Online streaming is latest marketing tool to grow business at NanaMacs Boutique

In a nondescript warehouse along a busy Post Falls street, NanaMacs, a boutique clothing company founded by two Spokane high school graduates, quietly churns out the fruits of its labors.

A sign on the front door of the 22,000-square-foot warehouse directs delivery drivers to the building’s east side. All other traffic is asked to ring an egg-shaped door bell.

It is a silent ringer that prompts owner Jeremy Shute to greet visitors outside, usher them through a steel door with a key combo and into the spacious warehouse that includes rows of products from cosmetics to clothing.

“We outfit women from head to toe,” Shute said.

The warehouse with its high roofline and seemingly football field size includes stations where employees quietly fill orders that pop up on large computer screens. It includes clothing, jewelry, boots and shoes all in boxes, bins, or hanging on an array of wheeled clothing racks.

The latest in fashion and design, the voluminous garments and accoutrements are the embodiment of elegant images in fashion magazines and catalogs, but to say the business is warehouse-based misses the point.

From its humble beginnings five years ago in Susan and Jeremy Shute’s spare bedroom to its inspiration taken from the lives of two grandparents who are also the company’s namesake, and the like-minded meshing of its owners and employees, NanaMacs is a North Idaho people-based company whose rise to stardom was highlighted recently by Inc. 500 Magazine.

“We’re so proud,” Jeremy says of the magazine’s accolades. “We love it.”

In Inc. 500 Magazine’s September edition, NanaMacs was rated in the top three of Idaho’s up and coming businesses, and in the top 360 among 5,000 of the nation’s fastest-growing companies. Not a small achievement for two people without a college degree.

The business — a hands-on venture for the Shutes from its inception in 2012 when the couple began marketing, packaging, selling and purchasing new product without the benefit of employees — has grown more than 1,200 percent in each of the past three years. Its revenues each month this fall exceeded last year’s fourth quarter growth.

The secret to NanaMacs’ burgeoning growth is multifaceted, but it hinges on its online presence and the diligence of its owners.

Before starting the company based on her lifelong dream and grandparents’ inspiration, Susan was raising three children as a single mom. After she and Jeremy met and were married, Susan dropped $7,000 to start the business with the help of her husband’s IT background. Jeremy worked

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12-hour shifts at a local tech company and the couple built the business in the hours when they weren’t eeking out a living at other jobs.

“The American dream is an American dream if you work hard for it,” Jeremy said. “You make sacrifices if you want to get somewhere else.”

The couple attributes the company’s success to unique social media presence. NanaMacs was the first boutique to host Facebook Live videos as a way to interact with customers and showcase new clothing and trends. The business includes photographers, graphic designers and five full-time models as well as the warehouse associates and customer service representatives — more than 20 employees.

All tucked away in a warehouse that appears more like a heavy-equipment fabricator than a seller and marketer of upscale but easy-on-the-pocketbook fashion.

In addition to photo shoots of new products that take place in several of the warehouse’s studios, NanaMacs’ models produce a daily live Facebook feed that is followed by more than a half-million customers.

“They are able to foster a more personal relationship with customers by answering questions and replying to comments on Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat,” Jeremy said.

In addition to the growth the Shutes worked towards as they built NanaMacs, the couple met another goal that was more personal than the ledgers: NanaMacs was able to donate more than $20,000 to local charities this year, the couple said.

“(We think) it’s important to support your communities and programs like these,” Jeremy said. “It wasn’t long ago that we were not so fortunate ourselves, so we enjoy being able to give back.”