Key Takeaways:
- Make Scents has expanded beyond the surf channel into farm and ranch and hardware stores.
- A buy-three-get-one-free retail promo and new scratch-and-sniff stickers aim to ramp up turn even further.
- Faster lead times and no seasonal closeouts are a welcome change from the apparel business.
We checked in with the Make Scents team at Surf Expo for an update, and there was plenty to report.
Nearly three years in, the car air freshener brand is hanging on pegs everywhere from surf shops to farm and ranch stores and Ace Hardware. It’s collaborating with everyone from The Black Keys to Sanuk and turning pop culture moments into new designs. And it’s now in around 400 accounts, up from 200 doors in July 2024.
Co-Founder Dustin Odbert and his brother, Co-Founder and Creative Director Dylan Odbert, started Make Scents after closing their apparel brand Ambsn.
They launched it with three fellow co-founders: Jordan Mead and Connor Carpenter of sales group JM Sales & Service, and Sam Lovell, also a sales rep.
The brand turns three next month. It started with a holiday 2023 test run in about 15 retailers, including Surfside Sports, Jack’s and Hansen’s.
“That was proof of concept, and it worked,” Dustin said.
The team then spent about three months reviewing styles, working out fixturing and tightening up operations and warehousing before launching in mid-March 2024. Pricing hasn’t changed since the start: $6.99 retail with a 60% upfront margin for retailers.
Make Scents air fresheners at Surf Expo. Photo by SESO.
Built for the Counter
“It’s different, and it’s not apparel,” Dustin said. “So now it’s an accessory. How do we hold our counter space? How do we make it more profitable for retailers with quicker turns?”
One answer is a buy-three-get-one-free promotion. Make Scents holds margin for retailers, who scan a barcode so the discount applies automatically at the register. Retailers are still working out how to run it through their POS systems.
“To us it sounds simple, but then they’re like, ‘Hey, I got to train my guys on the floor to do this,’” Dustin said.
“There are things to figure out. But these are fun challenges,” he said.
Dustin said the brand is easy for retailers to work with.
“Something’s not selling, we’re going to move them out, get them other stuff in. We just want those pegs turning,” Dustin said.
Because the fresheners are sealed in plastic, shoppers previously had no way to smell them in the store.
“We introduced scratch-and-sniff stickers to all of our air fresheners this year, which has been kind of a game changer because everybody’s always like, ‘What’s it smell like?’” Dustin said. “Now they can just go up and scratch it.”
The fresheners are color coded by scent, with yellow signaling Coconutty, for example. The team went to fragrance companies for elevated, on-trend scents, and all are cosmetic grade.
“It’s kind of like something that you’re like, ‘Oh my god, that’s my scent,’” Dustin said.
Make Scents has expanded beyond surf into farm and ranch and hardware stores. Photo by SESO.
Chasing Pop Culture
Make Scents now has 86 designs, and some get reordered every other week.
“We’ve been able to react really quick to pop culture moments, and you can test things,” Dustin said.
The lineup leans on wordplay and visual jokes. A cactus design reads “Don’t Be a Pric*,” Ms Dolly is a queen of hearts playing card, and Ducky is a red duck with little horns.
A Western collection includes Howdy on a camo background, This Ain’t My First Rodeo, Mama Tried and Giddy Up.
Other options include Blame It All on My Roots, an 8 Ball, an American flag design called Home and a fish leaping under the words “Wishin’ I Was Fishin’.” Darlin’ shows a rearing horse labeled “Difficult & Expensive.”
The Shaka is still in the line, and Girls Night, the “Let’s Go Girls” design on a “No Filter” cigarette pack.
The Fridge Cig design, a Diet Coke can in the Vanilla Dream scent, launched in April and is one example of a fast mover.
“Our online store’s taking off,” Dustin said. “Retailers are ordering three boxes to back up, and then it’s introducing customers to new styles or styles that they maybe overlooked before.”
This year also brings the brand’s first holiday collection, including a Santa Claus design that plays on the idea of “Jesus is watching.”
“You just kind of open your eyes to what is happening in the world, and you’re like, ‘Oh, that would be funny in this sort of way of an air freshener,’” Dustin said.
The holiday collection has been well received, he said, and the team may test a Halloween drop next year.
The brand did a collaboration with The Black Keys this year, and it has also collaborated with Midland and with industry brands Rhythm, Katin, Sanuk, Seager, Sun Bum and others. More collabs are in the works for next year that Dustin couldn’t discuss yet.
He said that not everyone would have picked Ambsn as their T-shirt brand, but an air freshener is a different story.
“We can work with all of our friends. It’s no competition,” he said.
“We’ve been really lucky to have support from all the industry brands,” Dustin said.
Make Scents has added a holiday collection. Photo by SESO.
Lessons From Ambsn
On advantage the new company has – Make Scents produces its fresheners in the U.S.
“We don’t have to deal with the tariffs and lead times are faster,” he said.
There’s no more building catalogs and assets far in advance, breaking product into seasons or closing out leftover size runs. The fresheners have a shelf life of about two years.
“Even if something’s slow, we’ll eventually sell it through the website, and it’ll be gone, and then we can just move on,” Dustin said.
Comparing it with the Ambsn days, Dylan said the change shows up in how the brothers spend their time.
“We’re able to work on the business instead of in the business,” he said.
At Ambsn, that meant tasks like relabeling product.
“It was just too much for the two of us,” Dustin said.
Still, Dustin doesn’t consider Ambsn a failure. He credited support from retailers including Surfside Co-Owner Duke Edukas, and said the experience taught the brothers what launching a brand takes.
“I look at it like a great education,” he said.
Make Scents’ brand collaborations include co-branded air fresheners for Rhythm, Seager and I-Sea.
A Lean Team
Dustin and Dylan are the brand’s only employees. Contractors handle ad buys and content, 12 sales reps cover the country, and others pitch in on shipping when the brothers are out of town.
The company has no outside investors.
“The five of us all put money in,” Dustin said.
Dustin said the brand still has a long way to go, with plenty of low-hanging fruit ahead.
“It’s not like a crazy hockey stick, but it’s like a really healthy growth,” Dustin said. “We’re just managing our cash and making sure that we’re trying to make the right decisions to not spend all our money on things that aren’t necessary.”
“We still run around like cockroaches, really,” he said.
International Plans
Make Scents opened Canada earlier this year, where accounts have done well. Shipping there has become a little more difficult, so the Canadian side now handles importing, and Dustin is looking into a third-party logistics provider.
“We have Made in USA on all our packaging, and so that’s become a thing,” Dustin said, referring to the recent U.S. and Canada trade disputes.
Dylan said the brand will consider other international markets when the team is ready.
“I think we have a lot of green grass here to take advantage of, and that requires support,” Dustin said. “I want to be able to support it in the right way.”
