Filson’s totally nude female greeter trumps Abercrombie & Fitch’s

The abercrombie and fitch store in my old Los Angeles neighborhood uses a bare-chested, beefcake male as a door greeter. Standing hands on hip to highlight his impeccable pecks, the young man poses for photos with shoppers and reminds passersby of the vogue nature of the clothier.

There are three abercrombie and fitch
outlets in Colorado, but I haven’t visited any of them since moving back to Denver earlier this summer, so I don’t know if they offer a comparable display of male eye candy.

I was reminded of A&F earlier this week when I happened upon a marvelous Cherry Creek retailer whose merchandise I vastly prefer to that sold by abercrombie and fitch and whose totally naked female greeter better personifies the store’s upscale outdoor wear than A&F’s door dudes embody that chain’s lines of apparel.

Filson’s part-time greeter, Tobee, is a stunning blond: athletic, affectionate, and loyal, as befits the specialty retailer. Sitting unclothed on the stoop of the Filson entrance at 200 Fillmore Street, it isn’t hard to imagine taking Tobee along on my next outdoor adventure, even if I am a happily married man.

Lest my Rabbi read this and have a coronary, I guess it’s important to note at this point that Tobee is an irresistible one-year-old yellow Labrador that is owned by one of Filson’s sales associates. While Tobee looks as if she was planted on the store’s doorstep as a deliberate ploy to woo the hunters, campers, fisherman, and office day dreamers to whom Filson caters, the dog’s perch is really nothing more, I discovered, than a happy coincidence.

Without Tobee at the door, I never would have entered the store. And that would have been my loss.

In this age of cookie-cutter retailers, Filson is unlike any other store in Colorado, which is home to so many outdoors-loving residents. The Cherry Creek store, in fact, is one of only three Filson stores in the world and when it opened 3 ? years ago, became Filson’s first store anywhere other than at the C.C. Filson Company’s Seattle headquarters.

Filson itself has been serving outdoors lovers since 1897, selling rugged quality clothing and accessories through its catalogue and authorized dealers. In Colorado, those who can’t make it in to the Cherry Creek emporium can find Filson authorized stores in Telluride (Black Bear Trading), Colorado Springs (Burlap Bag), Fort Collins (Jax Outdoor Gear), and Steamboat Springs (Zirkel Trading), among other outlets. Customers can also browse and order from the Filson web site, www.filson.com.

The Filson line, itself, is a throwback to the days long ago when abercrombie and fitch focused on the upscale hunting and fisherman markets. Marry that with Nordstrom-caliber customer service and voila, you wind up with a shopping experience extraordinaire.

Kevin Salsbury, a graduate of Denver South High School, is the lucky man who Filson tapped to open the Cherry Creek store and he has been its manager from opening day.

As Tobee stretches, walks freely through the store and mooches doggie treats, Salsbury tells me Filson’s motto is “Might As Well Have The Best.” Among the most popular items in the store are Filson’s Tin Cloth Hunting Jacket ($195) and Mackinaw Cruiser ($279.50), which was first designed by company founder Clinton C. Filson in 1914 to keep timbermen warm no matter the elements.

While Tobee’s owner, J.C. McMullen is an actual hunter who loved the store so much as a customer he went to work for it, I took a liking to the store based on the look, feel and functionality of its male-dominated line. This is truly a “Men’s Store,” although Filson does have a growing selection of women’s clothes and accessories and Tobee could purchase a wool-lined dog coat or dog bed if she was so inclined.

Whether you are headed out to enjoy Colorado’s many fields and streams for Labor Day weekend or if you merely want to navigate the white-collar forests of Downtown Denver’s high-rises, Filson can outfit you stylishly and comfortably.

When I visited Filson with my wife and teenage daughter this week, Tobee was so happy to get attention from my daughter that the Labrador literally knocked her off her feet with kisses.

As my wife observed, that never happened once to her when she dropped by the A&F in Los Angeles. The friendliest greeting my wife ever got from the beefcake doorman was a warm smile.