ProRodeo Sports News - August 5, 2022

PRORODEO GEAR

PRCA ProRodeo photos One of Don King’s famous tightly-carved floral pattern saddles is on the showroom floor as are the ever popular King Ropes hats.

coming to work every day. “It is nice that we are well-known, and we ship stuff all over the world because of what we can build and what we can do,” Mefford said. “There’s a lot of pride in what we put out of here. It’s all simple stuff, but there is way more to it than anybody realizes. There’s way more to getting the ropes right and tied right so they stay right. From start to finish it is very interesting.” Don King is upbeat about the future of King’s Saddlery and King Ropes “We feed a lot of mouths in this town with employees, but I don’t want to expand it,” King said. “I want to have enough inventory and hopefully after we get through all this stuff with the supply situation, I can start doing more online stuff where I can make it more profitable moving forward. “As long as the markets and the economy open up again, I want to continue to grow the business. I want to keep my grandfather’s empire moving along and there is a great possibility to do that with not only the brand recognition, but I also just need to get the inventory in to promote it even more. You have a lot of people who want to live the Western lifestyle. They watch the movies and the (TV show) Yellowstone . We get a lot of traffic between September and November because of hunting season. People hunt elk, deer, moose, mountain lions, you name it.”

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“Cowboys back in the day went to a hardware store and did their own. Grandpa (Don) saw a need that he could make a user-end product that they could just walk in and walk out with.” King Ropes does tie-down ropes, team roping ropes, steer roping ropes. and then the big thing now is the Polypropylene for breakaway ropes. Kim Ziegelgruber, a steer roper, and native of Oklahoma, loves stopping into King Ropes. “I use their ropes, and this is a good place to come visit because there’s always something you didn’t see the first time, especially going through the museum or shopping,” Ziegelgruber said. “We make it through here twice a year and come by and say hi to everybody. We know everybody in the rope shop.” Danny Morales and Gary Mefford manage the rope shop for the Kings. Morales started working for the Kings in December of 1979. “It is a great job,” Morales said. “I’m outside during the summer and inside during the winter. I go to Vegas for two weeks and Cheyenne for two weeks. I have met some great people. “This store is like a slice of Americana – and that’s the way we want it to be. This is just a neighborly deal.” Mefford, who has been working for the Kings for 47 years, loves

ProRodeo Sports News 8/5/2022

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