brandon created were designed to be appealing to both teenagers and adults. His designs include shirts that are representative of the colors of the sun, the beautiful green fields we have around Queen Creek, the desert landscape, and also one that is a collage of many businesses and landmarks that represent Queen Creek,” his mother said.
“He chose a fabric that is super soft and lightweight so that it was easy to wear all year in Queen Creek’s hot temperatures. And, he offers various colors and unisex as well as women’s fit sizing. People seem to love the idea of representing their town of Queen Creek!”
He has even had requests from people from other towns and cities to design products for their towns as his business has been doing well during the pandemic, his mother states, adding that it has been a time of unity in the community.
“Because of COVID-19 and the stay-at-home order, his original marketing plans to be in fairs and events around town had to be cancelled so his main focus on marketing has been through social media and the reaction has been very positive,” Mrs. Wettstein said.
Although he was disappointed that school closed for the rest of the year, cutting short football and other sports activities, and seeing friends, the young entrepreneur, who wants to pursue a career in medicine, remains committed to his business and encouraged other students to learn how to run a business.
“It is definitely harder than he originally expected but has also been more exciting and fun than he expected as he has watched the business start to grow,” Mrs. Wettstein said.
“However, this experience has made him feel that he could enjoy a lot of different things.”
Starting my media career in 1994, rumor had it that newspapers would not exist much longer. Years later, the newspaper is still around and so is my passion for storytelling and capturing life’s moments for the community.
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