About me

Thug Emporium began when Denton artist and maker David Bayon got a challenge from fellow Denton creative Joey Leichty: make something weird to feature at Dentonpalooza Twoza. That sparked the first wave of custom action figures, a bootleg-style tribute to the city's forgotten legends and strange history.

From there, things took off. What started as a weird little Denton project quickly expanded into hip hop-inspired figures, pop culture oddities, and other artifacts from David's particular corner of the universe. But Denton never left the radar. Thug Emporium remains rooted in this city's creative grit: part myth, part memory, and all handmade.

The name itself is a nod to Denton's old Drug Emporium, where countless weird finds once lined the shelves (and now, ironically, so does pickleball gear). The idea is to create a new kind of emporium, filled with art, nostalgia, and the stuff you didn't know you needed until you saw it.