In an episode aired this week, the Denver-based maker of shoe traction pads, which help give grip on a basketball court, secured a $50,000 investment from celebrity investor Kevin O’Leary in exchange for 15% of the business.

Founder David Gonzales and sales and operations head Michael Manoogian went into the tank asking for that same amount of cash for a 5% stake.

“I would consider him the most significant shark on the show now,” Gonzales said of the man dubbed Mr. Wonderful.

“The doors he can open are a lot of doors that would take awhile for us to open,” Manoogian added.

The pair went into the tank hoping to snare O’Leary, mainly because of his online presence. Though the deal isn’t finalized, both said the terms will be the same they agreed to when they recorded the episode in June 2025.

“I think it����ap so niche-y, so vertical, so unusual, so ‘Shark Tank’-ish,” O’Leary said on the episode after the other four sharks pulled out. “I don’t know what����ap going to happen. This is a total flier, guys.”

Before Stomp launched in 2022, the predominant option for hoopers to get the most squeak out of their sneakers was “sticky sheets,” a plastic, one-use sheet that continuously peels. Other players use wet towels or even lick their hands and wipe the bottom of their shoes to get more grip.

Though the sticky sheet is still dominant in the shoe traction market, Gonzales compared it to cleaning eyeglasses with tape rather than a microfiber cloth.

“The placebo effect of the sticky sheet is yes, you’re tacky and you take two steps and it feels great,” he said. “But what you’re not realizing is that you’re now grabbing any dust on the court and affixing it to your shoe.”

With Stomp, players can wipe the dust off their Jordans without carrying the plastic residue long term. Premier college programs like Kansas and Michigan State are customers, while several high school and travel teams across the country have bought in as well. Stomp was also featured as the traction mat of the 2024 NBA All-Star Game.

“Companies like Nike and Reebok and Under Armour, they spend a lot of money designing these composite rubbers that have grip,” Manoogian said. “Our job is to keep them clean.”

The business sells three color-customizable products: a $99 large mat, a $55 mini mat and a $29 “shoe armor” that players can connect to their laces to wipe their shoes while they’re on the court.

Gonzales said Stomp has roughly doubled its revenue every year, reaching $200,000 in sales for 2025. This year, he projects $400,000 in sales. On Wednesday night, when the episode aired, Manoogian said Stomp did $10,000 in sales, its biggest day by far.

The vast majority, 70%, of Stomp’s business comes from the mini mat, which most players bring to the gym in their backpack. About 20% is from the large mat, which is predominantly bought as one-offs by teams. The remaining 10% comes from the shoe armor, which Gonzales and Manoogian said has been slow to be adopted.

Stomp is available through e-commerce channels like Amazon and BSN Sports, which says it����ap the largest team sports apparel and equipment distributor in the country. Stomp also sells direct to consumer and in a few smaller brick–and-mortar shops, but Amazon and BSN are Nos. 1 and 2.

The business has already raised $500,000 from Gonzales and two other investors: former Western Union CEO Hikmet Ersik and former Nuggets player and coach turned Altitude Sports analyst Bill Hanzlik, who Gonzales joked is “the mayor of Denver.”

Between Ersik, who is Turkish and has myriad international connections, Hanzlik and O’Leary, Gonzales and Manoogian are bullish on the opportunity to grow into professional leagues both at home and abroad. That, they said, can serve as a billboard to younger ballers.

They also mentioned volleyball as a sport where the shoe armor could be particularly impactful. Most players they know, they added, wipe off shoes between rallies on their high socks.

“We think of the NBA and college as branding markets and the youth market being where all of our customers are,” Gonzales said. “If I was to pick an order of marketing, I would say mini mat, shoe armor and then large mat.”

Gonzales is a former oil and gas engineer who founded and successfully exited several companies before starting Stomp. A wrestler growing up, he started playing basketball and in rec leagues post-college in the mid-2000s and found his niche as an “ultracompetitive” defender – a role where traction is a necessity.

“I absolutely hated it if somebody put a move on me,” he said. “And I was sliding, I was wiping my feet constantly, and I could see the grit on my hands.”

At that time, Gonzales sketched out a concept for what eventually became shoe armor, but let it sit until he exited one of his companies more than a decade later. He had ample time and money and decided to pour it into what eventually became Stomp.

“I think it was great for branding,” he said of going on “Shark Tank.” “The most powerful thing for us is to have the demo that you get to do on national TV.”

Read more from our partner, .

When it popped up on social media on Tuesday night, there was a collective groan. At a time when the league should be uniting its audience, it traffics in fragmentation and causes frustration.

Want to fully appreciate Nikola Jokic’s pursuit of a second championship? In your streams.

There is no more compelling first-round series than Nuggets-Timberwolves (Sorry, Lakers’ fans, it is true). This is a rivalry born out of thrown chairs, tossed heating pads, trash talk, breathtaking performances and a Game 7 meltdown.

It is must-watch TV. If you can figure out how to watch.

The first four games are a maze of Amazon Prime, NBC/Peacock and ABC. I’m looking forward to calling my wife and explaining how to toggle back and forth between Prime and cable. And my parents have no chance of figuring it out.

The tanking has already compromised the league this season. Now, streaming is tainting the postseason.

Where is the line when chasing every last dollar doesn’t make sense?

Who goes through more hoops? The basketball or the fans?

In September, commissioner Adam Silver seemed detached from reality when asked about the rising cost of watching a season of NBA games. He said there are enough free games on broadcast TV, and noted that the league is a snackable product that can be digested through highlights.

Is this the advice to the audience? Watch dunks on your phone while you doomscroll?

So, it should come as no surprise that the disconnect continues in April.

The NBA is taking a victory lap over its best TV ratings in 24 years. What the league fails to explain in the fine print is that it took all of its cable contests and . Of course, they were going to get a spike.

Arguing that the league is healthy through this lens is a mistake. It should be a warning flag, especially when Steph Curry and Kevin Durant, two of the most recognizable players, are nearing the end of their careers.

All of the sports leagues continue to expand playoff fields to add games because it creates TV inventory to package. The NFL now plays on every day of the week, but Tuesday, farming out games to Netflix and YouTubeTV.

Gambling, fantasy sports and a remarkably loyal audience leave football immune from the consequences of greed.

The NBA is not in this position.

The league’s nightly product, featuring a third of the franchises rolling out G-League show ponies and another third resting stars, was embarrassing. Bam Adebayo scored 83 points. Any questions?

The playoffs offer a life raft. Good on good. Teams are motivated to win. And yet you need an IT guy and a credit card to find them.

It is ridiculous. When is enough enough?

A bells-and-whistles Amazon Prime membership runs $14.99 per month. Don’t want free shipping for packages? Then the cost is $8.99.

The second Nuggets game will be televised nationally on NBC. Thank goodness. The NFL forced my hand to purchase Peacock a few years ago. Outside of “Ted,” the inventory was uninspiring, especially given that “Dateline” is available on multiple cable channels. There was no reason to keep Peacock, even with the Olympics coverage, for $16.99 (premium plus) or à la carte at $7.99.

Game 3 returns to Prime. Send yourself a vat of Goof Off to remove paint from your living room and the memory of paying for the subscription.

Game 4 is on ABC. Right on. Oh, wait, Xfinity dropped the channels owned by E.W. Scripps when the agreement expired on March 31. Denver 7 is on the list. What fun. As if the Altitude blackout on Comcast for nearly six years didn’t suffice.

That was a punch to the throat. What is another kick in the (bleep)?

Yes, there are ways to bypass this with a digital antenna. But those cost between $20 and $60. Should this be necessary, especially for families already getting pinched at the grocery store and gas pump?

Covering sports for a living, I understand how TV operates as the hub of the professional sports universe. The mind-boggling revenue matters. But consumers are growing sick and tired of searching for games, only to reach for their wallets.

And somehow, this April, it has gotten worse.

This represents the first time that local regional sports networks are no longer permitted to broadcast the opening round. This was the safety net. As the Nuggets and Clippers bounced around from ESPN and TNT a year ago, the local constant was Altitude.

The RSNs are relegated to pre- and postgame shows.

Mike Breen, the voice of the NBA Finals, expressed his disappointment with the national exclusivity when he signed off on his main job during the Knicks broadcast last weekend.

“I personally think it’s a poor decision,” Breen said. “Fans want to hear their teams’ announcers, at least in the first round. Because, for so many of us, and all of my favorite teams growing up, the home team announcers, they become part of the family, such a big part of why you root for the team.”

The NBA thinks global, not local. It wants a worldwide audience, while making it tougher for those in the States to consume the product.

It should not cost fans another $800 or $1,500 a year to watch their favorite sports teams in the NFL, NBA and MLB.

It is expensive and exhausting.

The NBA doesn’t care that it makes it more difficult to see the Nuggets.

That is why the criticism of the viewing experience must remain so loud and clear.

Here’s the full schedule and how to watch each game as the Nuggets embark on their 2026 playoff run starting Saturday at Ball Arena.

Nuggets vs. Timberwolves series schedule: How to watch

Game 1: At Denver, 1:30 p.m. Saturday, April 18.  TV: Amazon Prime. (Final: Nuggets 116, Timberwolves 105)
Game 2: At Denver, 8:30 p.m. Monday, April 20. TV: KUSA-9. (Final: Timberwolves 119, Nuggets 114)
Game 3: At Minnesota, 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 23. TV: Amazon Prime. (Final: Timberwolves 113, Nuggets 96)
Game 4: At Minnesota, 6:30 p.m. Saturday, April 25. TV: KMGH-7
Game 5 (if necessary): At Denver, TBD Monday, April 27. TV: TBD.
Game 6 (if necessary): At Minnesota, TBD Thursday, April 30. TV: TBD.
Game 7 (if necessary): At Denver, TBD Saturday, May 2. TV: TBD.

was introduced Friday afternoon and is set to be heard in the House State, Civic, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee on Monday. If the measure passes, it would rename César Chávez Day — which commemorates the works of the civil rights movement he led — to Farm Workers Day.

The voluntary legal holiday is observed by the state on March 31, on the late Chávez’s birthday, but government is still open. Denver, which observes its official holiday by closing city offices on the final Monday each March, last week announced that it’s changing the name, too.

If the new bill speeds through the legislature, it could take effect before the upcoming holiday. Nearly every member of the House, Democrat and Republican alike, has signed on as a co-sponsor to the measure.

While schedules are always subject to change, here is what else is on the legislature’s docket this week.

Tuesday

The Senate will debate , a proposal to ban the 3D printing of firearms. It is one of a handful of measures aimed at tightening restrictions around firearms this year. The proposal would still need a formal vote by the body before it goes to Gov. Jared Polis. The measure already cleared the House.

The Senate is slated to debate , one of two measures aimed at overtime regulations for agricultural workers. This bill would raise the overtime threshold to 60 hours per week. A separate bill that would have lowered the threshold from its current level died earlier in the session.

Also on Tuesday, the House Health and Human Services Committee will conduct the first hearing for . That bill would levy fees on large employers that don’t provide medical benefits and whose employees are paid so low that they qualify for Medicaid.

Wednesday

On Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hear a measure intended to create financial protections for children who are used in online content creation. has already cleared the House.

The Senate Transportation and Energy Committee will hold the first hearing on . The proposal would create an optional fee, paid during motor vehicle registration, to help create wildlife crossings on major highways. Where implemented, the crossings reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions by almost 90%.

Thursday

The second of two competing bills about data centers will be heard by the House Energy and Environment Committee. , the measure under consideration, would use tax incentives to encourage data center companies to comply with regulations. It has industry support.

The other measure, , would offer no incentives but would institute new regulations across the state. It has support from environmental groups. It was heard in its first committee last week but has not yet been voted on.

Her bill would levy fees on large employers that have hundreds — if not thousands — of workers receiving public assistance for health care.

“We can’t afford to subsidize Walmart and Target and Amazon off the backs of our taxpayers,” said Rep. Lisa Feret, an Arvada Democrat. “Especially when we’re cutting services for disabled people in the same year.”

would apply to a small group of large companies, requiring them to pay a $2,300 fee for each worker whose pay is low enough to qualify for Medicaid, the federal-state safety net health insurance program. The money would then flow back to the state to support Medicaid providers, who face rate cuts this year amid broader existential fears about the program’s overall fiscal future.

The bill, Feret said, would help bring in more money for state Medicaid while trying to nudge large employers to offer health care to a wider swath of workers so they could avoid the fee.

The measure would apply to companies with more than 500 employees, and the fee would take effect starting Aug. 1, 2028. It wouldn’t apply to employers that offer health coverage to employees working more than 20 hours per week; are nonprofits or franchises, like fast-food restaurants; or are public entities.

At least 25,000 Coloradans on Medicaid work for companies that would covered by the bill, . A list provided by Feret identifies eight companies that would be covered; the legislative analysis didn’t have an estimate for how many employers would be covered, but analysts assumed it would be fewer than 50 in total.

Citing data she received from , Feret said Walmart employed an average of 9,000 Colorado workers who were on Medicaid between May 2023 and July 2025, meaning that 31% of its total workforce in the state received Medicaid. Amazon averaged just under 6,300 workers on Medicaid in that time period, or 40% of its Colorado workforce. Target clocked in at 2,738 workers, or 33%.

The idea is gaining attention elsewhere as Medicaid costs rise nationwide.

New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill for each worker on Medicaid. Lawmakers in Washington proposed similar legislation earlier this year, though they dropped the proposal last month, . Another bill, , would require that state to publicly identify companies with high numbers of workers on Medicaid.

The new Colorado bill wouldn’t be enough to shore up the state’s multibillion-dollar Medicaid program. Because of state fiscal rules, the fund set up by HB-1327 could raise only $100 million over its first five years. Anything over that would be deposited into a second fund, which would count toward the revenue cap instituted by the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights.

“We get the intention behind the bill, and it����ap really a good one, to ask large employers who benefit from public benefits to pay a little more to help offset those costs,” said Kathy White, the executive director of the liberal Colorado Fiscal Institute.

Still, she cautioned that the policy may have unintended consequences.

Large companies “will change their behavior to make their labor costs less,” she continued. “And if you’re making it more expensive for them to hire workers who are likely to be on Medicaid, they either aren’t going to hire those workers who are likely to be on Medicaid, or they’re going to reduce wages and benefits across the board.”

Feret said she, too, was concerned about the bill prompting changes to employer behavior. She said she planned to amend the bill to include additional reporting requirements, so that the state could monitor how large companies were adapting in response.

White said CFI was working with Feret, and with national partners, to address those concerns.

Large employers are opposed to the bill. In a statement, Walmart spokesman Jimmy Carter said the fees would be passed on to consumers and would “raise system-wide costs and make groceries, essentials and pharmacy items more expensive.”

Like Carter, Amazon spokeswoman Alisa Carroll touted efforts undertaken by the $2.2 trillion company to increase workers’ pay and ease access to company-provided health insurance. Target and Home Depot did not return messages seeking comment for this story.

Katie Wolf, of the Colorado Retail Council, said the bill would discourage larger employers from hiring part-time workers.

“The way that taxes work currently is that everyone pays in and a lot of that money goes to Medicaid now,” she said. “So I would say all these companies are paying their fair share and what they’re supposed to be paying to cover employees.”

HB-1327 is set for its first committee hearing in the House’s on Tuesday.

The new proposal is the third attempt in two years to find agreement on how to regulate AI, and it’s the second involving a specially convened task force. Gov. Jared Polis signed Colorado’s first-in-the-nation regulations into law in 2024 under the broad understanding that those rules would serve as a cudgel to force some fine-tuning in years to come.

Without any legislative action this spring, those much-debated regulations would take effect in June as originally written.

The proposal unveiled Tuesday would leave it to the courts to decide liability between the developers of AI tools and the organization that used the tools for any discrimination attributed to the use of AI, based on the circumstances of the individual case. The covered AI technology would include any technology that processes personal information and engages in computation to make predictions, recommendations, rankings or other information that is used to guide or assist decision-making about an individual.

The proposed bill would focus on when AI is used to make “consequential decisions,” such as those involving education or employment opportunities, housing, financial or lending services, insurance, health care services and essential government services.

Consumer tools such as spell-check, calculators, spreadsheets, robocall filtering and large language models, such as ChatGPT, would not be affected.

“I am very grateful to the hardworking members of the Colorado AI Policy Working Group that have reached a unanimous agreement on AI policy to protect consumers and support innovation in our state,” Polis said in a statement. “I look forward to supporting the recommended framework as legislation moves through the process, and commend the Colorado AI Policy Work Group for their efforts to get us here.”

The framework must now be turned into legislation and wind its way through the meat grinder of lawmakers and lobbyists who weren’t involved in the task force’s deliberations.

Those dynamics sank the prior attempts at fine-tuning the regulations during the regular legislative session in 2025 and the special session later in the year. Competing interests fought over coverage and who would be liable for the misuse of AI technology to make so-called consequential decisions.

Lawmakers ultimately voted in August to delay the start time for the 2024 regulations to give themselves a third bite at the apple.

At the heart of the issue is the danger of AI being used, willingly or not, to discriminate against consumers. Earlier proposals failed as Polis worried that regulations that were too strict would kill the industry in Colorado or put the state at an economic disadvantage. Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Robert Rodriguez, a fellow Democrat, warned that having no regulations would hurt Coloradans and leave no recourse for misusing it.

Even now, uncertainty remains around how this latest shot will pan out, both inside the Capitol and outside. On Monday, the Washington Post that the Trump administration has been working with House Republicans to block state-level AI regulations as part of a package of federal legislation.

Though the framework was adopted by the group, nearly every participant also voted for “targeted revisions” to the draft — meaning that they wanted amendments. Each of those changes may be different and may rankle other members of the task force, and it����ap unclear how any lingering tensions will be resolved.

The Colorado Technology Association was among the groups represented on the task force. President Brittany Morris Saunders said in a statement that the association was among those that voted yes, with an eye toward changes.

“We look forward to seeing this progress reflected in the forthcoming legislation and to continuing the dialogue on how to protect consumers while enabling innovation to thrive,” Morris Saunders said.

Even more unclear is how the framework will be received in the Capitol. While significant interests were involved in the task force, including the Colorado Chamber of Commerce and prominent consumer groups, it was, by design, a small, cloistered group.

About every international technology business, such as Amazon, Apple, Meta and Microsoft, has invested heavily in the technology, too.

Task force members said they had not established a process for shepherding the bill through the legislature. Members, including Loren Furman, the president and CEO of the Colorado Chamber, said they wanted to try to keep the task force aligned as other interests or lawmakers proposed amendments and weighed in.

“As the legislative process unfolds, we’ll focus on ensuring the framework remains centered on consumers, functions effectively in practice and provides a foundation for adapting to future technology and emerging harms,” said Marissa Molina, the chief policy and communications officer for the Community Economic Defense Project and another task force member. She called the framework “real progress toward fairer technology accountability.”

That would offer at least something of a unified front — while defending the tenuously negotiated framework.

The framework “isn’t a completely finished product,” Furman said. “We’re still getting some revisions coming in, and we’re hoping this stays as intact as it can be as it hits the legislature. But as you and I know, people have opinions in the legislature.”

“It will be interesting to see how the task force can stick together and oversee the draft in its current form,” said Anaya Robinson of the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado, who sat on the task force. The process from here, he said, “is clear as mud.”

Adam Burrows, a co-founder of Range Ventures and member of the task force, praised the proposal as finding a solid balance between what consumer groups felt they needed and what would still allow the business community — particularly small and medium-sized businesses — to flourish.

He said he was one of the few to vote for the framework as is. But more importantly, the framework represents a vast improvement over the 2024 law, which passed as , he said.

That law is stocked with reporting requirements and broad definitions that Burrows called “massive, unnecessary and pointless burdens on businesses.”

His Denver-based firm works with dozens of companies, many of which are in Colorado. All would have been affected by SB-205 going into effect, he said. This proposal would clean up definitions and give clearer guidance, he said.

“This is much more specific — much more surgical — with the protections that consumer groups felt were really needed … and then making it workable for businesses,” Burrows said in an interview. “I feel really proud of what the group came up with.”

It����ap not totally clear who will sponsor the bill that’s eventually drafted from the framework, though Rodriguez has made clear he intends to be involved. He has held a tight grip on previous proposals, including stacking committees to get his preferred votes and voluntarily killing his own bill when it became clear that other forces would make changes he didn’t like.

Rodriguez had not yet reviewed the draft proposal and declined to comment through a spokeswoman on Tuesday.

The task force had worked through several iterations of its framework, and a final vote was delayed repeatedly as its members navigated late issues, including the question of whether to fully carve out hospitals and the insurance industry from being subject to the proposal. Furman said discussions around other areas of the policy continued into Monday night, dragging on to the point where she suggested another delay.

They should vote against , which would encourage technology companies to build their data centers in the state by offering them a 100% state sales and use tax exemption on qualified purchases for at least 20 years. The tax loophole would decrease the state’s general fund revenue by .

While the giveaway might persuade tech companies to say yes to Colorado, it����ap one more reason residents should say no. Data centers that house computers for artificial intelligence and data storage consume enormous amounts of energy and water and create comparatively few jobs. Moreover, favoring big tech over other enterprises is inherently unfair to all those businesses that pay their state sales and use taxes.

Supporters say they want Colorado to be as competitive in drawing data centers to the state as the 38 states that already offer such tax breaks. Jacob Bock, a vice-president at a Denver-based data center development company, said companies like Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft would love Colorado, but for, the lack of a state-level sales and use tax exemption. Last I checked, these companies were worth trillions. Why exactly can’t they pay sales tax like every small and medium size company that locates here?

Advocates for the bill note that it requires companies to meet certain commitments to be certified for the tax break, such as creating new full-time jobs, obtaining certification under one of several energy efficiency standards, acquiring new generation capacity from clean energy sources, optimizing operational water management, and other criteria. That����ap nice.

First of all, data centers aren’t exactly job creation powerhouses. A study by University of Houston and University of Notre Dame researchers found “no clear empirical evidence that data centers stimulate local tech-related employment growth.” Once construction is complete, data centers employ on average 27 full-time employees, the same as a busy chain restaurant. A hyperscale data center may employ over 100 people, less than a Walmart.

While big tech programmers make six figures and big tech CEOs make millions, data center technicians here in Colorado make $27 an hour, according to ZipRecruiter. In the end, a Costco with 300 employees making an average of $23 an hour would bring more economic activity to a location than a data center.

Data centers also consume an inordinate amount of energy and water. Large centers use up to 5 million gallons a day of water and 20 to 100-plus megawatts of power continuously, enough to power 16,000 to 80,000-plus homes. While data companies are working to reduce power and water consumption, they should beta test those solutions elsewhere before locating to a water-parched state like ours.

Lastly, HB 1030 is unjust to all the businesses that bring prosperity and jobs to this state and manage to pay their fair share of taxes. If the legislature truly wants to make Colorado a desirable destination for companies, there are more ethical ways to do so.

A Colorado Chamber of Commerce report last year found that the number of state-level business restrictions grew to over 205,000 by the end of 2025, earning Colorado the dubious distinction of being the sixth most regulated state in the country. The legislature can lighten the regulatory yoke on all businesses rather than play favorites with a few.

Krista Kafer is a Sunday Denver Post columnist.

To send a letter to the editor about this article, submit online or check out our guidelines for how to submit by email or mail.

But it will remain in the same spot it has occupied since 1999. And it is open for business.

It’s a testament to the resiliency of independent booksellers that the Highland institution has remained open, and a new independent bookstore in Uptown recently opened, in the face of pressure from national chains and buyers’ online habits. Trade organizations report rising numbers of new stores, a trend they say gained momentum as readers rallied to support local businesses when the pandemic hit in 2020.

While staying put, has changed ownership. Matt Aragon-Shafi, the former manager, has taken over the business from Lois Harvey, who retired in February after more than 40 years as an independent bookstore owner in Denver.

Aragon-Shafi and Harvey have mixed emotions about their new roles. Aragon-Shafi said moving from an employee to owner feels good. “But it’s overwhelming in a way.”

Harvey turned in her keys to the building at 3434 W. 32nd Ave. on Feb. 3.

“There was a certain amount of relief,” Harvey said.

She oversaw the moving of roughly 40,000 books to go from a 3,000-square-foot space to the current 1,000-square-foot space at the front of the building.

“It had been so much work getting that done,” Harvey said.

But it’s sad “to see what had been built and dismantled,” she added.

West Side decided to scale back because the lease was set to significantly increase. Grant Gingerich bought the building in 2021 from Harvey’s brother, Jim Harvey. Gingerich said high commercial property taxes and increases in other business expenses necessitated raising the rent.

Gingerich said he wants to work with West Side Books to keep it in the neighborhood where he has another building up the street and has been part-owner of a local restaurant for about 18 years. He’s looking at using the space behind the bookstore for events and an adjacent vacant lot as community open space.

“My wife and I are dug in. This is our community,” Gingerich said. “There’s nothing more that I want than to have West Side Books thrive for another 25 years.”

Rising costs, the dominance of online behemoth Amazon in bookselling and disruptions during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic shook independent bookstores nationwide for years.

In Denver, a seismic event struck the bookstore scene in 2024 when the Tattered Cover, a nationally renowned independent bookseller, was sold to the Barnes & Noble chain. The 50-plus-year-old Denver store filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2023.

However, Harvey, who opened her first bookstore in 1980, said the market started evolving during the pandemic when local stores, with the help of industry organizations, started or expanded online sales. She said customers stepped up to support local businesses and protests of George Floyd’s murder boosted interest in reading about politics and culture.

“The bookstores I know of are doing well. I’m just so proud of them,” Harvey said.

The state of independent bookstores in the Denver area and the region is positive, said Heather Duncan, the executive director of the  . The organization has members in 14 states.

“Our membership is increasing every year fairly significantly. The (store) openings are outpacing the closings by far,” Duncan said.

The association has 82 members in Colorado. Not all independent bookstores are members. In a “good guestimate” of the regional growth of the local stores, or “indies,” Duncan said at least a third of the association’s 328 members opened in the past two years.

“I’ve been in the bookstore business for 40 years and this has been one of the biggest growth periods that I’ve seen,” Duncan said.

The a national trade organization for indie stores, reported 3,281 member locations in 2025, up from 2,844 in 2024 and 2,209 in 2020.

Duncan agreed with Harvey that more people turned to books and wanted to stand behind local businesses when the pandemic hit. Right before COVID-19 broke out, started. The platform is an online bookseller geared to independent stores and shoppers looking for an alternative to Amazon. As a certified B corporation, which meets certain social and environmental standards, it shares its profits with bookstores.

“That allowed a whole bunch of bookstores, especially small mom-and-pop stores, pop-up stores and mobile bookstores, to have this really strong web presence instantly where they could sell books online and ship them to customers,” Duncan said.

And there is “a whole bunch of young and demographically diverse people opening bookstores,” she said.

Harvey said younger people are increasingly reading physical books rather than scrolling on screens. They’re attracted to beautifully illustrated and decorated first editions and books of different genres, she said.

One bookstore maintains, one starts anew

As West Side Books maintains its foothold in the Highland neighborhood, a new independent bookstore has opened its doors in Denver’s Uptown neighborhood. officially opened Feb. 20 at 1700 Humboldt St, once the site of the well-known Strings Restaurant.

A partner in the new venture is not new to the indie scene. Kwame Spearman was CEO of the Tattered Cover when the store filed for bankruptcy. He and his current partner, Rich Garvin, made an unsuccessful bid to buy Tattered Cover out of bankruptcy.

Deciding to build an independent bookstore from scratch, Garvin bought a 9,000-square-foot building for $2.9 million. Besides the bookstore, the building houses two restaurants and has space for a third.

“I had spent all this time learning about bookstores. I thought I still really wanted to have a bookstore,” Garvin said. “I decided it would be good to have a building that you own to put your bookstore in because many bookstores fail because of the rent.”

Garvin moved from San Francisco to Denver after the pandemic started. He had retired from his business that organized conferences and managed events for large corporations. He met Spearman through a mutual friend.

While upbeat about the new bookstore, which has a children’s section and a coffee bar, Spearman acknowledged his last time in the business didn’t end well.

“I would say that my experience as CEO was probably ultimately one of the bigger failures I’ve encountered,” Spearman said. “I think over the past two years, there’s been a lot of time to reflect.”

Spearman and two other Denver natives, David Back and Alan Frosh, bought the Tattered Cover in 2020 as part of an investment team. The company struggled to compete with large retailers such as Amazon and the pandemic.

“I think that when we took on the business, it was a business that was on fumes and basically headed towards bankruptcy during a really difficult period,” Spearman said.

The owners opened new Tattered Cover stores in Westminster and Colorado Springs and completed the move of the Lower Downtown location to a new one in McGregor Square.

Spearman took a leave of absence as CEO in 2023 to run for Denver mayor and then stepped down ahead of an unsuccessful run for the Denver school board. Before then, some Tattered Cover employees made claims of bullying and ageism, allegations that Spearman denied.

In an email, Back, Spearman’s former business partner at Tattered Cover, disputed Spearman’s characterization of the business when they took over. He echoed employees’ complaints about Spearman.

Spearman, who attended Yale Law School and Harvard Business School, said he got back into the bookstore business faster than he anticipated.

“As long as I am in Denver, I am going to, in some way, shape or form, try to be involved in the local economy,” Spearman said. “I think the thing that separates really outstanding cities from OK cities is when you have a thriving local environment.”

Spearman and Garvin want to make the Denver Book Society a community gathering space. They have started board-game nights and are hosting book clubs. They’re partnering with the theater company at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts on events at the store.

Garvin’s dog, Cooper, an Australian shepherd, is a kind of mascot for the store. A “Cooperish” mug of a dog is part of the store’s logo.

“I fundamentally believe the same thing I felt with Tattered Cover, that books are this unifier,” Spearman said. “They are this opportunity to create community. And we need a third space now more than ever.”

He and Garvin are encouraged so far by the response to the new store. They sold 1,500 books and 500 cups of coffee over their opening weekend.

Aragon-Shafi at West Side Books said the community has supported the business as it makes the transition in ownership. People volunteered advice and spaces to store items and books. They helped with such tasks as alphabetizing books.

Although the store has culled most of its used books, Aragon-Shafi plans to still sell some of the used and rare inventory that West Side was first known for. He said his opportunity to run a business is part of a family tradition.

“My dad owned a convenience store for a long time. My grandpa owned an import store when he came here from India,” he said.

Aragon-Shafi also feels he is entrusted with keeping the beloved community bookstore going. He was a regular at West Side since attending nearby North High School.

“I see other bookstores that have been here for years and years, and I want us to be here for years and years.”

Updated March 6, 2026, to add comment from former Tattered Cover co-owner.

The 41,500-square-foot building at 4950 E. Hampden Ave. in the Happy Canyon Shopping Center has been listed for sublease. So too have the 43,000 square feet that Amazon leased at 8181 Quebec St. in the Quebec Village Shopping Center in Centennial.

Amazon leased those spaces without fanfare no later than 2021. But neither ever welcomed shoppers.

Other parts of the country experienced something similar — planned stores that stalled out, with no communication from Amazon.

Then, late last month, Amazon announced it was closing all 57 Amazon Fresh grocery stores and 15 Amazon Go convenience stores. It said some stores would become a Whole Foods. Amazon also owns that chain.

Amazon didn’t specify what would happen with planned stores that never opened.

The Denver and Centennial spaces are being marketed for sublease by Chad Knoth of Locate. He did not respond to a request for comment.

The sublease listings would appear to indicate that Amazon won’t open a Whole Foods at either of those locations.

The Happy Canyon space was formerly a Safeway. Before Amazon Fresh, deals fell through to open first Tony’s Meats and Market and then Marczyk Fine Foods at the property.

Centennial, meanwhile, agreed in 2022 to reimburse $250,000 worth of sales tax at the store to Amazon over a 10-year period. That deal required the store to open by the end of March last year. Denver didn’t strike an incentive agreement for the Happy Canyon store.

Amazon also leased nearly 36,000 square feet at 11000 S. Parker Road in Parker for a Fresh store in 2021. That space is now home to Arc Thrift Stores.

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The e-commerce giant is seeking permits from Denver to operate a 5,000-square-foot “distribution center” at 2030 N. Clay St. in the Jefferson Park neighborhood, according to public records.

“We intend to open new facilities in Denver that will support fast delivery. We’ll share more as launch plans firm up down the road,” spokeswoman Nissa LaPoint said in an email.

It will be the second warehouse of its kind in Denver. The company also is working to build out a 4,500-square-foot location off South Broadway at 1860 Acoma St. Filings for that project show some of the items that would be available for sale: produce, dairy and meat, along with beer and beauty products.

The project appears to be part of Amazon Now, a new delivery service the tech giant is testing in Seattle, Washington, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It allows customers to have household goods delivered to their homes in 30 minutes or less. The company announced the initiative early last month.

The Clay Street building is immediately north of Mile High stadium. The property has been owned by the same family since 1984, according to public records.

Amazon has made a number of big real estate moves in the metro area recently. In October 2024, the company purchased a 625,000-square-foot warehouse near Denver International Airport, along with adjacent land to the south and east, for $96 million. It followed up that deal with a $5 million purchase in January 2025 of an adjacent 5-acre plot for more trailer parking.

On the office side, Amazon added another floor in 2024 at 1515 Wynkoop St. in LoDo, bringing its footprint in the building to 188,000 square feet.

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