FREEPORT, Maine — For more than a century, L.L. Bean’s flagship store has been a shrine to New England outdoorsmanship: a 24/7 place to buy its iconic American-made duck boots, wander through the company’s sprawling collection of gear — and for many generations of families, make a pilgrimage to a favorite brand’s birthplace.
Now L.L. Bean has rebuilt its flagship entirely.
The company is officially reopening the store this weekend after a nearly two-year closure and a $50 million overhaul, its biggest investment yet in the home of a brand it’s protected fiercely for generations.
The bet goes well beyond Freeport. L.L. Bean is opening stores in new markets, refreshing its classic products, courting younger shoppers, and looking for new ways to connect with customers — all as it tries to break out of a decade of sluggish growth without losing what made it beloved in the first place.
The company traces its roots back to 1911, when Leon Leonwood Bean developed a signature three-stitch boot designed to keep hunters’ feet dry. Years later, he opened his first store in Freeport, selling those boots on the same stretch of Main Street where the flagship stands today.
What began as a mail-order business built around that single product — and later became known for catalogs filled with plaid flannels, canvas totes that can be carried from beaches to grocery stores, and pictures of Golden Retrievers — has grown into one of New England’s best-known brands.
But despite its enduring popularity, L.L. Bean’s revenue has barely budged in recent years.
L.L. Bean, which has roughly 5,700 employees across the US and is still owned by its founder’s descendants, reported $1.6 billion in revenue in 2015. Ten years later, it reported $1.7 billion — a modest increase before even accounting for inflation. Sales jumped during the pandemic-era while consumers flocked outdoors, reaching $1.8 billion in revenue in 2021 and 2022, but has since fallen back.
For a privately-held company that long prized steady and deliberate growth, flat revenue is not as alarming to its executives as it might be to those answering to public market shareholders, said chief executive Greg Elder. Elder, who became chief executive officer this year after leading the company’s retail division for two decades, has set a goal of $2 billion in revenue by 2030.
“We’re going to get back to growth,” Elder said when asked about his personal goal for the company.
The target is part of a five-year plan called Vision 2030, which Elder said will focus on introducing new products, branding, and distribution channels. For instance, Elder said L.L. Bean is bringing in more new products and styles each year than ever before — even as it continues to lean on its classics.
But over the past decade, L.L. Bean has experienced its own hiccups, making some decisions that challenged parts of its folksy identity.
In 2018, the company replaced its legendary lifetime return policy with a one-year window, saying a growing number of its customers were abusing the policy and costing L.L. Bean roughly $250 million over five years. Elder said the retailer has no plans to bring the policy back.
“The abuse was vastly outpacing our ability to manage it, and that is really unfortunate,” said Elder. But he says the company continues to stand behind its goods, which have a reputation for lasting for years. “It’s undeniable that our focus is always on value and durable products.”
A year earlier, a boycott campaign targeted L.L. Bean after board member and founder’s descendant Linda Bean donated to a political action committee supporting President Trump. At the time, the company said Bean was a single board member and did not speak for the company, which does not endorse candidates or political agendas. (Linda Bean died in 2024 at 82.)
Inside the flagship store, L.L. Bean is trying to walk the same line: preserving the history that made it an American institution while attracting younger customers showing them there’s more to it than hunting gear and duck boots.
Part of its pitch to those desired customers is about doubling down on its old-school formula. It makes many of its products, including the Bean Boots, in a manufacturing facility in Brunswick, Maine. And it continues to print catalogs, doing so without the use of AI.
Lauren Beitelspacher, a Babson College marketing professor, said L.L. Bean has been able to protect its brand over the years by sticking to its roots instead of reaching for fleeting trends.
“How do you stay true to who you are and not alienate your current customers while also attracting that next generation of customer? They’ve not tried to be something that they’re not,” said Beitelspacher.
Part of the appeal to younger customers has come organically, through new takes on classic products.
The company has refreshed its archival-inspired “Signature Collection,” and updated staples such as the field coat, a canvas hunting jacket from 1924 designed to withstand the briars of the thick Maine woods. Its women’s styles now include cropped cuts and embroidered patterns. Perhaps the clearest example is the Boat and Tote, the simple canvas bag that has become a TikTok sensation.
The bag dates to the 1940s, and customers have long been able to add their initials or names to the front. Now younger consumers are opting for phrases such as “cool mom” or “hot mess.” (Others are too provocative to print in a family-owned newspaper.)
At the Freeport flagship, that personalization has a bigger physical home than ever. An entire floor is devoted to customization, where shoppers can embellish totes, coats, denim, and other items with embroidery, keychains, bandanas, and patches that lean into New England identity.
“What started as a century-old product took on new life because consumers were able to make it their own and, importantly, share those creations online,” said Romain Fouache, the CEO of product experience firm Akeneo in Boston.
L.L. Bean is also trying to reach customers through a series of new partnerships, including a new campaign with New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye and his wife, Ann Michael Maye, and collaborations with Vermont singer-songwriter Noah Kahan and Boston’s Harpoon Brewery.
But Elder said the strategy isn’t simply about capturing Gen Z. It’s about getting beyond New England. Elder said L.L. Bean’s biggest untapped opportunity is geographical expansion.
L.L. Bean opened seven stores in 2025, and eight more this year, bringing its retail footprint to 76 stores. It plans to open another 10 in 2027, extending its reach into new markets in the Midwest and Southeast.
The company is hardly behaving like a retailer desperate to plant a flag everywhere it can. Elder said it plans to expand methodically, focusing on the right communities. L.L. Bean has stores in only 21 states, with just two south of Virginia.
“There’s just this outcry that we’re hearing from consumers all over, saying ‘Come open a store,’” said Elder.
In Freeport, executives are betting that the store can be something more than just a place to buy some gear. There’s a trout pond, a tank of fish kids can view through a crawl space, an expanded café, and a children’s area modeled after Maine summer camps. They expanded their green space in front of the store for community events and outdoor programs. There will even be a beer garden with local brews.
The building itself screams Maine, with wood framing, natural materials, and imagery of the outdoors. Other parts feel like a museum, with displays showing iterations of the company’s signature Bean Boots.
The approach reflects a broader shift in physical retail, where stores increasingly need to give customers a reason to visit beyond just buying merchandise. But it’s also found a middle ground, not going as far as DICK’S House of Sport on Boylston Street, where shoppers can climb rock walls, test gear in a multi-sport cage, and try on cleats on turf. Nor is it like the shuttered Eddie Bauer stores, where outdated clothing just hung on racks.
“L.L.Bean does not necessarily need to become an amusement park,” said Stephanie Boyd, a consumer-focused marketer and cultural anthropologist. Experiential retail, Boyd said, “can become disconnected and feel gimmicky rather quickly.”
“Teaching a child to fish, helping someone prepare for their first camping trip or creating programming that gets a family outdoors could create a much deeper relationship with the brand than simply giving someone something entertaining to photograph,” said Boyd.
Roughly 3 to 4 million people visit the flagship annually, making the Freeport store a tourism draw as much as a retail destination. Maine’s Office of Tourism does not measure the economic impact of individual attractions, but its director, Carolann Ouellette, said L.L. Bean has an “incredible tourism impact” on Freeport and the surrounding region.
The question is how much that experience is worth to L.L. Bean.
The company’s executives argue that the value of the flagship will extend beyond what shoppers buy inside into a destination. But that makes the return on its $50 million investment much harder to measure. Elder said he plans to roam the store after it opens, take his badge off, and listen to what the customers have to say. The company will also measure the amount of time people spend in the store, and whether the experience brings in new customers.
Todd Drowlette, a retail real estate executive who has represented major retailers for almost three decades, said he would not have spent $50 million on the project himself.
“Time will tell very quickly if L.L. Bean did the right thing,” he said.
The flagship will undoubtedly draw crowds when it officially reopens the weekend of Sept. 18, followed by six weeks of events, including concerts, drops of vintage Bean products, movie nights, and even autographs and selfies with Boston Red Sox legends.
The harder test will come after the holiday season, when the company can begin measuring whether those first-time visitors will return, and whether the experience can help drive the growth Elder is counting on.
“Freeport is a rare combination of hometown campus, tourist destination, community gathering place, and the brand’s origin story,” said Jessica Murphy, the co-founder and CEO of True Fit, a size intelligence platform based in Boston.
“The principles can be replicated,” she said. “The place cannot.”
Alexa Gagosz can be reached at alexa.gagosz@globe.com. Follow her @alexagagosz and on Instagram @AlexaGagosz.