Coppell Chronicle Vol. 1, No. 30

Leather Shop Gets Big-Time Exposure • Tattered Style Set to Expand • Must Carports Come Down? • Live-Work Units Put on Hold

Leather Shop Gets Big-Time Exposure

Photo courtesy of the Magnolia Network

I’d lay the odds at 50-50 on whether you’re going to view this article as breaking news or old news.

You could be like me, a person who has lived around the corner from the Odin Leather Goods workshop for years but only recently learned of its existence. However, Odin Leathers Good just received a golden kiss of publicity from Chip and Joanna Gaines of Fixer Upper fame, so you may already be very familiar with the Odin brand.

Odin Leather Goods is named after its creator, Coppell resident Odin Clack. He and his wife, Rachelle Clack, were just featured on the second episode of Self Employed, one of 30-plus shows on the Magnolia Network started by Waco’s most famous residents. For now, you can access that channel only by subscribing to the Discovery+ streaming platform or the Magnolia app.

(By the way, Odin is his given name; his sister’s name is Valhalla. Obviously, their parents were really into Norse mythology or read at least a few Thor comic books.)

Self Employed is hosted by Jonathan Morris, the charismatic founder of Fort Worth Barber Shop. He spotlights other small-business owners who are willing to “share their secrets for becoming self-employed.” The first episode is about a cheesecake shop in Dallas. The third episode focuses on a Detroit garage specializing in muscle cars.

Clack doesn’t precisely know how he got on Magnolia’s radar, but he has a general idea. He said the initial call from the producers of Self Employed was not the first he’s taken from a casting director. He’s been contacted before due to the numerous videos on his YouTube and Instagram accounts.

“Good work yields opportunities, I guess,” Clack told me. “A lot of those opportunities could come from something that happened three years ago. You just never know.”

Since his episode of Self Employed started streaming last month, Clack has seen an increase in online sales, in-store sales, and phone calls about bulk orders. That speaks to the power of Chip and Jojo’s growing media empire. Clack said his past turns in the spotlight, such as a Texas Monthly profile published in 2017, didn’t provide as big of a boost.

“I’ve done some other media pieces in the past, and they don’t directly yield any type of lift in sales, other than when I go out and I push and I share that ‘this thing happened,’ and I use that to generate lift on my own,” he said.

Odin Leather Goods started out as a hobby — more precisely, as explained on Self Employed, it started out as a sort of therapy for Clack. I don’t want to spoil the episode for anyone who hasn’t seen it, so skip the next paragraph if you plan to watch it.

SPOILER ALERT: The Clacks have a daughter and a son. When their son was 2 years old, he was hospitalized with pancreatitis. Rachelle convinced Odin to leave the hospital for a few hours to give himself a break. While driving around, he spotted a store selling leather supplies. He thought making something with his hands might be a good way to clear his head.

That home-based hobby eventually grew into a business that allowed Odin and Rachelle to both quit their day jobs and make leather goods their primary source of income. They opened their workshop on South Coppell Road in 2017, in a nondescript industrial building that houses a few other businesses. There is no Odin Leather Goods signage that you would notice while driving by.

“My primary business has been online for years,” Odin said. “I ship stuff all over the world from my little shop here in Coppell, and no one in Coppell knows I’m there, except for a few people. That’s just the way the business has been organized.”

The Clacks opened a retail store last year, and Self Employed makes it seem as if the store is also in Coppell. It’s actually in The Colony, in the shadow of Nebraska Furniture Mart. The opening day was March 3, 2020 — one week before the world started shutting down.

Despite that unfortunate bit of timing, business is booming. The Clacks employ a few people at the retail store, plus a second craftsman who works alongside Odin. And they’re looking to hire another.

Odin said experience working with leather is “strongly preferred, but I’ve got to be honest with you: No one has that experience,” he said with a laugh. “I’d love to find somebody that knows more about leathercraft than I do. Maybe they could teach me a thing or two.”

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Tattered Style Set to Expand

Although Odin Leather Goods’ retail store is located in The Colony, you can find Odin’s leather goods in at least one Coppell boutique. Tattered Style sells leather fly swatters and keychains bearing the Odin brand.

While driving down Bethel Road recently, I noticed that the business next door to Tattered Style was vacant. State Farm agent Dan Raube had occupied the building with the vintage gas pumps out front for a few years, but he seems to have exited the insurance business. (Don’t worry; there are at least five other State Farm agents in Coppell.)

When I started looking around online to determine who owns the building with the gas pumps, I learned it’s none other than Dana Pugh, the owner of Tattered Style. I then discovered that the building’s ownership will soon be evident to people who don’t enjoy poring over property records. Last month, Pugh announced on Facebook that Tattered Style will be expanding into the former service station.

Actually, Tattered Style will be expanding into a building styled to look like a former service station. When I called Pugh last week to discuss her plans, I asked if she knew when gasoline was last pumped at that location. Much to my surprise, she told me it never was. As far as Pugh knew, the building with the pumps out front is actually a former laundromat; she said the pumps are facsimiles placed there by the Coppell Historical Society.

I emailed Pete Wilson, president of the Coppell Historical Society, to fact-check that, and he confirmed that the building was a laundromat for a time, but he said it was built in the 1960s to house telephone switching equipment.

“About the time that Michael’s Wood Floors took over the building, the Historical Society got permission to salvage the bay doors of the old Bea’s Garage, which was being demolished to allow the development of the Old Town square, and the doors were installed on the building,” Wilson said. “Finally, the Society purchased faux gasoline pumps for the outside, somewhat in commemoration of the fact that the two former general/grocery stores in Old Town had gasoline pumps.”

As you would expect from the president of a historical society, Wilson threw in a couple more historical nuggets: The Tattered Style building was once a post office, and the land under the future home of Tattered Style II (Pugh’s working name for her second location) was the site of Coppell’s first bank, which Wilson said went belly-up before the Depression.

Pugh aims to have Tattered Style II up and running in time for the holiday shopping season. “The new place will be completely different from our current store,” she wrote on Facebook, “and we can’t wait to reveal all the details.”

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Must Carports Come Down?

When Jim and Sarah Goyne moved to Coppell to be close to their grandsons, they bought a house with a rear carport. In the 16 years since, city inspectors have been to the Goynes’ home at least three times to examine a new roof, an added room, and a water heater. None of those inspectors said a word about the carport.

So the Goynes were gobsmacked when they received an Aug. 20 letter from the city that said their carport violated Coppell’s Code of Ordinances. The letter instructed the couple to remove their carport within 180 days.

“Out of the blue, we’re being asked to tear it down, as if the city just discovered it was there,” Jim Goyne told the City Council last Tuesday, with his wife at his side.

The letter said the Goynes’ carport violated three rules:

1. “The distance from the rear property line to the nearest post, column, [or] wall is not at least 20 feet.”

2. “Accessory structures, such as carports, that are over 150 square feet cannot be made of metal.”

3. “Did not apply for and obtain a building permit prior to constructing any building.”

Regarding that last point: Goyne told the council that the carport was included in a 2000 plat survey as well as the deed paperwork. The home was built in 1985, 20 years before the Goynes bought it.

“This carport is well-constructed. We have enjoyed it for 16 years that we’ve lived there,” Goyne said. “It provided shade. It provided protection for our cars from hailstorms. And we had no idea that it was illegal and had been built illegally.”

The Goynes’ carport is not the only one in the Sherwood Park neighborhood, which is south of Parkway Boulevard and west of Moore Road. A satellite view on Google Maps shows at least three other carports behind homes that share the Goynes’ alley.

Marge Wick, who also lives in Sherwood Park, has a carport behind her home as well. It’s one of at least six off her alley. She said a code enforcement officer told her there are more than 100 noncompliant carports in the city.

“That’s an awful lot of metal that would go to the trash, and then to the dump, and why?” Wick asked the City Council. “Isn’t that against some of our environment?”

Wick and Goyne both spoke during the “Citizens’ Appearance” portion of Tuesday’s meeting, as did the Goynes’ son. Greg Goyne said he asked the city staff why there have been no warnings about a code violation at his parents’ home in the past two decades, and no one could answer that question.

“Given that this has clearly not mattered to the city for at least 20 years,” Jim Goyne said, “I am asking the City Council to reconsider what you have asked the staff to do.”

I’ve been faithfully watching City Council meetings for more than six months, and I don’t remember hearing the council asking the staff to do anything about carports. Just to be sure I didn’t miss something, I went back over the council’s recent agendas.

Sure enough, one of the items on the “Executive Session” portion of the council’s June 8 agenda was “Seek Legal Advice from City Attorney regarding accessory structures under Zoning and Building Codes.” Similarly, one of the items on the “Executive Session” portion of Tuesday’s agenda was “Seek Legal Advice from City Attorney regarding zoning ordinance and accessory structures.”

“Our council is taking this matter very seriously,” Mayor Wes Mays said Tuesday. “We are still, quite honestly, thinking about our options and determining what is the best steps for the future of our town.”

He then recited one of his favorite sayings, the one about short-term decisions having long-term consequences, before asking for patience.

“We’re going to make the best decision we can,” Mays said. “It’s going to be in the best interests of the City of Coppell, and please understand: We certainly do not take these things lightly.”

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Live-Work Units Put on Hold

The first article in Coppell Chronicle No. 26 was about a plan to build five live-work units on a vacant lot on South Coppell Road. The Planning and Zoning Commission recommended approval of the proposal, but the City Council has the final say on the matter.

The council conducted a public hearing on Tuesday, and they had plenty of pointed questions before any neighbors voiced their opposition to the proposal. This is just a sampling:

• John Jun had questions about placing a wooden fence between the new units’ rear parking lot and the adjacent property, rather than a masonry wall as required by the current zoning.

• Mark Hill had concerns about the reduced amount of green space between the parking lot and the adjacent property, as well as the number of parking spaces available.

• Brianna Hinojosa-Smith wanted to know whether firefighters’ hoses would be able to reach each of the five proposed units.

Eventually, Hinojosa-Smith called for an executive session so the council could consult with the city attorney. That session lasted about 20 minutes. When it was over, Hinojosa-Smith made a motion to continue the public hearing until Sept. 28, with a request for the applicant, Chris Collins, and his architect, Greg Frnka, to meet with city staff in the interim and consider a reduction in the number of units.

Although she called the live-work proposal a “beautiful concept,” Hinojosa-Smith said she is “struggling with the density. … I just think it’s too much in too small of a space.”

Her motion passed on a 6-1 vote, with Cliff Long being the outlier.

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Chronicle Crumbs

• Other than the applicants, nobody showed up to speak at Tuesday’s public hearing regarding the proposed zoning changes that will transform Doggie’s Wonderland into the Coppell Chess Club. (That proposal was also covered in Coppell Chronicle No. 26.) Consequently, the City Council unanimously approved that proposal without debate.

• Last week’s Coppell Chronicle began with an article about Little Free Libraries. Coincidentally, this week’s edition of Coppell ISD’s Informed newsletter includes an article about Denton Creek Elementary teacher Kathy Glover creating a community library for the Creekside Mobile Home Community.

• Hey, does anybody want to grab an early lunch on Thursday? I’ll be in Old Town that day for this brouhaha:

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Community Calendar

Coppell 5K: Get You In Shape will host the annual race this Saturday, Sept. 25. The first 11 editions of the 5K have collectively raised more than $100,000 for Special Olympics Teams of Coppell.

Grief and Healing Support Group: First United Methodist Church of Coppell will launch the latest edition of this six-week group at 3 p.m. on Sept. 26 via Zoom. Participants will learn about the grieving process in order to work through the stages, grow through the loss, and find support from others. To register, call the church office at 972-462-0471.

DogFest Texas: This Oct. 2 event at The Sound at Cypress Waters supports the mission of Canine Companions — to enhance the lives of people with disabilities by providing expertly trained service dogs free of charge.