Rockmount's signature look, the longest production shirt design in America, is in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institution. Increasingly, major recording artists buy and wear Rockmount. These Western, Rock and Rockabilly stars wear it by choice, not as paid endorsements. Rockmount appears in dozens of films spanning Elvis classics to present day.

Sold throughout the United States and most developed countries, Rockmount has a diversified line for children and adults including shirts, skirts, felt and straw hats, silk neck ties and scarves, bolo ties, belts and buckles, jewelry and accessories.

Rockmount's Historic Home

 Rockmount's home since starting business in 1946 is Denver, Colorado's historic lower downtown district. The LODO neighborhood is both the city's and Rockmount's birthplace. Located at the confluence of the Platte River & Cherry Creek, where the Great Plains meet the Rocky Mountains, this is where gold was first discovered in Colorado in 1859.

 

The Rockmount building is a historic landmark built in 1908. The beautiful brick 5 story building is 35,000 square feet with extensive masonry detailing, built when Denver was the gateway to the frontier. Rockmount, one of the original western shirt companies, is headquartered where pioneers blazed trails through the heart of the American West.

The neighborhood, originally a warehouse district, is home to the Rockies baseball team, a rich mixture of art galleries, sidewalk cafes, offices and boutiques. Rockmount is the last remaining wholesale clothing firm in the area. The Weil Family remains committed to staying here because it is part of the company's identity, as Rockmount is part of Denver's legacy.

                                                            Rockmount History                    

Rockmount is a 3 generation business started by Jack A. Weil (1901-2008) who worked daily until age 107 years old. His secret was he loved his work. A true pioneer, he introduced the first western shirts with snaps, and also made the first commercially produced bolo ties. Many of his innovations are standards in the industry. Western fashion is worn all over the world.

Jack A. was motivated to develop a distinctive look for cowboys, ranchers, and farmers living in the American West. They had special boots and hats but wore ordinary work shirts. Jack A's special shirt styles have many features different from conventional shirts. His Rockmount shirts are slim fitting to accentuate the body, whereas conventional shirts were boxy. A better fitting shirt is less likely to get caught or snagged while riding the range. The shirt yokes broaden a man's shoulders. The flap pockets fasten to better hold their contents. The snap fasteners have a break away function to let loose if the shirt gets caught, and hold more permanently than buttons. Can you imagine a cowboy who likes to sew?

Rockmount's signature "Diamond" snap and "Sawtooth" pocket designs are individual and different, the same driving force behind so many of their distinctive features.

 

Rockmount's magic in popularizing western wear was an appeal to vanity. Cowboys have a strong independent identity and want to be different. Jack A. offered them a special fashion statement. Not so much to be worn while they worked the ranch but to make them stand apart from city slickers when they came to town. These western shirts are dress-up finery, to be worn on Saturday night in town or at the rodeo.

The Denver Store

So, while Jack A. had the vision to innovate a new distinctively American fashion, others had influences too. His son Jack B. (1928-2008) joined Rockmount in the 1950's. Jack B. started in sales and brought Western fashion East. He helped popularize it across the country. Western wear was mainly popular in the American West until the 1950's when Jack B. was one of the first salesmen to sell it east of the Mississippi River.

 

As Western wear's popularity spread across America, Jack A. coined the phrase "The West is not a place, it is a state of mind." Jack B. began designing, taking over the role from his father. He developed a full range of products including shirts for men, women and children, skirts, Western hats, belts and buckles, bolo ties, neck ties and jewelry.

 

Eventually his son, Steve, joined Rockmount in 1981. Steve returned to Denver after studying in Europe and brought back with him a desire to expand international sales. Rockmount had been exporting on a small basis for many years. By the late 1980's Steve had expanded the brand's popularity to Asia and Europe. His grandfather's "Western state of mind" had spread from the American West to world-wide in 40 years.

Now Rockmount is truly an international company with a design and marketing effort that focuses on the very different international markets. As Steve designs became popular he eventually took the design role of his father who likewise had succeed his father.

 

Steve's introduced the relaxed fit fashion statement to shirts, no easy accomplishment when you consider that they had been tailored and slim fitting for 40 years. This had the effect of appealing to a younger fashion conscious market, both in the US and abroad. Steve also had a big impact on fabrics in western shirts. He brought back fine 100% cottons, gabardines which had not been used in 30 years since the advent of permanent press polyester blends in the 60's.

Steve continues to reinterpret the signature classic designs of his grandfather and father. The fashion pendulum is always in motion. While fashion changes all the time his constant motivation is to design for a western state of mind - life style, not trends that come and go. His family's classic designs have been in non-stop production for over 50 years. The Rockmount signature design with diamond snaps and sawtooth pockets is considered to be the longest production style shirt in America.

Today, what distinguishes Rockmount from other brands is the company's commitment to quality and classic design Few other companies offer a range of over 100 fabrics including many of the fashion world's finest fabrics, also the softest plonge leather. While other companies fall all over each other copying what seem to be selling that season. Rockmount is committed to going its own way.

Two Rockmount Fans: James Spader and William Shatner from an episode of Boston Legal.


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