Owl Creek Graphics has new owners

Owl Creek Graphics, located in downtown Thermopolis, has new owners. Will and Babie Robinson officially took over the business from Dan and Penny Herdt on January 28. The business is located at 527 Broadway Street.

Will and Babie explained there are two focuses of their business. One is the retail side, where locals and tourists can purchase various clothes that have a variety of graphic designs or logos on them. There are t-shirts, a Carhartt section, Bobcat Pride clothing, University of Wyoming items, a Thermopolis section, and others. 

The second focus of their business is for the personalized design of custom-made products. This includes screen printing, embroidery, and heat press that are used on any article of clothing, hats, bags, stickers, or glassware. The turnaround time for the custom work is up to two weeks or earlier, depending upon the availability and logistics of the items involved. If there is a supply issue on a specifically requested item, it may take longer, but they will do their best. 

Will said, “We love this town. We know this store is kind of a niche for this town. There’s really no one else that does anything like we do for this town. We love to not only work with this town and be a part of it, but then also you know, we’re entrepreneurs. We like getting out there working with the business side of things, the marketing, and the advertising. All of that together pushed us in this direction. This opened up right when we were looking.” 

Babie had been trying to pursue dental school, and that didn’t work out and she was seeking her place in what she should be doing. Babie started working at Own Creek Graphics before purchasing the business on November 2021. She was trained to take over and properly run the business. Babie said, “It’s been awesome. Just meeting new folks and saying hi to old folks. The way Penny and Dan established this, they really made it easy to transition because a lot of the [design] files are already there.” Dan and Penny’s daughter Jess Benefiel has also assisted the Robinsons. 

Regarding future plans, Babie said, “The game plan now is just to keep the way it is and maybe improve with online sales… Improve quality with hats, keep up a better backstock. That way, we don’t have to wait for the shipment to come in. We can actually have things.”

Will added the importance of “Generating new products and putting them on the shelves and hangers. It’s a lot of work. We also look to be hiring a couple of new people here in the near future… It would be for someone who will do everything we do here, from screen printing to embroidery to the front desk, keeping the retail side.”

Babie and Will also both have a military background in the Air Force and want to bring in more Made in the USA, patriotic items.  

Babie and Will said, “We love this town. We love being part of this town and to give back to this town. We need to keep it local. The community has been awesome.”