Vendors build community, grow small businesses at National Western Stock Show
Gary Wrobel, who owns candle and soap company Gnome Hollows out of Louisiana, sells handmade goods at a booth at the National Western Stock Show.
Right across from Wrobel’s booth, Robert Royston sells clothing to stock show visitors with his business BAC, BadAss Cowboy BadAss Cowgirl. On Royston’s sales desk, he has two of Wrobel’s candles to help out his small business neighbor.
Next door to Royston, bestselling author Reid Lance Rosenthal signs and sells his novels to passerby’s and across from Rosenthal, Kris Mueller from small business Time Vault Treasures sells clocks she and her husband carve out of vinyl records.
The four vendors and several others in the same corner of the show floor call themselves “the neighborhood,” helping each other out and forming friendships that make the 16-day show even more fun.
“We help each other out and it’s a really cool community,” Wrobel said. “We joke around a lot and play pranks on each other, we make it fun and entertaining.”
The National Western Stock Show has more than 300 retail vendors. Visitors are absolutely going to find Stock Show staples like western hats, boots, western apparel, agriculture equipment like livestock chutes and tractors. But unexpected vendors sell products that range from art, hot tubs, mattresses, furniture, vintage video game consoles, clothing and jewelry to marionette children’s toys, alpaca yarn and taxidermy animals like skunks.
Trade show vendors fill the Hall of Education, with three floors of local and global businesses selling their products. It’s a hub for colorful western wear, fun souvenirs and trinkets, good food and a fascinating collection of things people don’t realize they want until they see them.
Wrobel and his wife, who own Gnome Hollows, travel to various shows and fairs around the country to sell their goods, oftentimes running into the same people at shows.
Selling at the National Western Stock Show each year gives them an opportunity to develop and grow as a small business, Wrobel said.
Already, Wrobel has seen repeat customers who love their products and return for more every year, which helps their business build its customer base and get its name out into the world.
Gnome Hollow’s candles are handmade with pure soy, Wrobel said. The soybeans they use are all American-grown to support American farmers and converted into a wax.
The fragrances they use are all sourced locally in the U.S. as well, Wrobel said. They make about 200 candle fragrances, but can’t bring all of them to every show they do.
Gary Wrobel poses for a portrait at the National Western Stock Show in front of the candles he and his wife, Tisha Wrobel, make for their business Gnome Hollow Candle and Soap Company.
At the Stock Show, Wrobel likes to bring western-themed scents, such as bourbon, leather, spruce and other tree scents. His favorite is the bourbon oak, he said.
Wrobel grew up in Massachusetts a few towns over from where Yankee Candle started, he said. In their spare time, he and his brother would make candles in the basement.
“I’ve toyed around with it for years and made candles on and off, a lot of bad ones, but got serious about it about five years ago,” he said.
Wrobel has training in molecular biology and uses a lot of his education and techniques to trick the candle wax into holding more oil, making them stronger in scent than many other candles, he said.
Across from Wrobel, Robert Royston sells clothing for his business BadAss Cowboy, BadAss Cowgirl.
Royston grew up in a trailer park listening to country music and later became a choreographer, dancer and business owner.
Robert Royston sells clothing to customers at his “Bad Ass Cowboy, Bad Ass Cowgirl” booth at the National Western Stock Show.
With funds from the clothing brand, they sponsor underprivileged youth rodeo, Heartstrings Foundation, which gives guitars to veterans at VA hospitals, and other causes, Royston said.
“We have a great clothing line and it’s all attitude clothing that kind of tells the world who you are,” Royston said.
Royston does choreography for a living outside of his business, starting as a country dancer at 15 years old, he said.
From there, he danced on Broadway for several years and eventually found his way into country music, choreographing Taylor Swift’s “Love Story” music video and her “Fearless” World Tour.
Since then, he’s worked with Steel Magnolia, The Band Perry, Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood and a variety of other country artists.
“I’ve had a beautiful career coming from a trailer park kid to working hard to chase my dreams,” Royston said.
Now, he directs and produces stage shows, choreographs music videos and teaches dance all over the world.
Rosenthal, author of “Threads West, an American Saga,” grew up on a ranch near Fort Collins and writes historical fiction about the American West. He’s come to the stock show for three years and has hundreds of thousands of readers in the metro Denver area, he said.
Reid Lance Rosenthal, the author of “Threads West, An American Saga,” signs one of his books at his booth at the National Western Stock Show.
The stock show is long and can oftentimes be grueling, especially on quieter days and times, Rosenthal said. Having a community of other vendors helps them pass the quieter times, compare notes on business and help one another out, he said.
“We call this ‘the neighborhood,’ and everybody rocks,” Rosenthal said. “It’s like having your home in a good neighborhood where you can talk to the neighbors across the fence and discuss how the lawn mower’s running and ‘hey did you see what those jerks did with the trash the other night,’ type of deal.”
Across from him, Kris Mueller sells records she and her family turn into clocks for their small business Time Vault Treasures.
Mueller and her husband, Todd Mueller, started their business about 10 years ago as a part-time fun gig, Mueller said. They create all of the original designs on their clocks and hand carve them.
Kris Mueller, who owns small family-owned business, Time Vault Treasures, poses for a portrait in front of the clocks she and her husband make out of vinyl records.
While Mueller has more of the creative skills when it comes to clock designing, her husband has an engineering background that helped them figure out how to cut the designs into the records.
“I’ve always been creative and I’ve always wanting to do something repurposed,” Mueller said. “I started with repurposed jewelry, but that market is so saturated.”
Mueller is in her fourth year at the stock show and loves coming back each year to the community she’s developed with the other vendors. They share lunch with their neighbors, share life stories and help one another out when they need it, she said.
A floor above “the neighborhood,” Omar Barreto sells yarn marionettes, bringing stuffed animals to life for passing children.
Barreto, who was born in Venezuela and moved to the U.S. in 1980, has been selling his puppets at the stock show for 37 years, he said.
Omar Barreto, the owner of Yarn Marionettes, shows Emerson Noggle, 4, how to play with one of the toys he sells at his booth at the National Western Stock Show.
Barreto and his wife design the puppets, which are animals made of yarn and attached to string and wood to make them maneuverable. His shop has a variety of animals including flamingos, llamas, chickens, unicorns and road runners.
He doesn’t sell his marionettes anywhere else, so they’re unique because people can only buy them once a year at his stock show booth, Barreto said.
“Kids are playing too many video games and watching too much TV, and these are all about the imagination,” Barreto said, making a marionette cat dance around, lay down and pretend to eat from a bowl on the floor. “They’re the cutest thing you can buy.”
Downstairs and around a corner from Barreto, Andy and DJ Riedel sell clothing and yarn from the alpacas they raise on their ranch, Rockin’ R Alpaca Ranch.
The Riedels have been raising alpacas since 2011 and having been coming to the stock show for seven years, bringing with them alpacas and a variety of socks, sweaters, yarn balls, hats and other things made of alpaca fibers.
Andy Riedel knits with alpaca yarn next to his wife, DJ Riedel, at their vendor booth at the National Western Stock Show. The Riedel’s own Rockin’ R Alpaca Ranch, where they raise alpacas and sell clothing and yarn made from their fibers.
As their business grows, they sell some of their own handmade products but supplement with products from Peru, since the U.S. doesn’t have a lot of alpaca product manufacturers, Andy Riedel said.
The stock show helps them grow their business, with the goal of someday growing big enough to no longer need outside products, Riedel said.
Alpacas are calming and soothing, Riedel said, oftentimes bringing him joy and relaxation after long days at his corporate job.
The stock show has a big emphasis on education, DJ Riedel said, which is what brings them back each year.
Not many people know about alpacas, but their fibers can be used to make clothing that is softer, lighter and warmer than wool, Riedel said.
While sheep’s wool produces lanolin, which a lot of people are allergic to, alpaca fibers do not. Sheep wool also has little barbs, which make it less soft and can be removed with a superwash process, but can be avoided entirely with alpaca fiber, which doesn’t have the same prickly factor.
“We’re moving towards being able to just stay home at the ranch and have visitors come there to get the full effect,” Riedel said. “We’re setting up space to be able to teach people what it takes to process from fiber to fashion.”