[Photos: Instagram]
L.L.Bean was founded in 1912 in Freeport, Maine. The name is an abbreviation of the company's founder, Leon Leonwood Bean, who was a hunter and fisher.
L.L.Bean's flagship location is located in Freeport, Maine and features a 16-foot Bean Boot replica, which people often take pictures with. The store is 200,000 square feet and it's opened 24 hours a day, 365 days a year! Also, in 1951 the company decided to get rid of the locks on the doors, leaving it completely open at all times. The L.L.Bean campus draws almost 3 million visitors a year.
L.L.Bean is known for their outstanding customer service. They even have awards to prove it! In 2014, over 10.5 million customer contacts were made and over 15 million packages were shipped out of their facility. Customer service is so important to L.L.Bean that there are three contact centers in Maine. The company has won awards for best overall service, including best email and phone service, and the speed at which they answer.
Bean Boots are the company's pride and joy. Each and every pair is hand-stitched by a special team in Maine. They were designed by L.L. himself in 1912 and have been worn by people around the world ever since. Due to their immense popularity, it's wise to order a pair in the summer to guarantee you'll have them in the winter or else you'll be stuck on a wait list. To put this in perspective, nearly 450,000 pairs of Bean Boots were bought in 2014.
To celebrate their 100th anniversary, L.L.Bean created the Bootmobile in 2012. It's 13 feet high and 20 feet long! The Bootmobile travels the country inspiring people to enjoy the great outdoors. If the Bootmobile was to be worn by a person, they would have to be 143 feet tall, which is 32 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty.
In 2015, Forbes named L.L.Bean one of America's Best Employers. The company landed in the number five spot...out of 500. That's pretty impressive!
L.L.Bean's annual net sales in 2014 were over $1 billion! The company employs as many as 5,000 people during the regular season and almost 10,000 during the winter holiday. Clearly, those employees are working hard!
