Vail, Colorado

Vail was built on purpose. In 1962 a few ski-troop veterans cut a village out of a sheep pasture along Gore Creek, modeled it on the Tyrol, and pointed it at seven back-side bowls that still hold the best lift-served powder in Colorado. The town incorporated in 1966, the covered bridge at the bottom of Bridge Street became the most photographed crossing in the state, and the Gore Range behind it stayed exactly as wild as it was. On a February morning when the Back Bowls open after a storm, the whole village moves in one direction.

Our Vail collection is cut from that morning. The crewneck sweatshirt carries a single snowflake over a Gore Range ridgeline in deep blue and brass, the colors of the Village at the end of a cold day. The tee is lighter, the town name in a clean condensed face with the 1966 line underneath, made for the Betty Ford Alpine Gardens in July and the Booth Falls trail when the creek runs high. The mug and sticker carry the same ridge, so a set reads as one piece.

Everyone who wears it has a Vail story: the family that has rented the same condo since the 1980s, the lifty who came for a season, the Front Range couple who make the drive every Saturday the pass is clear. Everything is original artwork, printed to order in the USA and shipped with tracking.