Norm Thompson

The buyers at Norm Thompson search the world for clothing and products with a social and environmental conscience-products such as their sustainable salmon and organic cotton, and those that celebrate the cultural traditions of indigenous craftspeople such as their African art and South American sweaters.

When it comes to uncovering treasures near and far, across the globe, Norm Thompson strives to find truly original and unique clothing.

Norm Thompson's adventurous merchants are regularly deployed in such a manner, searching for the ineffable as well as the more functionally traditional-when infused with a distinctive, brilliant twist of originality.

The company was founded by namesake Norman Anchor Thompson, Sr. in 1949 as a way to sell his homemade flies for fly-fishing.  An immigrant from Britain, he had settled in Salt Lake City before fighting for Canada in World War I.  After the war he lived briefly in Los Angeles before settling in Portland where he owned seven pipe shops and later two nightclubs during World War II.  Thompson retired after the war as owner of the nightclubs and tobacco shops.

He started the new business as a mail order only business by placing an advertisement in Field & Stream, and around 1951 handed it over to Peter Alport, his son-in-law. Alport was in advertising in New York City where he owned Parma Advertising. He worked to expand the company's product offerings beyond fly-fishing items and into clothing and other outdoor merchandise, plus he developed the company's slogan of Escape from the ordinary. During his tenure, Norm Thompson opened its first retail store in 1959, located in Northwest Portland.  Namesake Norm Thompson died in 1968 from complications related to his exposure to mustard gas during his World War I military service in Europe.

In 1973, Alport sold the business to Parker Pen Company, who opened a retail store at the Portland International Airport in 1975 and discontinued selling fly fishing items in 1977.  Parker then sold the entire business to John Emrick in 1981 through a leveraged buyout. Solutions, a home and garden catalog, was purchasedby Norm Thompson Outfitters in 1986, followed by Sahalie in 1990. In July 1988, the company opened an outlet store near the main store in Portland, naming it Cracker Barrel.

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