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1982 – today
Founded: In March 1982, waiting for a flight in Atlanta, neighbours Barbara Bradley Baekgaard and Patricia R. Miller noticed the lack of feminine luggage and decided to make some. They started with $500 — $250 borrowed from each husband (the company's Brand History) — a ping-pong table in Baekgaard's basement as headquarters, and the name of Baekgaard's mother, Vera Bradley. Vera Bradley Designs was incorporated on 15 November 1982.
Founders: Barbara Bradley Baekgaard and Patricia R. Miller, who had met in Fort Wayne in 1975 and earlier run a wallpaper-hanging business together, Up Your Wall. Baekgaard's 19-year-old daughter designed the first logo; Vera Bradley herself was hired as the South Florida sales representative.
What it did: Quilted-cotton handbags, luggage and accessories in bright signature patterns — a design house that built a national brand from Fort Wayne.
Course: The company grew through thousands of independent retailers before opening its own stores. Miller left in 2005 to serve as Indiana's first Secretary of Commerce, returned in 2006, and opened a new headquarters on Fort Wayne's south side (2208 Production Road). The company went public in 2010 (Nasdaq: VRA). In 2013 it announced a $26.6 million expansion of its design and distribution centres on the Roanoke campus just outside Fort Wayne. In 2015 it closed its New Haven factory, displacing 250 workers.
Fate: Still operating as Vera Bradley, Inc., publicly traded, with its home office in Roanoke, Indiana, at Fort Wayne's edge — the city's best-known consumer brand of the modern era.
Sources:
- Vera Bradley, Wikipedia — founded 1982; founders; incorporation 15 November 1982; Roanoke home office.
- Indianapolis Monthly, "Vera Bradley's True Colors" — the 1975 meeting; the March 1982 trip; the basement ping-pong table; the 2015 New Haven factory closure.
- IU Tobias Leadership Center, Patricia Miller profile — Up Your Wall; by fall 2005 more than 120 employees and approaching $100 million in sales; Miller's 2006 return and new headquarters.
- Vera Bradley, Inc., Form 8-K and press release, 2 August 2013 — the Production Road address; the $26.6 million Roanoke campus expansion.