LIBERTY, Mo. — Kansas City Chiefs fans are pulling their red and gold out of the closet for playoff weekend. One local company offers merchandise, though, that you're not going to find at other tailgates.
"We have also started manufacturing a lot of our own items so that it can be something completely different that we are able to sell," said LeAnn Cruce, the owner and original founder of Love Letters, a women's online boutique that sells hats, sweatshirts and t-shirts for all your Kansas City needs. It's also a favorite of many Chiefs' players wives and girlfriends.
The business started 10 years ago in a basement. Now, they have their own warehouse with six women, all life-long KC fans, on board.
"They always say don’t work with your friends, cause sometimes there might be competition and stuff like that, and I will tell you we get a lot of work done but we laugh even more," said Harmony Belden.
Belden joined on around three years ago. Before joining Love Letters, she was a Spanish teacher and Cruse was a hairdresser.
The success the group has seen has been unimaginable.
"The trickle effect that the community from our manufactures to our distributors to our printer to, even our landlord cause we continue to need more space," said Cruce. "Just the difference that they’ve made in a lot of Kansas City lives is incredible."
Some pieces have handmade elements, like dip-dyed or paint splattered sweatshirts.
"I love the fact that when we design something it isn’t 8,000 of the exact same thing out there in the world, right?" said Belden. "And we love that everything is just going to have a bit of a handmade touch and be unique."
While majority of their business happens online, they have occasional warehouse sales, especially during the busy Chiefs season. But during the pandemic, Cruce needed to find another way to get Love Letters out there.
"In our neighborhood, we had some food trucks come and that’s kind of what inspired this truck here is the pandemic and the fact that, ok if people can’t go somewhere maybe we can create something they could come to outside," Cruce said.
And the excitement doesn't stop there. They work with a local printer so they can offer new designs at the drop of a hat. That means if the Chiefs beat the Jacksonville Jaguars on Saturday, the Love Letters crew will be at the printer producing new looks for next weeks' game.
"It’s week by week, so we have designs in the chute but we haven’t printed for next week." Cruce said excitedly.
