The name
Proud to be
bozos.
BOZOS got its name from the town that inspired it. Bozeman, Montana.
Bozeman is a valley surrounded by mountains and intersected by four rivers. The ranches bring the cowboys, the university brings the hippies, and the mountains and rivers bring the adventurers. All drawn by the place's rugged beauty and the access to nature it provides. It's no wonder they call it the Last Best Place. Ask any of us what we do and almost no one will answer with their job.
We are often misunderstood by those living in cities, climbing career ladders and chasing society's number one ambition: money. They might even look down at us for living what appears to be a largely dirtbag existence. They may even go so far as to call us bozos.
That's fine with us. We are pursuing a less trodden path. A dirt road. We choose to live a life outside, climbing mountains, and chasing adventure. The fact that you don't understand us is ok, even preferred. It keeps these lands we love less crowded. Dirtbag anywhere else has a negative meaning. In Bozeman we wear it as a badge of honor. And you know what, we like the name bozos. We'll own that too.
You don't have to live in Bozeman to inherit BOZOS's spirit. BOZOS is for people who choose the dirt road over the paved one. For those who see the corporate ladder and choose to climb a different mountain.
Why we exist
Find more
John Shocklees.
Our mission has a name.
John is our founding father. Ski guide in Silverton by winter, river guide in the Grand Canyon by summer, Peter Pan by reputation. He built a whole life out of the two best seasons, back to back, forever. He found the fountain of youth, and it turned out to be a foot and a half of fresh snow.
He isn't the only one. There's a John Shocklee at every put-in and lift line in the West, quietly living the life the rest of us are still saving up for. Everything we make is a net we throw to find them. The book, the dispatches, eventually the gear. And to leave the door open for whoever wants to follow them out.
Who it's for
The dirtbags,
and the dreamers.
The powder hounds and the river rats. The guides, the patrollers, the climbers. And just as much, the ones still saving their days, planning the escape, raising a family to love it too. If you'd rather be outside, you're one of us. We just made the shirt.
What we stand for
The Code.
Four things we won't budge on, whatever else changes. The first one is the one the other three answer to.
People over product
The story comes first; the gear is how you carry it. We're a world you'd want to live in, not a merch table. If a thing doesn't deepen the world, we don't make it.
Buy once
One good thing for a decade, handed down with a story already in it. Not five that fall apart. The most sustainable thing we sell is something you keep.
1% for the rivers
One percent of every sale goes straight to the cold water that raised us. River cleanups, access fights, the trout that started all this. No asterisks.
Made for the muddy
Gear should get dirty. Ours is built for the takeout, the tailgate, and the third town past where the pavement ends. Too precious to thrash means it isn't ours.