Lands’ End entered the new millennium with a continued strong Internet presence. In fact, in 2001 CIO magazine voted Lands’ End as one of its ‘Top 100 Innovators’ for this generation. Also that year, landsend.com was named as one of the top 100 sites by PC Magazine. While our phone and Internet businesses continued to thrive, a new relationship promised a third channel of business would soon be on the horizon.

Lands’ End joined the Sears family in June 2002. Lands’ End founder Gary Comer had stepped down as president in 1990, remaining chairman of the board and the majority stockholder until he sold the company to Sears, Roebuck & Co., another retailer with a rich and extensive history that began as a mail-order business. Mr. Comer passed away in October 2006, after a long battle with cancer. He was 78.

As a wholly owned subsidiary of Sears, within five months Lands’ End product was rolled out in more than 180 Sears full-line stores alongside other Sears clothing lines. By fall 2003, all 856 Sears full-line stores coast-to-coast featured Lands’ End best-selling merchandise for the entire family.

In 2005, Lands’ End took the brick-and-mortar approach one step further with the creation of Lands’ End Shops at Sears. We found that by pulling all Lands’ End products together on the sales floor in a ‘shop concept,’ we were able to enhance our presentation in the Sears stores. Today there are more than 250 Lands’ End Shops at Sears in the U.S. and Canada staffed by consultants specially trained to deliver the Lands’ End customer experience.

Looking ahead, Lands’ End will continue to focus on customers and our ways of connecting with them. With our presence on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, customers can now interact with us and with each other. And while we will never lose sight of our existing customers, we will continue to introduce new products and the technology to make interacting with us easier, faster and more enjoyable than ever.

KEY EVENTS

2000

Lands’ End breaks ground in Stevens Point, Wisconsin for the construction of another satellite facility. Fortune’s “Top 100 Best Companies to Work For” includes Lands’ End for a third year running.

2001

Lands’ End debuts an alumni collection, Womens’ 18W-26W catalog and Custom Chinos on landsend.com. Over 269 million catalogs are distributed throughout the year.

2002

Lands’ End joins the Sears family. Maternity wear is added to the Lands’ End collection. Product rolls out in more than 180 Sears full-line stores.

2003

Lands’ End is successfully rolled out to all 870 Sears stores. The company celebrates its 40-year anniversary.

2004

Lands’ End gift card is successfully launched. Employees beat Guinness World Record with 2,773 people pillow fighting for the charity Sweet Dreams. Lands’ End opens an on-site clinic for employees.

2005

Employees, along with a company match, raise $70,610 for Hurricane Katrina victims. Sears and Kmart merger is complete. Lands’ End Germany is voted one of the best places to work in Europe.

2006

Lands’ End expands into an additional 75 Lands’ End Shops at Sears.

2007

Lands’ End Shops at Sears celebrates 200 stores. A new intimates collection is launched.

2008

Lands’ End is recognized as a top performing e-commerce company by the E-Tailing Group and ranks #9 on Business Week’s list of “Customer Service Champs.” Employees take part in a company-wide volunteerism project, along with Habitat for Humanity, to build a home for a local family. ABC’s Extreme Home Makeover highlights the building of a home in Richland Center, Wisconsin and includes home product donated by Lands’ End.

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In 1991 we sent our first catalog to prospective customers in the United Kingdom. Two years later, we opened our first contact and distribution center outside of the U.S. in Oakham, England. In 1994, we launched our Japan business with the mailing of our first catalog written in Japanese and denominated in yen. We founded our German business in 1996 with another catalog written in native language and currency, and a contact center located in Mettlach, Germany.

Along that same time, Lands’ End began to explore opportunities in a whole new world – the World Wide Web. In July 1995 we launched landsend.com, becoming one of the first companies in the US with an e-commerce site, offering more than 100 products as well as stories, essays, and travelogues.

Today our U.S. site offers every Lands’ End product from each of our different catalogs, plus an extensive Overstocks section, where excess merchandise can be purchased at steep discounts. Lands’ End Live, an online customer service tool introduced in 1999, offers real-time human assistance by text chat or phone, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

We offer separate websites for our United Kingdom, Japan, and Germany customers. In addition, through our Business Outfitters division, launched in 1993, we serve the business world with top-quality logo clothing, group apparel, and corporate gift needs.

KEY EVENTS

1990

Lands’ End opens a second luggage sewing facility in Elkader, Iowa. Creative and marketing teams move to Dodgeville and three new specialty catalogs launch – Kids, Home and Men’s.

1991

Lands’ End sends its first catalog to prospective customers in the United Kingdom. Employment is up to 6,000 people during peak season.

1992

A third phone center opens in Reedsburg, Wisconsin. Lands’ End is included in the new edition of “The 100 Best Companies to Work for in America.”

1993

Two new catalogs are launched: Textures, a collection of women’s tailored clothing and Corporate Sales, a new business-to-business catalog. First phone and distribution center are opened outside of the U.S. – in Oakham, England.

1994

Japan business is launched with the first mailing of our catalog written in Japanese and denominated in yen. First Lands’ End Inlet opens in Richfield, Minnesota. Distribution center opens in Reedsburg, Wisconsin.

1995

Landsend.com makes its debut in July, featuring 100 products. First national multi-media campaign via print, radio and TV began to advertise a single Lands’ End product.

1996

Germany business is launched in Mettlach, Germany. All product is shipped from the distribution center in Oakham, England.

1997

First Lands’ End for School catalog is launched.

1998

Lands’ End is recognized as one of the “100 best companies to work for in America.” The Web site introduces personalized shopping accounts and My Virtual Model, where customers can build a 3-D model of themselves. Over 15 million visits are made to the Lands’ End Web site.

1999

Landsend.com announces its previous year’s sales grew threefold. Recognized by Fortune as one of the “10 Companies that Get It” for selling clothes on-line.

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In 1984, Lands’ End founder Gary Comer wrote a piece for our summer catalog describing the guiding principles behind his rapidly growing company. These principles focused on product quality, customer service, and the way we treat people‚ our customers, employees, and vendors.

One of those principles was his unwavering belief that serving our customers took precedence over everything else. And it was in that spirit that our Lands’ End crew pitched in to service our customers Thanksgiving weekend 1985. It was our busiest weekend of the year, and a big snowstorm had hit Dodgeville and the surrounding area. Two feet of snow whipped by 40-knot winds turned into four and five-foot drifts. Of the 300 people scheduled, only 80 could make it in. Some of our customer sales reps were on the phones for 20 hours at a crack – even sleeping here to get the job done!

We’re still committed to taking care of our customers, regardless of what Mother Nature has in store for us. Each year, in preparation for our peak holiday season, individuals from all areas of the company are trained to help out in our contact and distribution centers. So whenever the volume of incoming orders or outgoing packages warrants an extra hand or two, everyone is ready step in to provide our customers with the level of service they have come to expect from us.

KEY EVENTS

1980

Lands’ End makes the move to its new home on “Lands’ End Lane.” The catalog business continued to grow by leaps and bounds, and the phone center was now answering calls 24 hours a day. In order to take on more control of the quality of the clothes it sold, Lands’ End began to hire employees who specialized in fabric and the manufacturing of clothing. In addition to its new facilities in Dodgeville, Lands’ End opened its first Outlet Store, located on Elston Avenue in Chicago – just one block from its original location.

1981

Lands’ End began work on a 40,000-square-foot addition to its warehouse in Wisconsin. In addition, we broke ground on a plant in West Union Iowa that would manufacture our own line of soft luggage. Lands’ End also began a national advertising campaign that focused on our business philosophy and reputation for quality, value and service. The campaign introduced the phrase “direct merchant” to illustrate our approach to business.

1983

Lands’ End moved into its new 126,000-square-foot warehouse and began unloading 8,000 boxes of products so the company’s new automated sorting system could be made operational. Mail order shopping was sweeping the nation and Lands’ End was taking off. To meet Americans’ growing demand for luxury brands, Lands’ End introduced a line of clothing called Charter Club, featuring styles made from Italian silks and other fine fabrics.

1984

Lands’ end becomes a registered U.S. trademark. Due to demand for goods, catalogs were now sent out on a monthly basis, versus a seasonal basis. In addition, Gary wrote a piece for the summer catalog that he called, “The 8 Principles of Doing Business.” These principles focused on product quality, customer service and the way we treat people – our customer, employees and vendors.

1986

Lands’ End goes public, with stock listed on NASDAQ. Lands’ End’s fancier line of clothing, Charter Club, is discontinued despite its profitability. Gary explained that this decision was made in an effort to maintain the company’s culture and focus on traditional, no-nonsense clothes.

1987

Lands’ End airs its first TV commercial during a rugby match on ESPN. Automated hemming operation handles up to 6,000 pants a day! Lands’ End stock goes on the “big board” – The New York Stock Exchange.

1988

Lands’ End breaks grounds for 10,000 square foot phone center in Cross Plains, Wisconsin. The Christmas catalog reaches a record 220 pages.

1989

Gary Comer dedicates an 80,000 square foot activity center to the employees. Comer personally donated $8 million to pay for the construction of the facility.

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But the size of our catalogs and the frequency with which they were mailed weren’t the only things to experience growth during that time. Up until 1978, the entire company – management, our retail outlet, customer service, returns, creative, marketing – was in residence at 2317 Elston Avenue in Chicago. A dozen or so employees were housed in that two-story building; the basement held our stock. That’s when the warehouse and phone operations moved to the little town of Dodgeville in rural Wisconsin.

Lands’ End founder Gary Comer had fallen in love with the gently rolling hills and woods and cornfields of Southwestern Wisconsin. And then he found, along with all that nature had to offer, a remarkable group of people in the surrounding community. People who take pride and honest joy in what they do, whether it’s carefully placing your order, or hemming trousers to your specifications, or making sure merchandise measures up in quality.

When we first came to Dodgeville, we started small. But the business and the community were good to us. And today our company headquarters has grown to employ thousands, drawing its workforce from throughout Iowa County and the nearby Madison area.

KEY EVENTS

1973

After entering the computer age in 1970 (with both inventory and sales operations), Lands’ End tries its hand at creating something other than sailing equipment: they begin in-house manufacturing of duffel bags.

1974

Lands’ End develops and markets its own brand of rain suit, a two-piece outfit worn by sailors in foul weather.

1975

Lands’ End produces its first all-color catalog, featuring 30 pages of sailing equipment and two full pages of clothing.

1976

A shift in focus takes place from sailing equipment, to clothing and canvas luggage. Non-nautical products now took up eight pages, including products such as a men’s chamois-cloth shirt.

1977

In the spring, Lands’ End issues its first real clothing catalog, with 13 of 40 pages dedicated to non-nautical goods – including soft luggage, called Square Rigger.

1978

Lands’ End began to phase out the sailing equipment aspect of its operations, but retained the rugged, reliable, and traditional nature of the business. Lands’ End operations moves from its Chicago base to Dodgeville, a small rural town in Southwestern Wisconsin. Comer chose this location because he had some land in the area and spent quite a bit of time here. Based on his love of the land and the people, he decided to move his business to Dodgeville. By mid 1978 Lands’ End introduced one of the first toll-free 800-numbers.

1979

Lands’ End continued to transfer operations to Wisconsin by opening an office in a pre-existing strip mall in Dodgeville. Next, ground was broken for a 33,000-square-foot warehouse and an 8,400-square-foot office building in the local industrial park.

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Gary Comer always wanted to create a company of his own, and for Comer, Lands’ End was a dream that came true. Inspired by his hobby of sailboat racing, in 1962 Comer went to work for Murphy & Nye Sailmakers in Chicago. The agreement was that Comer and the owner, Dick Stearns, would start a second business as partners. The only question was what kind of business that would be. And it was up to Comer to figure it out as he worked for Murphy & Nye.

Once Comer realized that the customers buying sails from Murphy & Nye were a market for sailboat fittings, it became clear what the new business should be. In the spring of 1963, Comer, Stearns, and three other partners launched Lands’ End Yacht Stores, Inc., complete with a basement mail-order operation in Chicago’s old tannery district.

In the years since, the misplaced apostrophe has continued to grace our name and our label. And while it has prompted some raised eyebrows among English teachers, it also sets us apart as a company whose continuing concern for what’s best for the customer is unmistakably human.

In a piece published in 1988 for our company’s 25th anniversary, Comer wrote, “Our basic premise for winning customers is little different today than when we started. Sell only things we believe in, ship every order the day it arrives, unconditionally guarantee everything. That was, and still is, the platform.”

KEY EVENTS

1963

A young advertising copywriter named Gary Comer, who had long pursued a love of sailing in his spare time, decided to pursue his long-standing dream of opening his own business. Comer quit his job of ten years, and started a company that sold marine hardware, as well as sails, and in due course, Comer took over the job of selling such equipment through a mail order catalog, serviced from the basement of a building along the Chicago River in the city’s old tannery district.

1964

Comer produced Lands’ End’s first catalog, called The Lands’ End Yachtsman’s Equipment Guide. This catalog became the most important single reference catalog available in its time to naval architects, boat builders and sailboat owners.

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