STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
As many retailers worry about whether they can keep their doors open during the pandemic, two Ketchum entrepreneurs are opening a new business during the middle of the corona-cession.
Scott and Laura Jordan are opening a retail store for their SCOTTeVEST vests and other products on the main floor of the SCOTTeVEST building at 411 E. 6th St. in Ketchum.
“We are the only company in the world, I suspect, opening a retail store—and a travel clothing store at that—in the middle of the pandemic,” said Scott Jordan, who launched the first digitally native clothing brand 20 years ago. “It’s been challenging for us but we have the real estate and the inventory. And we’re super excited about the product.”
The bricks-and-mortar store up the street from Hotel Ketchum features such outerwear as the Tropiformer with its stowable hood and the Rhonda Jacket and the Chloe Hoodie named after two of the Jordans’ poodles.
The distinguishing thing with all of these is the pockets—quick draw pockets, handwarmer pockets, change pockets, cell phone pockets, eyeglass pockets, digital camera pockets, Bluetooth pockets, iPad pockets, keyholders, passport pockets and envelope pockets.
COVID-19 has made SCOTTeVEST more relevant than ever, Scott Jordan says.
“You need pockets now for masks, gloves and sanitizer and you need quick access to them,” he said.
The Jordans had planned to mark the opening of their flagship retail store with a huge sample sale of one-of-a-kind items collected over the years towards the end of ski season. But the pandemic brought that to a screeching halt.
So, they pivoted. They asked online customers to share photos and stories from their travels and compiled them into a series of Wanderlust emails for Armchair Travelers to entertain their customers while they were stuck at home. And they started a weekly livestream about travel, giving quarantined customers a chance to socialize.
They opened this week with a soft launch to test social distancing protocols.
“I’ve been wanting to open a retail store since we moved to Ketchum 17 years ago,” said Jordan.
During the pandemic, SCOTTeVEST will continue to offer a virtual shopping experience—one which will be enhanced by cameras in the brick and mortar building giving Jordan an opportunity to hold up a jacket or pair of cargo shorts and talk about them.
Shoppers accessing the bricks-and-mortar building will be limited to five at a time. There will be masks available for those without.
Any clothing item someone tries on will be disinfected and allowed to sit for a few days before it’s put back on the racks.
Eventually, the Jordans hope to open up the store for parties and other events. Jordan also envisions taking people on tours of the building, which includes his living quarters on the third floor and an art gallery featuring photographs of the couple’s poodles—Chloe, 16; Susie, 8; Rhonda, 4, and Sabrina 1.
SCOTTeVEST started out of Jordan’s frustration as a lawyer commuting between New Jersey and Chicago.
“I was carrying all these devices and didn’t have enough pockets to put them. I decided to solve my own problem,” he said.
“I think people in this community have been wondering what SCOTTeVEST is about—it’s about making people’s lives easier through functional clothing,” he added. It’s clothing designed for your life and for the trip of your life.”