L.L. Bean

L.L.Bean, Inc.

Type	Private
Industry	Retail
Founded	1912; 105 years ago (1912)
Founder	Leon Leonwood Bean
Headquarters	15 Casco Street Freeport, Maine, United States
Number of locations	42 stores
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Shawn Gorman (Chairman) Steve Smith (President and CEO)
Products	Clothing and Outdoor Equipment
Revenue	US$ 1.61 billion (FY 2014)
Number of employees	5,000 (2014)
Website	www.llbean.com

Coordinates: 43°50′58″N 70°6′32″W / 43.84944°N 70.10889°W / 43.84944; -70.10889

L.L.Bean, Inc., branded as L.L.Bean, is an American, privately held e-commerce, mail-order, and retail company founded in 1912 by Leon Leonwood Bean. The company is currently based in Freeport, Maine, United States. It specializes in clothing and outdoor recreation equipment. Its annual sales were USD $1.6 billion in 2015.

The company L.L.Bean was founded in 1912 by its namesake, avid hunter and fisherman Leon Leonwood Bean in Freeport, Maine. The company began as a one-room operation selling a single product, the Maine Hunting Shoe (known currently as the L.L.Bean Boot). Bean had developed a waterproof boot, which is a combination of lightweight leather uppers and rubber bottoms, that he sold to hunters. He obtained a list of nonresident Maine hunting license holders, prepared a descriptive mail order circular, set up a shop in his brother's basement in Freeport, Maine, and started a nationwide mail order business. By 1912, he was selling the "Bean Boot", or Maine Hunting Shoe, through a four-page mail-order catalog, and the boot remains a staple of the company's outdoor image. Defects in the initial design led to 90% of the original production run being returned: Bean made good on his money-back guarantee, corrected the design, and continued selling them.

The 220,000-square-foot (20,000-square-meter) L.L.Bean retail store campus in Freeport, ME, is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and welcomes more than 3 million visitors every year. As a privately held company, L.L.Bean does not publicly disclose financials.