L.L. Bean duck boots
I’m Dreaming of an Inclement Christmas
It’s not even Black Friday and L.L. Bean has sold out some of its most-popular boot styles.
The company warned Bloomberg back in September that this might happen. Yesterday, Chris McCormick, chief executive officer of the Freeport, Maine.–based company told the Boston Globe that for the third holiday in a row, L.L. Bean will not be able to keep up with demand for duck boots. And that’s with added staff. McCormick told The Globe that the company has 300 workers at its Brunswick, Maine, factory making 2,200 pairs of boots every day.
The story quotes McCormick as saying “This is in some way a nice problem to have, in the sense that you have a 103-year-old product that’s selling off the shelves like hot cakes, and yet we have customers who are on back order who are disappointed. That doesn’t sit well with us.”
You can read the entire piece here. I’m always up for a good Made-in-America story. This one has some interesting points to make about thoughtful, strategic growth—even if there are 50,000 people waiting for their duck boots this winter. (According to Bloomberg, last year there were 100,000 waiting for their back-ordered boots!)
For those of us who grew up on the preppy East Coast, where the rubber and leather lace-up boots were as ubiquitous as pink Izods and Fair Isle sweaters, it seems wild that there’s that much demand for such a classic style.
Then I got a peak at one of the sold-out styles—the navy waxed canvas style, pictured at right. Super cute, right? Too bad it’s sold out. According to Jezebel, some of the sold-out styles are already going for $100 over retail on eBay. Fortunately, the tumbled leather style, also pictured right is still available—for now.
L.L. Bean is totally upfront about the limited supply, warning online shoppers: “Due to an extremely limited supply of L. L. Bean Booths, we recommend placing your order now so we can reserve a pair for you.”
The company goes on to explain: “We make our boots by hand, so sometimes we just can make them fast enough, but we promise that our team of stitchers in Brunswick, Maine, will start handcrafting yours as soon as possible.”
And they back that claim up with a video of L.L. Bean workers making the boots (which is where I grabbed these factory screen shots).
So consider yourselves warned, people. There’s an El Niño coming. You’re going to need appropriate footwear. And if it’s made by hand in America, all the better.
