Idea for elevated casual outdoor clothing line born in Vail
Graphic prints and sustainability efforts fuel Jack and Sage鈥檚 mission of spreading joy one shirt at a time
Jack and Sage/Courtesy photo
A spool of yarn and a quick knitting lesson made quite an impact on Alex Biegler and could be the impetus of his newest brand, Jack and Sage.
Biegler, who was born and raised in Vail and a Vail Mountain School graduate, credits this early lesson in not only knitting but also in apparel manufacturing with his desire to make elevated resort and souvenir apparel.
“During my sophomore year at VMS, my good friend, Haleigh, taught me how to knit a beanie on a long school trip bus ride and shortly after realizing a spool of yarn cost $1 at Walmart, I was selling beanies I made to my friends the next week for $20, a 95% margin,” Biegler said.
Biegler went on to Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois and double majored in economics and graphic design. He took what he calls a “soul crushing” job in finance in Chicago and soon realized the mountains were calling and he went to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. It was there where he recalled memories of the 95% margin and decided to utilize his college degree and focus that business and product knowledge into creating a line of localized beanies, which had the ski towns and resorts names knit into them.
“We pitched the concept to a handful of the top ski resorts and retailers and I quickly realized we were onto something that no one else at the time, in 2011, was doing yet,” Biegler said.聽“We were the first brand to offer fully custom knit beanies at reasonable minimums, essentially taking the concept of a graphic tee and putting it into a knit beanie and created Locale Outdoor and it took off from there.”
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He sold the business to a private equity group in 2021 and waited three years for his non-compete agreements to expire. During that time he went back to business school at Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. It was at Kellogg where he met his future business partner Marc Conner.
“In 2023, freed from my non-competes and armed with all my prior experience, both good and bad, I was ready for round two and wanted to go bigger and better this time and started Jack and Sage,” Biegler said. “I convinced Nate Strauss to stop working for my dad at Resort Data Processing and join the cause, and Nate, Marc and I built this business from there.”
Jack and Sage seeks to bridge the void between no-name souvenir product and premier outdoor industry brands and carries a wide variety of button up flannels and camp shirts, quarter-zip pullover fleeces, UV technical hoodies and more.
“I started Jack and Sage to bring elevated apparel to the resort and souvenir apparel industry. I long have thought the logo industry was missing a middle to higher end option for apparel,” Biegler said. “People have enough cheap tee shirts and have been looking for a logo product they would want to wear in everyday life.”
Whether it’s the pines used in the Evergreen Collection, or the goggles, gondola cars and skis in the Kings and Queens of Apr猫s line, the apparel showcases graphic prints that resonate with Jack and Sage’s buyers.
“Our products are well known for featuring graphic prints that are designed to evoke people’s emotional connection and nostalgia for the outdoors, vacations and passions to showcase what they love most about places like Vail,” Biegler said.
Beyond the products showcasing logos from ski resorts, Jack and Sage has expanded to provide elevated logo apparel for college and professional sports in a division called Fandom by Jack and Sage.
“Fandom takes our same elevated apparel to the licensed sportswear industry where we feature prints featuring teams and schools logos,” Biegler said. “This fall we launched a capsule in Ball Arena for the Colorado Avalanche and Denver Nuggets featuring team branding on our best-selling pieces as well as 43 college bookstores including University of Colorado Boulder, Colorado State University, Alabama, Michigan State, Tennessee and more.”
They also have an adorable kids’ line with shirts, fleeces, onesies and more.
“While building the company, many of my mentors and clients expressed a need for quality kids’ apparel,” Biegler said. “Our kids’ line has grown into a substantial part of our business.”
Since starting Jack and Sage in March of 2023, the company has grown so fast in the first year and a half and they have products sold in over 500 stores in the United States and 75 in Canada.
“We have nearly 20 employees in Colorado working together to bring these products to life, not to mention the hundreds of people in the factories, so seeing folks in our finished product provides gratification to the whole team,” Biegler said. “We often get caught up in the weeds of running a small business, and seeing the product out in the wild reminds us of why we all do what we do.”
Jack and Sage products can be found at many shops around Beaver Creek and Vail and the full line is available at .
