Our story
Why we take the long way
Sheldon Hampton began as a habit, not a business — the habit of pulling over when the light turns gold, of taking the gravel road just to see where it goes, and of wearing the same jacket until it tells your story better than you can. This shop is that habit, hung on a rail.
Start at mile one
▲▲The long way home▲▲
S. HamptonOutfitter
Sheldon, somewhere past the pavement ↑
The back seat
Raised on the long way round
Every summer the car was packed the same way: cooler behind the driver's seat, maps stuffed in the door pocket, and me wedged between two sleeping bags. We never went anywhere fancy. We went to the parks — the famous ones and the quiet ones nobody talks about — and we always took the slow road there.
My dad's rule was simple: the fast road is for people who've already seen everything. We hadn't, so we pulled over. A lot.
The jacket
One jacket, a hundred stories
He owned one good jacket. Waxed canvas, the colour of wet pine, patched at both elbows. It had been rained on in the Smokies, sat on at the Grand Canyon and folded into a pillow somewhere in Wyoming. Nobody would have called it new, but nobody would have called it finished either.
When it was finally handed down to me, it held more of our family than the photo albums did. That's when it clicked: the right clothes are the one thing you bring home from every trip.
The shop
A small rack for the long way
Sheldon Hampton is our way of finding more clothes like that jacket — and the jeans, shirts, hoodies and boots that belong next to it. Every piece on the rack has to answer two questions: would we pack it for a week of back roads, and would we still be reaching for it when we got home?
If the answer's no, it doesn't make the rack. What's left is a short, honest collection for men and women who'd rather take the scenic route.
Buy it for the trip. Keep it for the stories.
Sheldon Hampton
Field notes
What earns a spot on the rack
Four questions we ask of everything before it makes the rack.
Worn in, not worn out
We look for fabrics that soften and fade the right way, and seams that stand up to real use.
Pockets that earn their keep
Room for a map, a phone and a pocketknife. If a pocket's only there for show, we pass.
Colours borrowed from the parks
Pine, rust, ochre and glacier blue — shades that look at home at a trailhead and just as good in town.
Time to be sure
60 days to try it on, think it over and send it back if it isn't the one.
Words we pack for every trip
The mountains are calling and I must go.
John Muir
In a letter to his sister, 1873
Our promise
The fine print, kept short
Wherever the road takes you next, I hope something from our rack comes along for the ride. Pull over when the light turns gold. Take the gravel road. And if anything we send isn't right, tell us — we'll put it right.
Sheldon
Sheldon Hampton · Outfitters