When someone starts a business, they might do so with a feeling, a desire, a curiosity, a question, and maybe even a mission.
Ripton started with an itch, a sputter, a stack of boxes in the corner of a bedroom, addresses hand-scribbled on blank, padded envelopes. Purpose driven? Yes, I wanted something different from what I saw as the gentrification of the outdoor industry, spitting out formulaic ‘gear-as-status’ iterations of plastic clothing indistinguishable from each other. But in terms of how exactly our little idea could create positive impact, I may have had a feeling, but it seemed self-indulgent to imagine how selling a few boxes of jorts were truly going to make an impact on the world.
Five years later, I feel like I need to clarify our “why,” for myself and for our customers; why are we inventing the Performance Denim category and building the Ripton brand?
At around five years old, I started skiing at Cochran’s Ski Area in Richmond, Vermont, the first non-profit ski hill in North America. The bus would bring us there after school for free. My friends and I became some of the few ski racers who didn’t come from wealthy families. I certainly took this access for granted, as any 5-year-old would, and my opportunity to play at high speeds with my friends, on our own, fit my energetic ADD personality, something I wouldn’t understand until decades later.
Bikes & skis served as a lens through which I’ve experienced much of my life. But a lot has changed since I was a kid. Outdoor recreation has been on an accelerating trend toward status & technology-driven higher costs, more expensive bikes, more expensive skiing.
I felt this way five years ago; I just didn’t fully understand how Ripton could have a positive impact. So, after lots of struggle, doubt, failure, bad news, and sleepless nights, our small team has succeeded in building a playful, rebellious, small denim company. Also, after this small amount of success I also realize our organization and future organization can have a positive impact. Skiing or riding in jeans isn’t a political statement, but it is a values-based vision for a simpler world, a more inclusive world.
We recently printed out a huge piece of paper at the office with a wordy, jumbled, run-on sentence, that says:
“Our mission at Ripton is to simplify & subtract from the complexity that our modern society haphazardly creates. Pushing our world closer to a more minimal, honest, and classic aesthetic that leaves room for more personality, creativity and less of a focus on performance or status. This perspective and mission percolates into our built world, our lifestyle design, and how we build garments, and operate our business. We think of our core brand values as scrappy, playful, raw, and classic.”
The Ripton purpose and mission is both an aesthetic judgement: keeping things simple, keeping things wild, keeping things raw — as well as social: keeping bikes and skiing affordable, casual, and for the people. When activities and their cultures are simpler, more affordable, and humbler, more people can access them. Skiing and biking might be considered an affluent person’s sport, but they don’t need to be; they just need to be simplified.
You could wear a single pair of Ripton jeans every day for every activity. These singular jeans would take on your story and feel that much more comfortable and authentic with time. I’ve found that simplifying my gear closet, giving away, consigning ski clothes, extra parts, skis, things, results in a lightness — space that leaves room to move more freely.
The simpler and more affordable we can make outdoor recreation, the more interesting these cultures can become, the more participants there can be, the more diverse the ecosystem becomes. More people on bikes, or skis, or in the mountains, for less money, benefits everyone, and gives us a chance to have a culture.
... to paraphrase:
Mission Statement:
Simplify & promote access, while relentlessly developing the performance denim category.
Core Values:
Scrappy
Playful
Raw
Classic
Access:
While we're busy building a company, designing and developing products, or working with our customers, we're serious about the social component of access to recreation. So we've worked with three non-profits in 2024 to contribute financially to their work. We will have more information and conversation about this going forward. But our initial contributions were to:
Durango Devo: A Durango-based youth mountain biking program that gets more kids on bikes.
The Moriah Wilson Foundation: A Vermont organization that helps get kids into biking and skiing in a region where it's often exclusive and hard to afford at a competitive level.
Cochran's Ski Area: the first non-profit ski hill in North America that is dedicated to getting more kids on skis from all income levels and backgrounds.
Vision:
Imagine for a second a simpler, raw, and wild world. A single lift brings you deep into rugged and steep terrain without lines or a snack bar. A dusty, rutted road winds deep into the mountains to find a narrow hiking path that rides like a roller coaster. An old '90s mountain bike with new wheels and tires takes you everywhere you need to go, and a single pair of jeans or jorts is your go-to kit for all of your outdoor pursuits. In this simplified world, a home is attainable, the roads are dirt, we have time — enough time to actually use our outdoor gear and distance ourselves from technology.
