Connelly Springs screenprinter delivers 21,000 shirts for Charlotte Hornets

When Charlotte Hornets fans arrived for Tuesday evening’s NBA play-in game against the Miami Heat, more than 20,000 special “Protect the Hive” shirts greeted them at their seats — printed one day earlier at Innovative Outfitters in Connelly Springs.

More than 21,000 Hornets shirts flew through the screen-printing press on Monday, with the April sun’s heat creeping in through the open bay doors. About 10,000 left the building by 2 p.m.

Innovative Outfitters, founded in 2004 by CEO James Causby, began in Causby’s garage.

“When you’re the old man, you start looking at all the things — I couldn’t afford to buy any of this stuff when I first started,” he said. “(I) remember I bought my first five buckets of ink and my wife and I were like, ‘OK, we have no money for groceries, now.’ You can’t eat ink.”

Employees nearby inspected and folded shirts by the minute, more than ready to meet Tuesday’s 10 a.m. delivery deadline. Even as the clock ticked, Causby stayed cool and confirmed the second shipment of about 10,000 would be packed and ready Monday evening.

Two presses produced the majority of the shirts, with an average output of about 2,000 shirts an hour.

“Geography and capacity are the two things you have to have to be able to do this,” Causby said, alluding to the just over an hour drive between Innovative Outfitters and the Spectrum Center.

“We typically print this many shirts every day,” he explained. “We just don’t normally do one order every day. Typically, we would print this on one press and it would take us four days to print. … One of our jokes is this is the night we’re buying free pizza. Everybody gets free pizza.”

Causby explained that Innovative Outfitters had been on the Hornets’ radar since the preceding week. The business received the artwork at the end of the day on Friday, April 10, and set their presses up two days later on Sunday night at 10 p.m.

Despite the routine nature of the size, most of the team had all hands on deck, crossing positions to be sure there were no hiccups.

“One thing I try to build into our entire culture is every job is everybody’s job,” Causby said. “If you are standing here, and you have nothing to do, you reach right or reach left and help somebody.”

As the shirts moved from machine to machine, automatic presses applied squeegeed ink through mesh screens, one color layer at a time.

The shirts dried and hit conveyor belts, where workers inspected each one for flaws and misprints, removing dud shirts as they came off the line.

“This nets us $25,000, which is money I got to put in my people’s pocket,” Causby said, explaining that although the shirts are printed in his factory, they only get about a dollar a shirt, since his business is a step in the process.

“We get the least,” he said. “The shirt guy gets more to make it, but that’s why we have to be so lean. We have the hardest work to do.”

Even as the “Protect the Hive” memorabilia got folded into boxes, smaller printing presses in another area of the plant produced souvenir shirts for other locations across the country.

According to Causby, if someone goes to a national park and takes home a shirt, or gets an America250 hat, they’re probably wearing an item printed at Innovative Outfitters.

On top of the usual workload, the Hornets weren’t even their only NBA team for the week, squeezing in between a large shipment of WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) WrestleMania shirts and another order of nearly 22,000 for the Atlanta Hawks.

The Hawks are set to play against the New York Knicks on the evening of April 18, looking to lock in their spot in the playoffs, just like the Hornets. Since their game fell a little later in the week, Innovative Outfitters had the time available to fill their workload with other orders.

Charlotte’s home team had to win the game against the Heat before they moved on to a second make-or-break game on Friday evening against the Orlando Magic, who lost against the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday.

If they took home that victory (this article went to print before Friday evening’s game), they’re in the playoffs for the first time in over a decade — hence the special print run of shirts.

If they didn’t win on Friday, they go home and their season is over.

By Tuesday afternoon, Spectrum Center employees already had many shirts laid out, and the Charlotte Hornets had it posted to their Facebook and Instagram stories.

The majority of the shirts were extra large, aside from a few variances for Charlotte Spectrum Center employees, who spent the day unboxing and distributing them across the arena before the 7:30 p.m. game.

The Hornets cinched the win after going neck and neck with the Heat during overtime on Tuesday, and as they did, the camera panned across the arena, revealing chanting fans sporting the Connelly Springs-made attire.