Atmosphere Mountainworks’ new owners focus offerings on outdoor supplies

His fellow co-owner, Lindsay Olson, said after years of being open for seven days a week, the store needed several minor repairs that were nearly impossible to complete when it was fully stocked.

“The Christmas sale was definitely a liquidation,” Olson said. “But there was a lot of other work we needed to do — cleaning, maintenance, painting and the list goes on.”

Specializing in custom-made outdoor gear, Atmosphere Mountainworks previously offered shoppers an eclectic mix of knick-knacks, gag gifts, dog toys and art supplies among other things. While the new owners plan to keep the primary products and continue the line of custom-made products, Olson said she and Hubbell were scaling back the gadgets and gizmos.

“We’re both Wyoming kids,” Hubbell said. “So, we wanted a little room to spread our arms.”

Hubbell and Olson are well acquainted with Atmosphere. Around 2010, they started a small screen printing business, 105 Degrees West, using space in the store’s warehouse area and have worked with the Mountainworks former owner, Scott Ebinger, ever since.

While customers might no longer be able to find toilet paper sporting the president’s photo on each sheet or knit finger puppets at the shop, Olson said they plan to continue offering custom-made outdoor gear, art supplies, dog toys and a few other eccentricities.

“A lot of the gear we have right now was sewn late last year,” she said. “The designs we have now are the old designs, but we all have a project in mind that we would like to try — a fanny pack that’s perfect for skiing with your dog, a better women’s pullover and so on.”

Hubbell said they are also adding new materials to their stock while being cautious to keep the same standard of material quality.

“We’re still going to be doing custom orders and repair work, too,” he said.

Before reopening Friday, the duo cleared some unexpected hurdles while bringing the shop together.

“Putting socks on a peg board is harder than it first seems,” Olson said, chuckling. “Restocking is one thing, but when you have this many socks — men’s, women’s, kids’ — and you look at the space you have and try to decide whether to organize by brand, color, shape — I don’t know — there’s so many categories. I just have a new found respect for designing the sock wall.”

With more renovations planned for the future, she said they “might just continue reopening for the next few months.”

Hubbell said they were considering implementing a frequent-shopper reward program and moving away from Ebinger’s storewide super sales to more focused spot sales.

But the duo plan to keep the store open seven days a week with only a small adjustment to the hours.

“We’ll be open 10 a.m.-6 p.m. (Mondays-Saturdays) and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. on Sundays,” Hubbell said. “(Ebinger) used to open at 9 a.m., so it’s a little later, but still the same hours for the most part.”