Wyoming Pharmacist’s Gaudy Suit Jackets Are So Bad They’re Awesome

It’s difficult not to do a double-take looking into Zach Ivie’s attic. The loud, garish colors, gaudy patterns and outrageous prints on his totally kitsch collection of suit jackets look more like the leftover rack of a garage sale than the closet of a respectable and respected member of his community.

And they don’t just stay there.

Walking into the pharmacy area at Broulim’s Fresh Foods in Thayne, Wyoming, the regular customers have grown accustomed to Ivie’s wild and crazy suit jackets that are so bad they’re awesome.

Even ugly Christmas sweaters can’t compete with what Ivie pulls out of the attic where he stores many of his 120 fashion choices that have become a running gag for the regulars.

“I've had people stop in and take pictures with me, and I've had people just randomly stop and see what I'm wearing,” Ivie said. “And people call me and ask me what I'm wearing all the time, because we get a lot of people coming from other places, from California, Utah, Idaho, Nevada and Arizona.

“It's just kind of a fun little thing that we have going on.”

The 42-year-old pharmacist who began running the Thayne pharmacy in 2017 said the “little” thing began with a desire to find a suit jacket for St. Patrick’s Day back in 2018.

That has expanded to the place now where he “daily” goes online looking for the next suit jacket deal so he can add to his collection.

A graduate of Denver’s Regis University pharmacy doctorate program, Ivie said he never liked wearing the standard white pharmacist’s coat because they get dirty easily and they don’t come with shamrocks, or pink flamingoes, or the Easter-egg designs he prefers.

Wearing these loud coats helps lighten the mood for customers, many who arrive from a doctor’s office and someone in a physicians’ white coat. Ivie said there is a hypertension condition that sometimes happens when people go to a physician’s office. And he wants no part of that anxiety.

‘A Social Experiment’

“When people come to the pharmacy, it’s not the greatest day of their life,” he said. “So, it turned out to be kind of like a social experiment as far as making them happy or giving them something to talk about.”

When the shamrock jacket proved an initial success, Ivie bought a jacket with flamingos on it for the next month. Then he acquired jackets for every month of the year, looking at holiday themes and then expanded to a jacket for every week of the year.

Ivie said he initially bought the jackets from a couple of different outlets online.

His wife, Jennifer, started buying him jackets for Father’s Day and his birthday. But because they are typically $100 or more, he turned to eBay and other sources to add to his collection.

His wife, a pharmacy technician who sometimes works with him, has some outfits that coordinate with his jackets, and they typically wear the same-themed outfits for holidays.

“I’ve had a couple of patients buy me a jacket that I try to wear when they come in,” he said. “I also have an Alabama jacket reserved for an (older lady) who will only let me give her yearly vaccination if I wear it.”

Ivie has also selected jackets that certain customers over the years would tell him were their “favorite” and worn it to their funerals or visitations as part of honoring their lives.

Ivie said his theme for January and the “bright, shiny new year” includes jackets with gold and silver sequins and shiny colors. February means he is wearing red and pink and jackets with red hearts on them. March is shamrock month and April brings out the bright pastel-colored jackets.

He likes island themes for the summer and goes to a red, white, and blue bib overalls with blue-starred vest to celebrate the Fourth of July. His fall choices involve the autumn leaves and hunting season with animals like jaguars. He also has an NFL-tagged Washington Redskins jacket bought before the franchise’s name change to the Commanders. It is useful to wear for the local Star Valley Braves high school sports events.

November will bring out his turkey-themed outfits and December jackets reflect a Christmas holiday theme.

Fashion Mainly For Pharmacy

Ivie said he mainly keeps his loud fashion statements confined to the pharmacy, where he will often wear a Western shirt that clashes with the jacket and a Wyoming flag belt buckle to reflect his Afton, Wyoming, heritage.

But he has been known to wear a wild jacket to school events to embarrass his children, and his boys have even borrowed them for school dances.

One jacket he has yet to find, but he keeps searching for, is one with broncos or herds of horses.

“That would be my ideal one. I’ve always wanted a Wyoming flag one and I’ve always wanted a Wyoming cowboy one,” he said. “I just haven’t found one yet.”

Thayne resident Carolyn Hensel said she has been shopping at the Broulim’s market and using the pharmacy since Ivie joined it. She said when he started wearing the suit coats, she noticed it “immediately.”

“It’s pretty loud, pretty prints and everything,” she said. “You just look over there to see what Zack is wearing and what season we are in, whether it is Halloween, Christmas or what.”

Hensel agrees that the coats are a great way to “cheer everybody up.”

“If you are just going in to get groceries you look over to see what Zack is wearing today,” she said.

Ivie said wearing the bright and flashy attire is really “out of his comfort zone” but it has led to a lot of conversations and friendships that would not have happened otherwise.

So, he has no plans to stop looking for that next acquisition.

“I always joke with people that I will dress up as a real pharmacist on Halloween,” he said. “They wouldn’t know what to do.”

Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.