Krystal Embry was tired of being a nurse.

Sixteen years of caring for patients in hospital emergency rooms and intensive care units had taken a toll on Embry, a 41-year-old mother of four who opened Local Merch-Purcell with husband Branden in December.

“I don’t miss the stress,” she told The Register. “But this is a different kind of stress and chaos at times.”

Local Merch-Purcell, 2208 N. Green Ave., sells team uniforms, community and spirit wear and custom merchandise for local schools, organizations and businesses.

“At first, I was very nervous about it but now I love it,” Krystal said. “I love not having to answer to anyone else. It’s just me and my husband, and I just enjoy that aspect of it and having all the customers come in and meeting new people and being able to give back to the community.”

Local Merch-Purcell sells Purcell, Washington, Wayne and Lexington clothing, including shirts, shorts, hats and hoodies. The couple does much of their own design work and embroidery, according to Branden Embry.

“If they come in and they want something specific. We can take their design and create it for them or design something and create it for them,” he said.

Branden Embry, 46, is a retired Army veteran and former CrossFit coach who grew up in Purcell and graduated from Lexington High School.

“I knew there was a need down there for something like (this),” he said.

In September, the parents of four between the ages of 12 and 23 walked into a Local Merch store in Blanchard, where they live and own a gym.

“With our boys playing sports and things like that growing up, there’s never really a place for dads to go and buy nice school-specific clothing and things like that, and this place had that,” he said.

“I kind of liked it and started talking to the owner. The idea came to fruition pretty quick, and we made it happen.”

Krystal credits her husband with pushing the idea of Local Merch-Purcell.

“He was the one that wanted to make this happen,” she said. “But when he presented it to me, it just sounded good. He knows that I’m crafty and just like to do things like that.”

The couple does a lot of business on social media, an area of expertise for Krystal, who also bakes.

“My wife’s pretty good at the social media stuff,” Branden said. “I think the response has been pretty good. We’re still having people that just find out about us.

“When people come into the store, when they reach out and we create their stuff, we’ve had a lot of positive feedback. A lot of people tell us they’re glad that we’re there because there hasn’t been something like that in Purcell for a while.”

Local Merch Purcell is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10-4 on Saturday.

“We really like seeing teams wear the uniforms that we’ve created and helped design,” Branden said. “It’s cool to see people posting on social media wearing stuff that we’ve created. We like the design aspect of it and then just being able to take somebody’s idea and their vision and create it.”

It beats the heck out of trauma in the emergency room.