Filled with stories, Denver's Rockmount Ranch Wear owner Steve Weil shares inside scoop on famous customers
Nestled in Denver's oldest historic district is a piece of Americana dating back decades. A new book shares the star-studded history of Rockmount Ranch Wear and its influence on fashion icons.
Current owner Steve Weil grew up inside Rockmount Ranch Wear. Long days in a warehouse and store aren't unusual for a member of the Weil family, considering his grandfather kept at it until he was 107.
"I have been here pretty much since I was a little kid," said Weil.
Customer watching at Rockmount Ranch Wear in LoDo is, at times, like a night at the Grammys. Music stars abound. Film stars, too. And regular customers looking for a piece of Americana.
Weil says Rockmount has weathered booms and busts over its eighty years of business.
"Everything was about responding to a changing market. That's the cycle of business, right?" said Weil, who serves as the company's President and chief creative officer.
His latest creative effort is a third book, "Rockmount Legends: Celebrities in Classic American Fashion." The book is a compilation of memories of rock stars like David Bowie, Eric Clapton, and Bob Dylan, who have branded their own look with Rockmount clothing. There are stories and back-and-forth communications, as well as style notes and sightings of Rockmount on film sets and among stars.
Weil first noticed a shirt on Elvis Presley in the movie "Love Me Tender."
"I looked, and I looked, and suddenly I remembered I'd seen a shirt exactly like that that my father had in the 50s," he recalled.
Weil re-introduced the shirt, and it was a sellout.
The company was started soon after World War II by "Papa Jack," who cut out a niche as unique as the sawtooth pockets he popularized. The company was the first to put snaps on shirts. His grandfather figured it would keep men on horseback from getting snagged. His shirts also featured yokes and wider cuffs, a departure from the norm at the time.
"My grandfather and his advertising, 'Designed in the West by Westerners.' Distinctive," Steve Weil summarized.
Over the years, more and more stars looking for western wear eventually came into the store on Wazee Street in LoDo.
"People who write music or movies, I think they're visionaries. And I think they appreciate that in their clothing, and I think we've, that's what we do," said Weil.
"Rockmount Legends" follows two other books, "Ask Papa Jack: Wisdom of the World's Oldest CEO," which is filled with stories and sayings from Papa Jack, who worked at the store until his passing, and "Western Shirts: A Classic American Fashion," which puts in print the history of the development of western wear.
"I'm inspired by my grandfather. He could mesmerize you with his stories," said Weil.
One passage features letters exchanged between Papa Jack and Ronald Reagan. Reagan was decrying the U.S.'s shift toward a service economy.
"And my grandfather writes him and says, 'Servicing is when they take the mare to the stud,'" laughs Weil.
Weil's father was also an innovator, taking the company nationwide. Weil says he could tell a story of his own.
Weil says, one Saturday at the warehouse, before there was a store, "There's a guy peering in the window like this, and he sees my father pull up. Opened the door and he says, 'Bloody hell, you're never open when I'm here.' And it's a guy with an English accent. And my father's a nice guy, he says, 'come on in.'"
Later that day, there was a family get-together, and Steve's father told him the story.
Weil recalled, "My father says, 'An English rock star came in and I took care of him,' and I'm thinking, 'Yeah, right. Who was it?'"
It took his father a few moments to remember, then he spat out, "David Bowie," mispronouncing the name. Steve was still skeptical until Monday.
"And then the phone rings, and it's David Bowie's secretary. He wants a duplicate of the same order sent to Madison Square Garden overnight," he laughed.
Weil says they try to respect the stars' space, adding that there are the friendly ones and the more remote ones.
"Robert Plant was really fun," explained Weil.
When he arrived in the store, Steve says he received a call from one of the workers. He could hear Led Zeppelin's Plant in the background, crowing about what he'd found.
"I walk in and here's this guy like, just beaming. He's having fun," Weil shared.
The staff ended up getting invited to three nights of shows by Plant and his band at the Fillmore, and Steve went out to breakfast with Plant.
Eric Clapton's look seems well-branded by Rockmount. Weil says Clapton has been a regular customer over the years. He sent a picture of himself in a Rockmount shirt at one point.
"Can I use that you know in some of our material?" he recalled asking Clapton. "He says, 'Yeah, what's in it for me? I said how about a ten percent discount?"
One time, Clapton emailed that he needed shirts for a Cream reunion in London in two days.
"I said, 'Well, it takes a week from Denver. But I know where you can have a shirt on Thursday, and that's if I hand deliver one," he explained.
And so he did. Weil and a friend, capable of making last-minute travel decisions, flew over, but then doubt set in.
"What if this is bogus?" Weil thought.
He had Clapton's phone number but was too worried about the cost of calling from his cell phone, so he sought out a British phone booth and rang him. Turned out, it was legitimate, and they made the delivery at the Royal Albert Hall. They went to dinner with Clapton as well.
The book is another way to share the memories that go with the images and the stories about people who have found an image along with the clothing.
Weil says sales have changed over the years, with the web now a big component. But personal engagement is still a big part of the Rockmount experience.
"It's kind of a rare art. And I don't know, I hope with the internet we don't lose that kind of stuff," said Weil.
