Building a jewelry supply company piece by piece
What started out as a side-hustle for the owner of the Thunderbird Motel during the Indian jewelry boom of the 1970s, has grown into the profitable and successful jewelry supply chain Thunderbird Supply Company.
On July 17, Thunderbird celebrated its 50th Anniversary with a huge two-day sale, complete with cake and customer giveaways. CEO Danny Thomason said it was a proud moment for the employees of the Gallup flagship location.
Thunderbird also has stores in Albuquerque, which opened in October 1993, and Flagstaff, Ariz., which opened in March 2007.
Thomason recently took some time out of his busy management schedule to talk about the history of the popular store along with its humble beginnings. The concept for a jewelry supply store took shape when Thunderbird Supply Co. owner, Don Cosper, started selling turquoise on the streets of Gallup in 1970, Thomason estimates.
In his typed-out bio, Cosper said he and his wife decided in the late 1960s to spruce up the Road Runner Motel, which burned down in 2016, and add a gift shop. They displayed jewelry for sale from Richardson’s Trading Co., Johnny Murphy, and Gallup Indian Trading. Soon after, local artisans started to bring their goods directly to the motel. From there, they opened a gift shop at the Thunderbird Motel, on Gallup’s westside.
It looked like Cosper was well on his way to success in the tourism business, operating motels and gift shops. But then a suggestion by a close friend threw a wrench into those plans. This friend said that he should buy a grinding wheel and one pound of rough turquoise to grind to keep himself busy in the evenings.
He took him up on it.
Once he was done with grinding and polishing the first batch of turquoise, Cosper put up a sign “Turquoise for Sale” in front of the Road Runner Motel. He stood beside it, selling the pieces to jewelry makers. When he ran out, he bought more and went through the process all over again, hiring a worker here and there along the way.
“It all started right there,” Thomason said. “He needed to hire someone. He didn’t mind hiring someone that knew a little more than he did.”
It led to him finding someone else to run the Thunderbird Motel, so he could set up “Thunderbird Distributing” in a corner room. It wasn’t long before customers began asking Cosper why he didn’t sell silver. So, because his customers asked him to sell it, he invested in an inventory of silver.
Thomason said Cosper’s willingness to add inventory based on customers’ requests mushroomed into the 27,822 square-foot location they have today at 1907 West Route 66. Cosper no longer owns any motels.
“As everything grew, he [Cosper] listened to the customer,” Thomason emphasized.
Around 1970 a miner named Roscoe Scott tested out that openness to the customer practiced by Cosper.
Scott mined coal, copper, and uranium. He said Thunderbird helped him to get work in the Arizona Highway Department and the Museum of Indian Arts in Denver.
Around 1972 Scott said he started to do silversmithing and “I’ve been with Thunderbird ever since.”
Scott had two jobs and Thunderbird was the one he fell back on when he was in-between jobs.
“Number one thing is that it helped put food on the table and it helped [put] shoes on the kids,” he said. “They grew up on Thunderbird.”
At the time, Scott said silver was $4.50 to $5 an ounce. Now it runs nearly $25 an ounce.
Scott, who has lived in Red Rock, about eight miles east of Gallup, for the past 49 years, said his family has grown with Thunderbird. He likes their competitive prices, their service, and the counter staff all the way up to the management.
The appreciation of that same attitude of Cosper’s, could also be heard in Lyndon Tsosie’s description of the supply company.
Tsosie is a Navajo silversmith, born in Fort Defiance, Ariz. He now makes his home in Gallup and began making jewelry in 1990. He was appreciative of Thunderbird Supply Company. For one thing, he said Thunderbird helped him in his career with silver.
“Back in the early ‘90s, they’re the ones who helped me with how to shine stones,” Tsosie said. “I would ask, ‘how do you shine this, how do you cut this?’”
Tsosie said the supply company is still a big help with his career and not just with silver, but also with certain findings and special tools.
Tsosie’s experience is not unusual. Thunderbird works to help crafters learn and promote their creations, both in its stores and online.
THOMASON CLIMBS THE CAREER LADDER
Danny Thomason, has been an instrumental part of the store’s growth. He got his start as a summer intern in 1978. Then, as his internship came to a close, he felt he was facing a crossroads in life. He was struggling to decide whether to accept a full university scholarship or a position at Thunderbird.
He chose the latter.
Thomason started on the silver counter, and over the years he worked in purchasing, wholesale, and mail order, making his way up the company ladder. He was promoted to CEO in 2007.
“It turned out to be more than a summer job,” he quipped.
From there, Thomason worked at establishing relationships with other wholesale vendors to expand the company’s offerings to its entrepreneurial customer base. Thunderbird doesn’t take shortcuts with the supplies it offers to jewelry-makers.
Those relationships paid off, Tsosie, who owns the House of Lyndon, said. He uses Thunderbird often.
“It’s a great place to buy materials that nobody else has at the time,” he stated.
He went on to say the best thing he ever bought from Thunderbird Supply Company was silver.
Scott said Thunderbird has been his main supplier over the years, allowing him to meet a lot of jewelry dealers from across the country and create relationships of his own.
In Dec. 2002, Cosper decided to extend his reach further into the jewelry supply business when he learned that the display product manufacturing operation dba Cases Unlimited was for sale.
He purchased it from Marivel Manufacturing, Inc. in Tucson, Ariz. and began a new product line of trays/pads, boxes and riker cases.
He gave the company a new name: Enchanted Cases and Display.
Now a big portion of the Thunderbird warehouse in Gallup is dedicated to housing a machine that fabricates foam for display cases, while workers create a majority of the company’s jewelry displays.
While Thunderbird Supply Company’s brand extensions expanded its reach to crafters, vendors and dealers beyond the Southwest, some of the silversmiths and crafters who remain in the area provide beadwork and jewelry that is currently on display, and supplies that are for sale in its stores.
Thunderbird personnel told the Sun that many crafters create beadwork and manufacture metal items that can be found at Thunderbird.
Not only that, Thunderbird crafters create products for branded jewelry lines, such as
Native Touch findings, and squash blossoms, cones, bezel cups, ring shanks, bench beads, and bolo tips. Those are manufactured in Gallup.
In Albuquerque, Thunderbird Supply produces the JCK line of Navajo pearls. Thunderbird carries over 10,000 different products in its stores.
Additionally, the mail order part of the business has grown exponentially. Thomason said the store ships large quantities of supplies to South America and around the globe.
THUNDERBIRD MODELS
While Thomason has worked on building a jewelry supply empire, and honing his management skills to keep his staff accountable and focused, he also helped launch the Thunderbird model campaign.
He said he thought it would be a good draw after noticing the “Women of the Navajo” calendar campaign.
Over the years, the campaign has gone from being primarily Indigenous women to including models from diverse cultures, and also men.
This year’s model auditions are set for:
July 31, 11 am-3 pm in the Red Shell Room at Springhill Suites by Marriott, 1105 W Lincoln Ave., Gallup.
Aug. 7, 2 pm-6 pm at the Sheraton Uptown Hotel Ivory Room, 2600 Louisiana Blvd NE, Albuquerque.
Aug. 14, 11 am-3 pm at the Farmington Museum, 3041 E Main St, Farmington.
Thunderbird Supply Company offers clothing for modeling, gives models the chance to learn basic modeling skills, and compensates them for events and photo shoots.
During Thunderbird’s annual advertising campaign, models may appear on billboards, in social media, on the City of Gallup Map and the Visitors’ Guides to Gallup and Albuquerque, as well as the Thunderbird calendar and website.
Models help Thunderbird Supply Company to show the modern audience how handmade artists’ creations complement today’s fashions and everyday wear.
In its worldwide campaign, the company collaborates with artists and models to promote them and their talents at no charge, so the beauty they create is available to all nationalities around the globe.
For more information: call Vince or Rona at (505) 722-4323 ext. 1026 or 1012
By Babette Herrmann
& Beth Blakeman
Sun Publisher/Managing Editor
