I came across this 2008 article about Jack Weil, the inventor of the cowboy shirt. Mr. Weil ran Rockmount Ranch Wear, a manufacturer of western shirts, Stetson hats, and bolo ties. He continued to work at the company until he died at the age of 107, likely making him the world’s oldest chief executive officer.
This entertaining profile was written by Adam Harrison Levy for the New Design Observer.
A few years ago, I found myself lost inside a shopping mall with the man who, in 1946, invented the snap-buttoned cowboy shirt. Jack A. Weil, better known as Jack A, was one hundred and one years old and he was not happy. He was, in fact, highly annoyed. We had wandered into the shirt section of Foley’s Department store in Denver. He was holding up a red-and-blue-striped Tommy Hilfiger. He couldn’t get over the fact that clothes were made anywhere else but in the good ‘ol USA. “Call me an isolationist, call me small-minded but why do people buy shirts made in…” — Jack A looked at the label — “Sri Lanka!” Jack A, along with his son, Jack B, who was then in his seventies, ran Rockmount Ranch Wear, a manufacturer of classic western shirts, Stetsons and bolo ties. (Rockmont shirts have been worn by Clark Gable in The Misfits, by Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain and by countless other cowboys, both real and imagined in between.) The three of us were trying to find a place to eat. But because Jack B refused to park in the parking garage and spend an extra five dollars, Jack A couldn’t find his way to his usual lunch spot, Spinnakers Restaurant. Jack A liked routine. He still opened the Rockmount shop every morning at 8:00am just as he did back in the 1940s, when he was an eager ex-hat salesman newly arrived in Colorado from Indiana.
Realizing just how lost we were, Jack A took command of the situation. He returned the Hilfiger to its place on the rack. “Its Spinnakers or bust,” he said firmly. “I’m not eating anywhere else.” He adjusted his Stetson and set off across the crowded shop floor. Jack B and I followed along like ducklings. Jack A had a walnut face: wizened and tough, with deep folds of skin around his mouth. Even at his age he was agile and directed.
