Tom Beckbe’s mission has stayed fundamentally the same since launching our first Tensaw Jacket: we are driven to enrich your experience outside.
We design and produce enduring, purpose-built apparel and gear so that you can make the most of your time outdoors.
We invest in and promote original storytelling to connect and inspire the larger sporting community. Edited by award-winning author Russell Worth Parker, our Field Journal is a platform for writers, photographers, and videographers to share their stories and passion for the outdoors.
We support conservation organizations who are working to improve our natural world.
Tom Beckbe’s roots can be traced to the rolling red clay hills and hardwood bottoms of Alabama. Borrowing from the native Choctaw itumbi ikbi, European settlers called the big river flowing south towards the coast Tombecbé. The river's name evolved alongside a local aversion to hard consonant sounds, becoming simply Tombigbee. Tom Beckbe founder Radcliff Menge grew up making trips to a secluded parcel near the Tombigbee River where he learned to hunt and fish with his grandfather. Wild and remote, the Tombigbee River system originates in the hill country of northern Mississippi before winding its way south through western Alabama where it joins the Alabama River and spills into the Mobile-Tensaw River Delta. Tom Beckbe draws on the legacy of countless generations of sportsmen who have roamed these river bottoms, bold and intrepid caretakers of one of North America’s great ecosystems.
Tom Beckbe was founded in 2015 by Radcliff and Mary Menge in Birmingham, Alabama. Before Tom Beckbe was a company, it was simply an idea for a better outdoor jacket–American in style and manufacturing, designed for rugged sporting wear and equally suited for life outside the woods. That idea came to life in 2015 as the Tensaw Jacket, Tom Beckbe’s first product and still our top-seller. Named for one of the five rivers that comprise the Mobile-Tensaw River Delta, the Tensaw Jacket is a reflection of passion for the outdoors and an homage to the classic sportsman.
The name Tom Beckbe followed soon after creating the Tensaw Jacket. The first production run of Tensaw Jackets were sold directly to friends and family, with word spreading quickly around the Southern sporting community and ultimately reaching the editor’s desk at Garden & Gun magazine. On the heels of a timely article in Garden & Gun, Tom Beckbe transformed from a weeknight hobby into a full-fledged brand in 2016. In the years that have followed, the company and product assortment have grown to meet the needs of discerning sportsmen and women across the United States and beyond.
The company remains independently owned and operated in Birmingham, Alabama, without institutional, VC or PE funding. This ownership structure allows Tom Beckbe to focus long-term on the customer without the short-term pressure of growth for its own sake.
At heart we’ve been an outerwear company since day one. And the Tensaw Jacket has been our center, striking a chord with outdoorsmen since its inception. Rugged and distinctive, the Tensaw Jacket reflects a personal, intimate knowledge of what sportsmen want and need both in the field and everyday. Designed and constructed to last at least one lifetime, the Tensaw Jacket’s heirloom quality is the guiding principle for all Tom Beckbe products that have followed.
Premium garments and bags are the marriage of three essential ingredients: materials, design, and construction.
We directly source only the finest fabrics and leathers, producing all materials in our apparel, bag, and accessory collections to our own unique specifications.
The Tensaw Jacket was the first of a range of jackets we now offer for men and women in premium waxed cotton fabrics from the legendary Halley Stevensons mill in Dundee, Scotland, a certified bluesign® system partner.
All Tom Beckbe products are designed by our creative team in Birmingham, Alabama. The natural world is our inspiration. From color palette to materials and use case, we are first and foremost an outdoor company. We focus on our customers’ needs through a rigorous process informed by our own outdoor pursuits. After all, we’re outdoorsmen too.
Tom Beckbe relies on outstanding manufacturing partners around the world. When a product moves from design concept to production, we look for the best possible partner to make the final product. That process always begins with searching for a suitable manufacturer in the United States. For example, every Tensaw Jacket ever produced has been made in the United States.
We pride ourselves on our track record of delivering great products to our customers. We back that commitment with another: our lifetime guarantee. On the rare occasion that one of our products falls short of customer expectations, we fix it or replace it. Period.
We opened our flagship store in Mountain Brook, Alabama in 2021, which is now paired with locations in historic Oxford, Mississippi, Tuscaloosa, Alabama and Middleburg, Virginia. We would love to welcome you in person the next time you’re in town, please stop by and say hello.
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We are always looking for creative, driven people to join our team in Birmingham and beyond.
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