When Nate Baldry was a kid, his family would joke that he’d probably end up becoming the vice president of his uncle’s promotional products company. And in fact, as an adult, he did work for him for a stint. Then he pivoted slightly and took a job in the golf industry.

“I would source products for the pro shop, and I got familiar with promo industry resources, built a network of contacts and started bringing in more referrals,” says Baldry. “So I decided to start a promo business, which I ran part-time for about five years. I went into it full-time four years ago.”

Credit: Jack Hammett, Hutchinson Leader

Today, Baldry is the president of Branded Solutions (asi/305736) based in Hutchinson, MN, a small Midwestern town of just 15,000 about 60 miles west of Minneapolis. For nine years, the company was only e-commerce, but Baldry and his team of two were able to serve a variety of clients and their imprinting needs solely over the web. The majority of the business is local (within a 60-mile radius), while others are more far-flung and have never even met Baldry.

But Baldry knew they could drive more business than just what they were getting from e-commerce. And when a spiritwear store in town closed after the owner retired, Baldry saw that as an opportunity to fill a need that was now going unmet in a close-knit community.

“We wanted the visibility of a location, though we wanted to continue with e-commerce because we do a lot of business there,” he says.

After a local search, Baldry found the perfect location: an empty corner storefront on Main Street in downtown “Hutch,” as the town is known colloquially. They officially opened on Black Friday of this year.

“It’s a great location. Thousands of people drive by every day,” he says. “It’s been non-stop since we opened. We wanted the ability to expand and to offer good service, and we also wanted to be highly visible and to showcase our imprinting capabilities and products. The walk-in business doesn’t always result in crazy-big orders, but it’s nice to get them to come in and meet us and touch and feel the items.”

The team operates a retail shop portion at the location, with spiritwear, school items, and both generic Minnesota and Hutch gear, alongside a promotional apparel and hard goods showroom for B2B clients.

But they haven’t ceased e-commerce operations. In fact, the virtual and physical storefronts are complementing each other and helping to drive even more business. “We like to have local clients who order through our e-commerce site to come in to the store to pick up their orders, so they can see what we offer,” he says. “Now as our volume increases, we’re going to have to manage our processes so we keep pace. That’s our challenge. But it’s a good challenge to have.”

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