MADE MOBB’s expansion throughout the Midwest — recently snaring two dozen big box sports store locations across 16 states — isn’t built on luck, said Mark Launiu. The brand hunted its own way to stand out in the crowd: and it starts with camo (that doesn’t blend in).
A social media post teasing MADE MOBB’s return to Scheels; photo courtesy of Mark Launiu, MADE MOBB
The Kansas City-built streetwear brand on Thursday announced a deal with Scheels to stock 24 of the Minnesota-based sports and outdoor retailer’s stores with MADE MOBB gear. The move gives ammo to regional growth with wholesale orders now stretching from Arizona to Wisconsin.
“This is a moment of excitement and achievement for our team,” said Launiu, co-owner of MADE MOBB alongside Vu Radley and Jesse Phouangphet. “We’re already in a lot of mom-and-pop shops and boutiques in Kansas City; we’ve grown a lot with our sales at Made in KC and at the airport, but this is our first time getting back into a mainstream, more-regional — even nationwide — big box store.”
Founded in 2013, MADE MOBB has made a name for itself in Kansas City with its signature x KC x branding that emphasizes community beyond neighborhoods and a state line, as well as frequent experimental, limited-run apparel drops and high-profile licensing partnerships; a wide range of collaboration projects; annual runway shows; small business expos at their Southwest Boulevard storefront; advocacy on mental health; and give-back business workshops.
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The brand first partnered with Scheels in 2017, getting some of its most popular KC-centric designs into the big box chain’s Overland Park store. It came at a time when MADE MOBB was finding a welcome home in a growing variety of local shopping destinations, from Hall’s at Crown Center to smaller shops like Westside Storey.
Jesse Phouangphet, Vu Radley, and Mark Launiu, inside MADE MOBB’s Southwest Boulevard HQ in 2022; photo by Channa Steinmetz, Startland News
“Then COVID hit, and we lost contact with a lot of buyers,” Launiu said. “Traffic was down in stores, people didn’t stay in those jobs, and a lot of the wholesale connections with retailers just fell into that gap.”
Amid the pandemic, MADE MOBB itself regrouped, refined and rebooted its operations. New designs re-energized the brand’s following, and its creative team ramped up boundary pushing within the streetwear vibe and aesthetic.
By 2022, Launiu and the team were beyond ready to get back into a wider range of stores, he said. It took a half-dozen drop-in visits to Scheels’ Overland Park location to make their own luck — and a critical re-introduction to the store and its new buyer.
“We said, ‘Look, we were building great things together back in 2017, and we want to rebuild that relationship. How can we get back into the Scheels family?” Launiu recalled.
MADE MOBB gear back in Scheels’ Overland Park store; photo courtesy of Mark Launiu, MADE MOBB
Back in stock, creative by nature
It started slowly. MADE MOBB returned to the local Scheels store, later adding Wichita and Iowa City stores in 2025.
“As we continued to execute — proving to them that we could not only communicate, but deliver for them — they reached back out around the holidays and said they wanted to put us into other markets because we’d been selling so well,” Launiu said.
But what was selling so well in Wichita and Iowa City wasn’t necessarily a hoodie screaming “Kansas City,” he noted, acknowledging MADE MOBB’s work to expand the brand beyond its KC core over the past three years.
“Jumping into new markets, we’ve really started honing in on the Midwest as a strategy, and what does it mean to represent the Midwest?” Launiu said. “How do you give it a streetwear twist that brings together what can feel like two different worlds, right?”
The creative team looked beyond the streets, to nature, he said, exploring designs with Midwest animals — horses, geese, trout — to flip the vibe of what a customer might find in an outdoors store anywhere across the region.
Products from MADE MOBB’s camo collections
“If you go into Bass Pro or a big sporting goods store like that, you’re going to see hunting gear, and an aesthetic tied into nature — not necessarily streetwear,” Launiu said. “Adding our vibe to what they’re selling really opens the door to something Midwest customers in those stores maybe didn’t even know they wanted until they saw it.”
A sold-out collection with Overland Park-headquartered Dri Duck, a maker of high-quality, durable workwear, in late 2025 helped further prove the theory.
But it didn’t just mean slapping clipart onto existing streetwear fits.
“We really dig camo, and working with brands like Scheels and Dr Duck really required that we dig deep into our own creative bag to make something that’s truly our own,” Launiu said. “With our MADE MOBB camo drops, we didn’t just come up with the fabric and cut. We spent six months getting the actual camo design where we wanted it.”
Students from Ryogoku Soccer Academy huddle while wearing limited-edition jerseys made by MADE MOBB in spring 2025 for a Copa de Calle street soccer tournament and festival; courtesy photo
‘Are we doing too much?’
That same spirit of high-intensity preparation is helping to fuel an aggressive plan as Kansas City — and the small business owners within it — brace for an influx of 650,000 FIFA World Cup visitors this summer, he said.
The Fútbol Club Jersey, one of MADE MOBB’s early World Cup-inspired jerseys
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us as a city to host the World Cup, and it really opens up a ton of possibilities,” Launiu said. “But you have to be ready for it, right?”
MADE MOBB is dropping 10 distinct jerseys in a World Cup-inspired collection, playing on color schemes of teams that will be competing in matches across the region. (Argentina, Algeria, Ecuador, Curaçao, Tunisia, the Netherlands, and Austria are among those set for Kansas City play.)
“We see it as an homage to the international teams, but it’s also going to be a souvenir of this moment — whether it’s your first time here, or you just love our city,” said Launiu.
With a relatively quick production turnaround, the heavy order is expected to arrive just before the World Cup, which first takes the pitch in June.
“We were thinking to ourselves, ‘Are we doing too much? Did we order too much?’” Launiu said. “But we’ve only got one shot at this, so we decided, ‘Let’s go all out, man.'”
Give-and-take opportunities
Even with regional expansion, MADE MOBB’s work remains something of a love letter to Kansas City, Launiu said — whether it’s the recent in-store Valentine’s Day community pop-up or a heartfelt apparel collaboration with the family of the late Chiefs legend Derrick Thomas.
“We’re grateful and blessed as a brand to be able to represent Kansas City at so many levels now,” he said. “It’s an honor, and we want to acknowledge our support system here at home. People just continue to show up for us and we don’t take this community lightly.”
The team behind the scenes continues to grow as individuals working within a collective of sorts — beyond the bottom line and largely fueled by a commitment to collaboration and trust among entrepreneurs at all levels, Launiu said.
“We champion small businesses, and that’s something that’s really special about MADE MOBB. But we also champion a lot of the guys who work here — as individuals,” he said of the team. “A lot of them have side hustles and their own small businesses. They’re entrepreneurs too, outside of their work with us — and we definitely understand what that’s like.”
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“We don’t cram them into a little MADE MOBB box; we give them the space to grow in their own lanes, while still being able to mentor them through the whole process,” Launiu said, echoing sentiments behind MADE MOBB-led workshops to help guide emerging apparel brands to sales.
“It’s not about saying, ‘Oh no, stop them before they become a competitor.’ We remember what it was like when we started off; people gave us a chance, and if we have the opportunity to give one back, we’re going to do it.”
