Meet Shannan Mills: Shannan Mills, & Michael Agnew, Owners/Operators Of Mythic Games Colorado

We had the good fortune of connecting with Shannan Mills and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Shannan, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
Initially we (owners Mike and Shannan) were not planning on starting our own business as early on as we did, but we had an opportunity to buy a small business that a family friend was selling and we couldn’t pass it up. We pooled our resources and bought the business together, and Mike had 16 years of experience dealing in MTG and games so he had always hoped to start his own store with all the experience he has gained over the years. Shannan had just finished up her degree and was looking for a career opportunity, so it all kind of came together at the right time. The business at the time was much smaller in size and inventory and was called Black Gold. We made a deal with the previous owner and took over in 2014. We were able to use Black Gold as a solid starting point to grow from. Since then, we have added hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of inventory to our store, grew our MTG collection, our gaming community, physically added over 700 square feet to our storefront and changed our name to Mythic Games.

What should our readers know about your business?
Mythic Games is a one of a kind game store. It is owned and operated locally by couple Mike Agnew and Shannan Mills. We have the best selection of Magic the Gathering singles and products in the state and provide a quick and easy way to get lists filled and decks built. We also have a impressive selection of hundreds of tabletop games like strategic and fun board games, collectable trading cards games, game accessories and a giant role playing game section with hundreds of minis and paints to choose from. We set ourselves apart because all of our employees are knowledgeable about MTG and games and are happy to give advice and suggestions on the best cards and game to fulfill your needs. We are also pride ourselves on being a clean, well lit, organized store in a fun and welcoming environment. We have a real personal relationship with our community and know much of our players and regulars by name. During normal operation we host lots of events for our community, including trading card and tactical game tournaments, board game meet ups, charity tournaments and casual play with 50+ seats of free play-space provided. Since the pandemic hit we have taken community health very seriously and unfortunately had to temporarily discontinue in store play until it is safe to resume, and while re remain open for retail, we have taken extra precautions with cleanliness and store capacity. It have taken 6 years of continuous growth, sacrifice, trial and error and investment into new products to get where we are today. It was until 2020 that we were even in a position to change our name to Mythic Games. We had to save up and prepare our community for the change, but now that the transition is complete we are very proud that Mythic Games is all our own and better represents who we are and what we do. We made plenty of mistakes and had several trials along the way. We have invested too much in products that were not worth investing in. we have dealt with property issues of water and wind damage, rent increases, and new infrastructure. We learned the term “good help is hard to find” to be an understatement and work really hard to find the right people to represent our brand. Now we are trudging our way through this pandemic, but we have learned so much along the way and are so grateful to be in such a great city with such a great and supportive community.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
If we were hosting a good friends from out of town and wanted to show off the area, there are several great places to check out. There are some great small businesses in the area that are worth visiting, on the same strip as Mythic Games you can find a family owned small Mexican Restaurant called Hace Real that serves excellent authentic Mexican grub. From there you can literally go down the line of shops in our shopping center and find Jeff’s Collectable Empire which specializes in Star Wars collectables and comics, then you can pop by Bricks and Minifigs which is a Lego specialty store and then land at Mythic Games and grab some great board games, booster packs or even sit down to a demo game with friends. We could take a game we picked up over to Coal Mine Brewery down the way and play while enjoying a couple of craft beers and watch the dogs play in the off leash dog area at the brewery. Going out a little ways East, there is Downtown Littleton which has loads of awesome small businesses and restaurants to check out, it has a Light Rail and Bus stop for easy travel and a cool oldtown/downtown feel.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
First and foremost, we are grateful to each other. We have supported each other financially and emotionally through these last 6 years. We make a great team and couldn’t have done it without each other, We got married in 2017 and love being our own mom and pop game shop to our community. We would also like to send a shout our to Carl Vanlathem, and his sons Jeff and Eric. We brought our business from their family and they helped us get our start. We wouldn’t be where we are today without them and are very grateful to be carrying on the legacy that they started. Finally we would like to thank our awesome staff and partners. Leo, Emil, Cyprian, Tate and Alan help us to make it all possible with being our fantastic knowledgeable and friendly staff. We also had the talented Jason Gardner design and implement our inventory system in which we base our whole operation on. As well as the amazing graphic artist Brian LaCount who designed our awesome logo!

Website: www.mythicgamescolorado.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/mythicgamesco
Twitter: www.twitter.com/mythicgamesco
Facebook: www.facebook.com/mythicgamesco
Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/mythic-games-littleton