LL Bean Company History

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  • LL Bean Formed

    In Leon Leonwood's Brothers basement as a mailorder business for the Maine Hunting Boot
  • 90 of first 100 pair of boots returned

    90 of first 100 pair of boots returned

    Sending all returns new products, free of charge, creating iconic return policy

  • Bean redesigns boot to help eliminate chafing

    This helps sales rise to $135,000 in the following 2 years

  • LL Bean outfits Macmillan Artic Expedition with Maine Hunting Boot

    This helped them gain popularity and exposure

  • Apparel and New camping and fishing equipment unvieled

  • Fall Catalog Created and voted #1 by Postage Magazine

    This helped spread the word of LL Bean further than the states surrounding Maine and reach further into the country

  • Elenor Roosevelt visits Store

    LL presents her a trout knife for the president

  • Bean weathers Great Depression

    After a dip in sales for a few years after the crash, annual sales hit 1 mil for the first time in 1937

  • LL Bean Outfits army and navy during WWII

    This helped Bean not only increase sales from outfitting every solider but also helped them gain popularity in the country

  • LL Bean Writes Hunting, Fishing, and Camping

    After many customers asked him for tips on big game, waterfowl, and fishing

  • Freeport Store removes locks on front doors and is open 24 hours

  • Ladies Dept is Formed

  • Sales flatten throughout the 1960's

    no longer did sales continue to increase by 25% or more, sales began to flatten, as products began to be outdated and the formation of competing sportsman companies like Eddie Bauer, Patagonia, and cabelas

  • Found LL. Dies

    The company closes for the day and receives 50,000 condolence letters from customers

  • LL's grandson Leon Gorman Takes over as CEO

  • Sales rise after leadership change

    When Leon Gorman took over as CEO, sales were $3.5 mil with $60,000 in profits, after his first year as CEO sales rose close to $5 mil

  • Sales hit $30 Mil and Company grow to over 400 employees

  • 110,000 sq ft distribution center is built in Freeport MA

    Relocating manufacturing and distribution helped the company speed up growth, ugraded to 310,000 sq ft 4 years later

  • Outdoor Discover Program is Formed

    Programs formed to be educational in outdoor activities, which has become a large portion of their business. In 2006, this program passed over 150,000 total participants

  • LL Bean is Associated with Prep Culture

    After making an appearance in The Preppy Handbook, sales rose 42%

  • 70% of new customers in 1980's are women

  • First Factory store is opened in North Conway, New Hampshire

    After an increase in mail orders

  • Recession in 1990's slows sales and returns increase

    Also caused the company to lay off 10% of hourly and salaried employees for a 2 year period

  • Sales rise 18% to $743 mil

    The same year the first Japanese location was opened along with a childrens line for the first time

  • Sales hit $1.08 billion in 1996

    But sales remained stagnant for the following years, only hiting $1.07B in 1999

  • Bean responds by joing the E-commerce business

    Along with improved fulfillment center

  • Sales remain stagnant and japanese stores have trouble

    With competitors such as REI and GAP taking some of Bean's business the Japanese sales also took a hit following the 1990's Asian financial crisis

  • Chris McCormick becomes first non-family CEO

  • Bean Commits to Building only LEED buildings to help improve environmental impact

    since then over 20 buildings have been built to these specs

  • Bean addresses economic loss with help of Fortuna consulting

    This helped them see an issue in their inventory size, and sales began to rise after a reduction in overall inventory

  • Stephen Smith becomes new CEO

  • Boycott of LL bean begins

    After Linda Bean, Chairman for the company is found to have contributed $60,000 to Trump's presidential race

  • LL Bean gets rid of Famous Return policy