{"id":32930,"date":"2023-07-06T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-07-06T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/15-year-old-opens-durango-oxygen-bar-on-main-avenue\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:04:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:04:20","slug":"15-year-old-opens-durango-oxygen-bar-on-main-avenue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/15-year-old-opens-durango-oxygen-bar-on-main-avenue\/","title":{"rendered":"15-year-old opens Durango Oxygen bar on Main Avenue"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Collin
Collin Crowdes, 15, stands inside Durango Oxygen, an oxygen bar he opened June 19 on Main Avenue. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Standing inside his kiosk in the 500 block of Main Avenue, 15-year-old Collin Crowdes greets tourists with a big smile and a breath of fresh air \u2013 something many travelers need after coming from sea level to this town at 6,512 feet in elevation.<\/p>\n

Crowdes opened Durango Oxygen on June 19 near the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad Depot. He offers customers an opportunity to inhale 90% to 98% pure oxygen, which he says can make them feel refreshed and able to breathe again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see a lot of entrepreneurs who are youngish, like I am, and I wanted to prove to myself that I could run (a business),\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to make me unique and I\u2019m really hoping it sets me apart when it (comes) time for me to go to college.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before Durango Oxygen, Crowdes launched online businesses, one of which entailed running a website and handling marketing for an artist.<\/p>\n

He said his previous entrepreneurial endeavors have given him the business knowledge necessary to start Durango Oxygen.<\/p>\n

For Crowdes\u2019 grandmother, Caroni Adams, his desire to open Durango Oxygen came as no surprise.<\/p>\n

\u201cHeavens, he\u2019s been doing it since he was 10. He doesn\u2019t understand he\u2019s not grown up yet,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\n

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Adams said Crowdes has been working for five years, first at Animas Chocolate & Coffee Co. as an intern, then as a volunteer at the Fish Connection.<\/div>\n

\u201cHe likes getting up and going to work,\u201d Adams said. \u201cAnd I keep saying to him, \u2018Slow down, you got your whole life to work.\u2019 But he just likes it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crowdes said he financed 90% of the opening and operational costs for Durango Oxygen with his personal savings.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did take out a small loan from my dad, and I\u2019m really grateful for that,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s been support from my whole family that has made this possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crowdes\u2019 mother and grandmother are both business owners, a fact that Adams said may have influenced Crowdes\u2019 entrepreneurial ambition.<\/p>\n

Crowdes said the idea of starting an oxygen bar stemmed from a family friend who ran one at Purgatory Resort.<\/p>\n

When that bar closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, it opened an opportunity, Crowdes said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were no oxygen bars in Durango,\u201d he said. \u201cIt seemed like a natural choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Durango Oxygen consists of two stations that sit on the kiosk counter. Each station offers customers four flavors that provide varying sensory effects, Crowdes said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo are going to be relaxing, and two are going to give you energy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Air is forced through the flavors, causing them to bubble and mix with oxygen from an oxygen concentrator kept in the kiosk. The resulting gas is then delivered to the customer through the nasal cannula that Crowdes provides to each customer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re like the ones you get when you\u2019re in the hospital,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou put it in your nose, and then over your ears,\u201d he said, inserting the nose bit into his nostrils and tucking the tubing behind his ears.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow you\u2019re able to connect to these tubes down here,\u201d he said, gesturing to the tubing attachment protruding from each oxygen station.<\/p>\n

\u201cTen minutes can feel like a cup of coffee, whereas 20 minutes on oxygen can feel like a full night\u2019s rest,\u201d Crowdes said.<\/p>\n

Most of Durango Oxygen\u2019s business comes from tourists, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they\u2019re coming back down from Silverton (9,318 feet in elevation), they finally feel those effects of altitude and want something that\u2019s going to rejuvenate (them),\u201d he said. \u201cAnytime after 3:15 is going to be the busiest time for us, just because that\u2019s when trains start rolling in.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Collin
Collin Crowdes, 15, stands inside Durango Oxygen, an oxygen bar he opened near the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad Depot on Main Avenue. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Crowdes offers 10-, 15- and 20-minute sessions for $10, $15 and $18, respectively. Customers with a paid train ticket can receive $2 off any session.<\/p>\n

Crowdes said he has been hitting sales goals and is excited to see where the summer takes him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always said (with) Collin, it\u2019s not a matter of what he\u2019s going to do in life, it\u2019s what he\u2019s not going to do, because he\u2019s so talented,\u201d Adams said. \u201cHe could just go anywhere and do anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

lveress@duarngoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018He’s been doing it since he was 10. He doesn\u2019t understand he’s not grown up yet,\u2019 says grandma<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32931,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[431,314,28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-32930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-business-general","tag-downtown-durango","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32930"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81978,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32930\/revisions\/81978"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32930"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=32930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}