DENVER — Most of Bill and Mike Davis’ employees have never asked for a paycheck. They have never complained. Mostly, the just stand around quietly waiting for their next assignment.
Sounds impossible.
Not if you own a mannequin business.
“The best thing about this one is you can talk bad to it all day long and it doesn’t talk bad to you,” said Bill Davis, with his arm around a headless mannequin.
Davis likes to joke about the mannequins that fill his Denver warehouse, but they have been part of his livelihood for 29 years. Davis, along with his brother Mike, started Manne-King nearly three decades ago.
“It started out where we were just selling a display form for the tuxedo industry—Bill has been selling tuxedos for the last 40 years,” Mike Davis said.
They expanded beyond that, and have worked with clients like Nordstrom, Men’s Warehouse, bridal shops, and boutiques. Bill and Mike have also helped individual customers, who have the most interesting orders.
“A couple asked for few minutes to be alone with the mannequin so they could make a decision,” Mike said.
After years braving the ups and downs of the retail industry, the brothers will be retiring Manne-King in July.
“It’s getting harder and harder, and this business has changed a lot, and that goes along with the retail trends—if stores are closing they’re sure not buying mannequins,” Bill said. “But when you’ve done something this long you really get attached to it.”
The brothers said they are happy to be retiring, but before that happens, they are looking to sell the nearly 100 mannequins they still have on hand at deeply discounted prices.
“We’d like every one of these ladies and men and children to have homes when we’re all finished here—that would make us all happy,” Mike said.
The brothers also have a human employee, who has worked for them for 18 years, and he will be looking for a job come August 1st, 2018.
And it is that human interaction that has kept Bill and Mike in business for 29 years.
“There are many stores where we know the father and the son and now the 3rd generation coming along,” Mike said.
“It’s been a fun business,” Bill added.
Manne-King is selling their inventory at discounted rates. To learn more, go to their website.
