Back to Business • August Series
As summer gives way to a new school year, local businesses across Hunt County shift into one of their busiest seasons. Throughout August, The Local Letter is sharing the stories of the people working behind the scenes to help our communities get Back to Business.
From a Home Workshop to the Heart of Caddo Mills: How Spirit 66 Built More Than a Business
On an August morning, while parents are shopping for backpacks and teachers are putting the finishing touches on their classrooms, the embroidery machines inside Spirit 66 are already running.
Jerseys are stacked on tables while Kelly green shirts wait to be tagged and another embroidery machine is already preparing the next order.
For Russell and Jennifer Butler, August isn’t simply back-to-school season.
It’s the beginning of what Russell laughingly describes as “the chaos.”
From August through late November, Spirit 66 is in constant motion. Spirit wear, custom embroidery, screen printing, uniforms, and custom apparel orders keep the production floor busy behind the scenes.
Yet even in the middle of their busiest season, they’re thinking about more than the next order.
Just outside the store, a school bus recently sat waiting to be filled with supplies for Caddo Mills ISD students. Spirit 66 opened its property as the collection site, inviting the community to help provide notebooks, pencils, backpacks, and classroom supplies for local students.
By the time you’re reading this, the original green-and-white bus has already been picked up, completely filled with school supplies for Caddo Mills ISD students. The response from the community was so overwhelming that another school bus has taken its place to continue collecting donations through the rest of the week. Russell and Jennifer don’t just make the shirts people wear to support their schools. They’re always looking for ways to support the students who wear them.
From Hobby Laser to Spirit 66 in Caddo Mills
Long before Spirit 66 became the place schools, sports teams, businesses, and community organizations rely on, it was an idea taking shape inside the Butlers’ home.
Jennifer had spent more than fifteen years working in the veterinary industry, but she wanted something different. Their son, Lance, was young, and she hoped to build a career that would allow her to be present for the moments that mattered most.
At first, she thought she might make cutting boards.
She found a laser she liked and sent it to Russell, who jokingly describes himself as the researcher in the family. After comparing options, they bought a hobby laser and started their business in November 2019. Their first vendor event showed enough promise that they decided to keep going, and by March 2020 they had upgraded to a commercial laser.
Then customers started asking for shirts.
Jennifer began creating shirt designs that reflected her playful personality, and those designs quickly connected with people at local markets. Before long, apparel had become just as important as the laser products that started it all.
The business was still operating out of their home. The laser lived in Russell’s shop, shirts were pressed in the living room, and family life and business life all happened under the same roof. It wasn’t glamorous, but they made it work.
When the Butlers moved to Caddo Mills in December 2020, another turning point arrived.
Their first Fall Stroll proved there was a demand they hadn’t fully realized. They were the only vendor selling Caddo Mills spirit wear, and families lined up to buy it.
What had started with cutting boards was becoming something much bigger.
For a while, customers knew them as Canyon Ridge, a name Jennifer had casually mentioned years earlier while driving through Forney. When they needed a business name before their first market, Russell remembered it.
It fit for a season.
As the business evolved into spirit wear, uniforms, embroidery, and large-scale production, Jennifer felt it deserved a name that reflected where it was headed.
Like many family businesses, not every decision comes after months of planning.
Sometimes it comes with a phone call.
Russell remembers Jennifer telling him the business had a new name, and from that moment forward, Spirit 66 was no longer an idea. It was reality. The paperwork eventually caught up, and today the name feels like it was always meant to be.
There has been one unexpected side effect.
Every now and then, someone still walks in thinking they’ve found a liquor store.
Russell explained that both he and Jennifer are naturally introverted. Some days Jennifer is the one greeting customers while Russell stays in the background. Other days those roles reverse. The afternoon I visited, it was Russell’s turn to be the voice of Spirit 66.
More Than Spirit Wear: Growing a Custom Apparel Business
Today, the showroom is only part of the story. Behind it, the production floor stays busy with embroidery, screen printing, and custom orders that often begin months before the school year starts. By the time August arrives, the team is already deep into the busiest season of the year.
Russell smiled as he described the care that goes into even the smallest details. Matching Caddo Mills’ Kelly green across different printing methods has taken rounds of adjustments over the years, but when they’re creating something for the community, they want to get it right.
That attention to detail doesn’t stop with the products.
Building Community Along Highway 66
Before moving into their current location, Jennifer operated out of a much smaller space that quickly became too crowded.
Russell remembers joking for years about how good their name would look across the large brick building on Highway 66.
Then one afternoon he spotted a lease sign.
He turned around, made the call, and in May 2023 Spirit 66 moved into the building they now call home.
The building itself has a long history in Caddo Mills.
Through Ann and Rowdy Payne, Russell and Jennifer learned about the generations of neighbors who once gathered there when it served the community in a different way.
They couldn’t bring back the old grocery store, but they hoped to create something with the same spirit.
Today the Spirit 66 building is home not only to Spirit 66, but also to Fox Nutrition, Petals & Vine, Body Works by Amanda, and Printphoria.
This is now the third business in the building I’ve had the opportunity to feature through The Local Letter, and while each has its own story, they all share something in common.
Someone believed there was room for everyone to succeed.
Russell simply calls it “community over competition.”
That philosophy extends beyond the businesses sharing their building.
During our conversation, Russell talked about employees who have been able to work while still being present for their families. It felt fitting because creating that same kind of flexibility was one of Jennifer’s reasons for starting the business in the first place.
Russell laughed as he talked about the many ideas he’d pursued over the years. Some lasted longer than others, but each one taught him something.
Spirit 66 became the one that grew into something bigger than either of them imagined.
The Little Moments That Define Spirit 66
As we talked, I found myself remembering something I’d witnessed a couple of years ago during a community event in downtown Caddo Mills. My booth happened to be around the corner from Spirit 66 when Russell noticed someone walking by wearing one of their hats. The customer wasn’t complaining and probably hadn’t even noticed that one of the patches was beginning to come loose, but Russell did.
He stopped the customer, borrowed the hat, walked back to the store, and returned a few minutes later with a brand-new replacement.
When I brought up the story during our interview, Russell immediately smiled. He remembered it.
It may have seemed like a small gesture to everyone else, but to me it says a lot about the way Russell and Jennifer run their business. If they notice something isn’t right, they don’t wait for someone to ask. They simply make it right.
Investing in the Next Generation
That same mindset showed itself again during Spirit 66’s anniversary celebration. At the same time, downtown Caddo Mills was hosting the Chamber of Commerce Kids Market, giving young entrepreneurs a chance to experience running a business of their own.
Rather than sending Lance downtown, Russell and Jennifer helped him create his own little storefront inside Spirit 66, where he sold items he had designed and printed on his 3D printer. When business was slower than he’d hoped, Russell shared a post online.
Before long, families started stopping by simply to encourage him. Some knew the Butlers. Others didn’t.
Russell smiled as he remembered it.
“That’s what Caddo is,” he told me.
People still show up for one another.
As Russell put it, they’re “just real people trying to be a benefit to our community.”
As I’m putting the finishing touches on this story, I find myself thinking about the school buses that have been parked outside Spirit 66 collecting supplies for Caddo Mills ISD students. The first bus was completely filled, and another has already taken its place as the community continues showing up for local students. I think about the neighboring businesses sharing their building, the customer who never had to ask for a replacement hat, the parents who found flexible work while raising their families, and a young entrepreneur proudly selling his own creations while the community encouraged him to keep going.
None of those moments had anything to do with selling shirts. They had everything to do with investing in the people who make Caddo Mills what it is.
Spirit 66 did not simply build a business in Caddo Mills. They built a business around being part of it.
About Spirit 66
Spirit 66 is a family-owned custom apparel business located in Caddo Mills, Texas. They specialize in custom embroidery, screen printing, sports uniforms, spirit wear, promotional products, and laser engraving for schools, businesses, organizations, and community groups throughout Hunt County and the surrounding area.
Address: 2317 HWY 66, Caddo Mills TX, 75135
Phone: 903-751-3800
Website: www.spirit66.com
Continue Exploring The Local Letter
Spirit 66 is just one of several locally owned businesses that call this building home. If you enjoyed this story, you might also like reading about their neighbors:
Each business has its own story, but together they reflect the community-first spirit that makes this corner of Caddo Mills so special.
Know a local business with a story worth telling?
The Local Letter is always looking for locally owned businesses and the people behind them to feature in future stories. If there’s someone you’d love to see highlighted, send your recommendation to connect@thelocalletter.com or reach out through The Local Letter on Facebook.
Every business has a story. We’d love to help tell it.