A scrappy, rebellious, brand founded by a dirtbag bike and ski bum, Ripton & Co. might be the first company to positions cutoff jeans shorts as technical mountain biking gear. Call it hokey, but Ripton has hit a nerve with the millennial crowd. The company sold through its first order last winter. With sales of Action Jorts 2.0 proceeding at the same blistering pace, expect to see them on a trail near you soon.
“I never wore jeans when I lived in Vermont—they were too heavy and hot,” said Ripton founder Elliot Wilkinson-Ray, who named his company after a town in the Green Mountain State. “I moved to California, and everyone was wearing denim. It was the fancy hip alternative vibe.”
Wilkinson-Ray worked on…
