From schools to businesses to individuals, SKAZMA Custom Apparel has helped the Longmont community express itself for the past 20 years.
At SKAZMA, a small family business, designers create custom shirts, hats, bags and other branded clothing for a wide range of customers. Whether someone comes up with his or her own work of art or needs to create a completely new design, SKAZMA can make it happen.
“We found that by being part of the community and ensuring customer service was top notch, our business would grow,” said Kevin Puckett, Chief Financial Officer and co-founder of SKAZMA. “And that’s what we did.”
Inside SKAZMA’s 5,000-square-foot headquarters at 1121 Colorado Ave. the warehouse is filled with equipment for embroidery and screen printing. One room has a six-head sewing machine, with each head capable of sewing in 15 colors. In a larger room there are two screen printing presses: one manual and one automatic. The automatic press produces an average of 400 shirts per hour.
“It’s extremely efficient,” Kevin Puckett said of the setup. “We don’t have any wasted space here.”
SKAZMA moved into its new headquarters in July of this year, leaving its previous home on South Sunset Street. The company itself grew from a small screen printing operation already located in The Play-Off, a Longmont sporting goods store that the Pucketts bought in 2004.
Zach Puckett, president of SKAZMA and Kevin’s son, said the company has gone from hiring six jobs a week in its infancy to producing 90,000 garments a year today. According to Zach, that growth is due to SKAZMA’s reputation within the Longmont community.
“The community has helped us grow, and that’s the biggest part of it,” Zach Puckett said.
SKAZMA specializes in retail printing rather than wholesale, allowing the company to develop a more personal relationship with customers. SKAZMA also seeks to minimize fees and costs, which are common in the custom apparel industry.
“We are not the cheapest, and we have never claimed to be the cheapest,” said Kevin Puckett. “We get our customers through customer service and through loyalty.”
Mikayla Rust prints designs on a T-shirt. SKAZMA Custom Apparel celebrates 20 years as a small family-owned business in Longmont. (Cliff Grassmick/Staff Photographer)
Another thing SKAZMA is proud of is its lead times. For example, an order of 200 shirts would take approximately two weeks.
SKAZMA also offers live design appointments, allowing customers to provide feedback and comment on the art as it is being created.
“There’s an immediate sense of satisfaction,” said Amber Puckett, Kevin’s daughter, who also works for SKAZMA. “They came in, they designed it and they know exactly what their clothes are going to look like.”
SKAZMA is an acronym, with each letter representing a member of the family. Kevin, Amber and Zach Puckett represent the “KAZ” in the name respectively. “S” is Kevin’s wife, Shawnda; “M” is Zach’s wife, Melinda; and the second “A” is Zach’s son, Aiden.
Kevin Puckett is a former football coach at Skyline High School. The connections from his coaching days have continued into his career at SKAZMA, as the client apparel company has done work for every school within the St. Vrain Valley School District.
This work includes creating apparel for student clubs, summer camps, P-TECH programs, the St. Vrain Innovation Center, music productions and sports teams.
Zach Puckett said 60% of SKAZMA’s revenue comes from SVVSD schools. The staff no longer embroidered names on students’ letter jackets, but watched as the owners of those jackets entered the store as adults.
“We grew up in St. Vrain,” Zach Puckett said. “(Kevin) coached at St. Vrain. I just had a 20 year old graduate from St. Vrain. It’s all local.”
SKAZMA has created products for the Pumphouse Brewery, Heart of Longmont United Methodist Church and Anderson Farms, to name a few. It has also developed new branding for Golden Van Lines and TLC Learning Center. And while SKAZMA does most of its work for larger entities, the company recently embroidered a pair of Christmas stockings for a family friend.
“There’s just a lot of people we’ve done work for over the years,” Kevin Puckett said. “We don’t retain everyone, but I would say retention is our number one priority.”
Looking to the future, SKAZMA hopes to expand north. The Pucketts see Loveland as a potential location for a new store, although all production would remain in the Longmont warehouse.
As the Pucketts look back on two decades in business, they all agree that time flew by.
“I didn’t think about it much until it happened,” Kevin Puckett said of the anniversary. “I said, ‘Wow. We’ve done well for twenty years. Where are we going to end up?’”
