diff --git a/plugins/pulp_docker/plugins/importers/sync.py b/plugins/pulp_docker/plugins/importers/sync.py
index 34d21e22..81808f0c 100644
--- a/plugins/pulp_docker/plugins/importers/sync.py
+++ b/plugins/pulp_docker/plugins/importers/sync.py
@@ -2,7 +2,6 @@
 This module contains the primary sync entry point for Docker v2 registries.
 """
 from gettext import gettext as _
-import errno
 import httplib
 import itertools
 import logging
@@ -12,6 +11,8 @@
 
 from pulp.common.plugins import importer_constants
 from pulp.plugins.util import nectar_config, publish_step
+from pulp.plugins.util import misc
+
 from pulp.server.controllers import repository
 from pulp.server.exceptions import MissingValue, PulpCodedException
 
@@ -161,12 +162,8 @@ def v1_generate_download_requests(self):
         """
         for unit in self.v1_step_get_local_units.units_to_download:
             destination_dir = os.path.join(self.get_working_dir(), unit.image_id)
-            try:
-                os.makedirs(destination_dir, mode=0755)
-            except OSError, e:
-                # it's ok if the directory exists
-                if e.errno != errno.EEXIST:
-                    raise
+            misc.mkdir(destination_dir, mode=0775)
+
             # we already retrieved the ancestry files for the tagged images, so
             # some of these will already exist
             if not os.path.exists(os.path.join(destination_dir, 'ancestry')):
diff --git a/plugins/pulp_docker/plugins/registry.py b/plugins/pulp_docker/plugins/registry.py
index 036ea3a0..badb6d7b 100644
--- a/plugins/pulp_docker/plugins/registry.py
+++ b/plugins/pulp_docker/plugins/registry.py
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 from cStringIO import StringIO
 from gettext import gettext as _
 import copy
-import errno
 import httplib
 import json
 import logging
@@ -16,6 +15,8 @@
 from nectar.request import DownloadRequest
 from pulp.server import exceptions as pulp_exceptions
 
+from pulp.plugins.util import misc
+
 from pulp_docker.common import constants, error_codes
 from pulp_docker.plugins import models
 from pulp_docker.plugins import auth_util
@@ -226,12 +227,8 @@ def get_ancestry(self, image_ids):
             path = self.ANCESTRY_PATH % image_id
             url = urlparse.urljoin(self.get_image_url(), path)
             destination = os.path.join(self.working_dir, image_id, 'ancestry')
-            try:
-                os.mkdir(os.path.split(destination)[0])
-            except OSError, e:
-                # it's ok if the directory already exists
-                if e.errno != errno.EEXIST:
-                    raise
+            misc.mkdir(os.path.split(destination)[0])
+
             request = DownloadRequest(url, destination)
             self.add_auth_header(request)
             requests.append(request)