Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble, although it has been blamed by some for driving independent book sellers from the field, is actually the progeny of two very dedicated bibliophiles.
Way back in 1873, Charles M. Barnes started a book selling business out of his home in Wheaton, Illinois. Barnes apparently passed his love of books to his son, who in 1917 traveled to New York City, where he met G. Clifford Noble. Together they opened a small bookstore in the city, and a few years later expanded into what would become their flagship store at Fifth Avenue and 18th Street.
Barnes & Noble chugged happily along for the next few decades, but fell on hard times in the late 1960s, the beginning of a period that saw the extinction of dozens of independent bookstores in New York City. Fortunately, Barnes & Noble caught the eye of Leonard Reggio, a successful college bookstore owner, who bought the chain in 1971 and set out on a course of expansion that eventually would spawn more than 600 Barnes & Noble stores and a successful online presence, as well as almost 200 B. Dalton and Doubleday bookshops.
Adidas
Adi Dassler pretty much invented the modern sports shoe. As a 20 year-old track enthusiast in Germany, Dassler made his first shoe, a canvas training shoe for runners, in 1920. Over the next two decades, Dassler expanded his line, and by 1937 was producing 30 models of shoes for eleven different sports. Early on, Dassler made a point of soliciting the opinions of the athletes themselves and being personally present at the sporting events in which competitors wore his shoes.
After the interruption of World War II, Dassler restarted his company and decided to register the trademark “Adidas,” a melding of the first syllables of his own first and last names. In 1949, he registered the company’s famous three-stripes design as a trademark. By the 1960s, Adidas dominated the professional sports shoe market and began manufacturing athletic equipment and Adidas logo clothing as well.
Hermes
In Ancient Greek mythology, Hermes was a god, the son of Zeus and Maia. Hermes was the messenger of the gods, known for his inventiveness, and also the god of both merchants and thieves. Hermes is usually represented wearing winged sandals and carrying a staff entwined with serpents. (If Hermes sounds familiar, it’s because the Romans later called him Mercury.)
In 1828 an inventive modern Hermes arrived in Paris from his native Germany. Thierry Hermes first went into business making saddles and harnesses, and within a few years became known for the high quality of his products. As the Hermes enterprise expanded under Thierry’s descendants and added European royalty to its clientele, leather garments and luggage were added, and in 1928 Hermes began buying silk scarves to sell along with their clothing line. The scarves were so popular that Hermes decided to design their own, and today Hermes scarves are probably the firm’s most famous product. But the firm also still produces around 400 hand-tooled saddles every year.