Men's Journal - Cowboy Style's Colorado Home

There’s local and then there’s local. It doesn’t take long when you stride into Rockmount Ranch Wear to realize why it’s a Colorado institution. Founded by Jack Weil (affectionately known as “Papa Jack”) in 1946, RRW has been a trailblazing business ever since. Weil, who worked until he was 107 and was the country’s oldest CEO, practically invented the Western shirt, making the first widely available button-downs with snaps, and spread the gospel of the bolo tie.

You can’t argue with success. Rockmount’s ranch shirts have been worn by everyone from Cary Grant and Robert Redford to Eric Clapton and Paul McCartney. Clark Gable wore a Rockmount shirt in ‘The Misfits‘ and Bob Dylan wore one with black diamond snaps (no. 6940) when he was awarded the Medal of Freedom at the White House.

The store is in a century-old landmark building at the confluence of the Platte River and Cherry Creek. It’s where the Rocky Mountains meet the Great Plains, and it’s a nugget’s throw from where gold was first discovered in Colorado in 1859. You can’t separate Rockmount from the romance of the West, and you wouldn’t want to.