DURANGO, Colo. – When fire devastated the 700 block of Main Ave. in February 2008, Half Price Tees was almost the afterthought in the national and international news.

Two popular restaurants have been destroyed – and, oh, a little t-shirt shop too.

But what the media, and a good number of locals, didn’t know was, yes, Half-Price Tees is a retail operation, but it’s also an extremely successful custom shop, Durango Embroidery and Print. The fire didn’t just destroy a tourist shop, it took out custom embroidery and screen printing equipment – and the livelihood of Eric and Kay Kiesel.

“We lost everything in the building,” said Eric Kiesel, who now, after six months, is as optimistic as ever. “The smoke damage wrecked everything. Our insurance company walked into the building – yeah, complete loss, here’s a check. State Farm was great.”

“But two days after everything burned down we had a customer calling, ‘Can you still do our job?’” said Kay, still in some disbelief that the local community didn’t realize everything was literally gone.

“I asked when is it?” said Eric referencing Miller Middle School’s Destination Imagination competition. “I said, let me make a phone call, and I called my screen supplier (asking) how fast can you have equipment to me?”

The answer was four days, and the Kiesels committed to the job. Indeed, by Monday morning the couple was looking for new space.

“Kay and I are both type A personalities,” said Eric. “We don’t get knocked down and say, ‘Gee what should we do now?’ We needed to get back in business.”

The Kiesels are far from the stereotypical retail shop owner. Originally from Chicago, they met while employed at a cutting-edge market research firm, Information Resources. Kay stayed with the firm for ten years and went on to became a fitness instructor, while Eric pursued a somewhat eclectic career path that included working with his father at his commercial sheet metal fabrication company, handling operations for a trucking company and day-trading commodities. By then Kay and Eric were married and as he noted, commodities “wasn’t a good way to support a family. Too up and down.”

Eric moved on to management consulting, helping build a well-respected firm that worked with executives from around the country. When 9-11 hit, however, it hit the business hard, and added more stress to an already stressful job.

“I started looking for opportunities here,” said Eric, referencing Durango. “I looked for a long, long time, and the only things available were restaurants. From my career history, it’s clear I’m not afraid to try new things, but I didn’t want to take on a restaurant.”

Half Price Tees was an established retail and custom operation, and though it wasn’t “officially” on the market at the time, realtor Katie Ogier had a sense that the owner, who was from New York and looking to leave the mountains, would hit it off with Eric.

“I looked at the numbers, and it was a profitable business, which I wanted,” said Eric. “I had done my ten years of turning everybody else’s business around, and I was burned out. So we started negotiating.”

In October 2003, Eric observed the store for a week, pleased with what he witnessed, and then flew home to Kay, suggesting they move to the mountains. She was amenable. The Kiesels had endured a rough year. In addition to the stressful job situation, their son had been extremely ill, and Eric lost both his parents following debilitating illnesses.

“So we had all these bad gigs going on,” said Eric. “I looked at Kay, and after being an athlete all my life I said, ‘I need to be traded to a different team.’ I’d been in Chicago for 42 years. I love the city, but the only thing that kept me there was my parents.”

Kay remained in Chicago with their children, handling the sale of the house. Eric moved to Durango in January 2004 and lived in the basement of Half Price Tees. Four months later Kay joined him and the family settled in Bayfield.

Neither Kay nor Eric knew anything about custom embroidery and screen printing, and that side of the business was the weak link, but it was the side the Kiesels knew could be the most lucrative.

Half Price Tees' temporary home is in the space formerly occupied by Durango Quilt Company.

“This (custom) business is all about getting things done,” said Eric, who discovered in researching the industry that many owners were graphic designers or have some type of artistic background. “They want to turn these things in to art, and it isn’t art. This is about getting people their products on time and at a fair price.”

And that’s been the formula the Kiesels have followed. In the four years since opening, the couple has built a strong following of tourists who return each year to shop the retail store, as well as local organizations and individuals who turn to Durango Embroidery and Print for logo shirts, hats, bags and more.

“All in all it’s been a great experience here,” said Eric. “It was the right move to make. I haven’t regretted it.”

But the fire was a definite interruption. That day, though the fire smoldered in Seasons’ wall or attic for hours before thoroughly showing itself, the Kiesels had no knowledge that anything was amiss, even though Seasons and Half Price Tees shared an open attic. The store manager was out, so the Kiesels were the only ones in their building, and they had paused to eat a late lunch when a meter reader alerted them of smoke.

“What was weird is that it was inconsistent,” said Eric of the smoke.

The Durango Fire and Rescue Authority has since thoroughly analyzed the incident, in general discovering that the historic structures were so intertwined and not built to a code that would be required today, that it indeed took a great deal of time to discover exactly what was happening.

As DFRA arrived on the scene, some flames had emerged on Seasons roof, but it still appeared isolated and small. It wasn’t until smoke began billowing from the wall between Half Price Tees and Le Rendezvous that full realization set in.

“I go bolting down the stairs,” said Eric of the back courtyard that leads from the building to the alley. “By the time I got into our building and tell Kay to get out and then try to go to the basement, it was so full of smoke I couldn’t see. Within 15 minutes it went from looking like I could have walked on the roof with a fire extinguisher and sprayed it out to a full blown fire.”

The Kiesels left with literally just the clothes on their backs – no car keys, no house keys and no computer – let alone any of the embroidery equipment or inventory. To get into their home that night, Eric hoisted his son through a window.

The couple tried to salvage some of the computerized sewing equipment, though the manufacturer advised against trying to rely on it, as smoke likely corroded the electronics. The electronic component not destroyed, however, was the external hard drive connected to the company computer. It was more resistant to fire and water. All except perhaps five percent of their financial data was recovered.

“Also, because I don’t manufacture my own screens and we outsource digitizing for the embroidery designs, all our vendors had the (clients’) original artwork,” said Eric. “So as people started coming to us, I’d go back and look and if we didn’t have it, I’d call my vendor. There’s been nothing I haven’t found.”

The Kiesels ran their custom business out of their home until they were able to negotiate a short-term, flexible lease and re-open Half Price Tees at the corner of Main and College, in the basement retail space that used to house Durango Quilt Company.

“There have been so many well-wishers and people come down, even locals, just to say, ‘Hey, we saw your sign and just wanted to come down and see your store and see where you’re at,’” said Kay. “Sometimes I liken us to Cheers. The tourists will come year after year and see us again and again. We’ve had tourists who say, ‘We come to your store every year, and we’re glad we found you.’ We’re really glad to see them. We think that makes our store special.”

The buildings in the 700 block of Main Ave. are currently being rebuilt. Though Le Rendezvous will not be returning, both Seasons and Half Price Tees will. The Kiesels look forward to moving in come spring.

“Right after it burned we were committed to moving back,” said Eric, noting that the building’s owner, Barry Mason, “is the best landlord in Durango.”

The rebuilt store will have 1000 additional square feet, giving the operation a total of 4600 on two levels. And they’ll need the space as in the wake of the fire, the Kiesels have discovered an entirely new business niche.

“We’re starting to supply other stores,” said Kay, explaining the effort began shortly after the fire when a former customer opened a store in Cambria, Calif. “He needed 300 shirts, and then it was 400, then 700. I’m making them and he’s selling them. So Eric and I were thinking, why aren’t we supplying stores all over the nation?”

“So out of the fire has come a revelation of where I need to take the business,” said Eric. “But we really like working with the town. We like the people.”

Though they saved a couple of bricks from the old building, the Kiesels aren’t looking back.

“We have to be careful with our coin now,” said Kay. “It’s going to cost us to build out at the new store.”

“But we have to get back home,” said Eric.

indiana@durangodowntown.com