Sailing on to Dodgeville...
In the early years, Lands' End catalogues were about 32 pages long and came out four times a year. In 1975, our first full-colour catalogue was published, and in 1977, the focus moved toward clothing – gaining placement on 13 of the catalogue's 40 pages.
But the size of our catalogues 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.
