The Maine Hunting Shoe invented by Leon Leonwood (L.L.) Bean in 1911. This is the boot that built the business--as LL Bean returned from a hunting trip with cold, damp feet, he visited a local cobbler and had him stitch leather uppers to workmen's rubber boots. This innovative idea created one of the most successful family-run businesses of our time.
A fellow 2itcher, by the name of Tom, submitted a rather interesting 24-hour spot last Sunday–the L.L. Bean flagship store in Freeport, Maine. The New England outfitting company, originally founded in 1912 to provide clothes and equipment for hunters and outdoor travellers, made the bulk of its business in catalog sales, but L.L. never turned away travellers knocking on his door for goods. Visitors could access the store late at night by ringing a bell and either a watchman or L.L. himself would come to the door (talk about service)! In 1951, he decided to “throw away the keys to the place” and leave the store open 24 hours, 365 days a year. According to Tom, the store has only closed about four times since 1951… impressive!
After hearing success stories such as this, founded on the ideals of good craftsmanship, pride in one’s work, and respect for your fellow man, it makes me miss the ideals of yesterday. For someone to found a company to serve the needs of the people and be so humble as to leave the light on 24 hours just so a weary hunter could come in and restock his supply or get a new coat that got shredded in a Grizzly fight is really inspiring as a fledgling entrepreneur. Maybe after all of this corporate greed hits the tipping point (which I think already has), we can look back to the past when people took pride in their craft and actually made things that were made to last. Although the L.L. Bean company has been going through some hard times with the rest of the retail world, I greatly respect the ideals that the business was founded upon.
Currently, the flagship store spans over 200,000 sq.ft and houses a variety of outdoor products for cycling, water sports, hunting, fishing, and hiking. There’s also an outlet store, as well as a home store that just opened recently. Keeping with the tradition of offering exceptional service, they also host a number of free community events at the store, such as a hunting expo, summer concert series, and in-store clinics. I haven’t been to Maine yet, but am really wanting to make the trip, so I’ll update my post when I make it to Freeport and visit this gigantic lock-less store! Thanks again to Tom for submitting it to us!
Map out the L.L. Bean Flagship Store in Freeport, ME at 2itch.com.
As the editor of 2itch.com, I get to find all the places across the nation that are open up way past my bedtime. I'm a wanderer by nature, so finding late night grub, coin-operated racquetball, and slushies in the middle of the night has been a lot of fun for me. And I'm sure there's a lot of other wanderers out there who would find this information useful... so enjoy and drop me a line when you find some cool 24 hour places of your own. Read more from this author
Now that’s some outdoor awesome-ness! Grizzly fightin’ all day and night. 2itch just needs to add some local hospitals in that area, just in case!
Don’t forget that you can return anything that has ever been purchased at LLBean you aren’t satisfied with…even without a reciept… in any condition.
LL Bean return stories are the stuff of local legends up here- “Oh yeah… well I had a pair of boots for 15 years with no laces and tennisball sized holes in the toes. Had to wrap them entirely in duct tape the last 6 months I owned them! But I brought them up to customer service at beans the other night…”