The Wazee Street Shop That Snapped a Steer's Horn Into Fashion History

Papa Jack went to work every single day until he died at 107.

Let that sink in. Jack A. Weil, born March 28, 1901 in Evansville, Indiana, showed up at his desk on Wazee Street in downtown Denver right up until August 13, 2008. He is believed to be the oldest working CEO in United States history. Not retired at 107. Working.

That is the guy who invented the snap-button shirt you have seen on every cowboy, rock star and Yellowstone character for the last 80 years. And his company is still here, still family-owned, at 1626 Wazee St. in LoDo. 2026 is the year it turns 80.

The snap that broke on purpose

Here is the part people miss about Rockmount Ranch Wear. The snaps were not a fashion decision. They were a safety decision.

Papa Jack founded the company in 1946, and he was the first to put snaps on a Western shirt. The idea was simple and kind of brilliant. If a working cowboy snagged his shirt on a steer's horn, buttons would rip and tear right through the fabric. Snaps would just pop open and break away clean. The man would keep his shirt. Maybe keep some skin too.

So the thing that ended up on Bruce Springsteen and David Bowie started as a way to not get gored. I mean, honestly, that is the whole story of the American West in one shirt.

And Papa Jack did not stop there. Rockmount's "Sawtooth" pocket and "Diamond" snap shirt is the longest-running shirt design in America. Still made. Still sold. He is also credited as the first person to commercially produce the bolo tie, which is either the best or worst thing anyone has ever done, depending on how you feel about bolo ties.

The building is half the story

The store operates out of a 1909 building, and this is a real one. It is a rare Denver example of Prairie School architecture. Heavy timbering, tin ceilings, hardwood floors that have been walked on for over a century. LoDo is Denver's oldest historic district, and this block feels like it.

Worth knowing: Rockmount only opened its retail floor to the public in 2005. Before that it was a wholesale operation, shirts going out the door to stores all over the world while the front stayed quiet. Now you can walk in off Wazee, buy a shirt, and go upstairs to the little museum where the family lays out the whole history. Papa Jack, the designs, the famous customers. It is free and it is right there.

Elvis, Dylan, and nobody got paid

This is the detail I love. Every celebrity who ever wore Rockmount wore it because they wanted to. Not one paid endorsement. Ever.

Elvis Presley. Bob Dylan. Eric Clapton. Bruce Springsteen. David Bowie. Robert Redford. The shirts showed up in Brokeback Mountain and they show up in Yellowstone. These people found the shirt on their own and put it on because it was the real thing.

A Rockmount garment sits in the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. The shirts are carried by roughly 1,000 retailers worldwide, from Santa Fe to Paris to Tokyo. A family shop on Wazee Street quietly dressing the planet.

Grandson Steve Weil runs it now as president and chief creative officer. In 2026 he put out his third book, "Rockmount Legends: Celebrities in Classic American Fashion," which pulls together all the stories of the stars who adopted the brand. If you want the deep cuts, that is where they live.

The fourth generation shows up

And here is the 2026 headline inside the headline. Colter Weil is joining the company. Papa Jack's great-grandson. Fourth generation.

What makes this one interesting is where he came from. Colter started his career in banking at J.P. Morgan. So he went and did the New York finance thing, learned that world, and is now coming home to Wazee Street to run a shirt company his great-grandfather started with a snap and a steer's horn. Four generations, one address, one family name over the door.

I think about that a lot with old Denver businesses. Most of them do not make it to generation two, let alone four. The ones that do usually got bought out or turned into something unrecognizable. Rockmount is still Rockmount, still Weil-owned, still making the Diamond snap shirt the same way.

Why the real estate angle matters here

Quick side note that is actually the point. LoDo real estate is not cheap and it is not getting cheaper. The historic district commands a premium precisely because of buildings like this 1909 Prairie School gem and businesses like this one. A family holding down a corner of Wazee for 80 years is part of what makes the neighborhood worth what it is worth. When these anchors leave, the character goes with them, and the numbers follow. Rockmount staying put is a small quiet reason LoDo still feels like LoDo.

Papa Jack had a line he coined that the company still lives by. "The West is not a place, it's a state of mind."

Eighty years, four generations, one shirt that would rather break than tear. Go stand in that building and tell me he was wrong.

Rockmount Ranch Wear is at 1626 Wazee St., Denver, CO 80202. (303) 629-7777.