personal passion for fly fishing and wingshooting with his vision
and business acumen.
One of Leigh’s most brilliant strategic business maneuvers was
contacting ORVIS’ (then) competitor, Abercrombie & Fitch, and
offering to exchange client mailing lists. It was a risk that paid
off in spades. At that time, Abercrombie & Fitch wasn’t known for
its 18 year old male models with washboard abs. It was an
outdoors lifestyle, clothing brand – and its target audience
overlapped ORVIS’. With access to A & F’s customers, Leigh was
able to grow ORVIS exponentially. In fact, ORVIS remains the old-
est mail-order company in the world; older than Sears & Roebuck.
But ORVIS wasn’t just “a business” to Leigh. Fly fishing was his
passion. As a young boy, Leigh had been schooled by his mother
on how to fish – using an ORVIS rod. Leigh continued to grow
ORVIS’ product lines and customer base, and within a year of own-
ing the company – he also established a fly fishing school. Taking
a page straight out of his mother’s playbook, by educating others
on the beauty of the sport, he knew he could also grow the next
generation of fly fishing enthusiasts. In addition, long before other
companies were “giving back”, Leigh dedicated a certain amount
of ORVIS profits to nature conservation, further proving his
genuine love for (and commitment to) the outdoors.
Employees are encouraged to bring their dogs to work at the
ORVIS Corporate headquarters in Sunderland.
Leigh’s sons, Perk and Dave, expanded operations internationally,
particularly in the United Kingdom, where there is still a large
ORVIS customer-base. They engaged customers in their own
way - to match the needs of their generation - but the heart of the
company did not change.
Leigh’s grandson, Simon, said, “I call it ORVIS’ eternal truth.
It has flowed throughout the course of the [company]. We are
passionate about this lifestyle - [and we want to] engage people in
ways that we think make life truly great.”
When discussing Vermont, ORVIS, and family; Simon explained
that they were really one and the same. “Growing up in Ver-
mont, you’re living most of your life outside. Certainly, I got to
do that with my mom, with my dad, with my grandfather, aunt,
uncle, with my brother. [Now with my wife and kids]. I mean,
that’s part of ORVIS. That’s inherently what we do. There’s just this
pull outside. Every family vacation was a fly fishing or bird hunting
adventure. And I just thought that was normal. I thought that’s
what everybody did. I would come back to school after being on
break, and I’d be exhausted because we’d be going on all these
adventures, where we’d wake up at four in the morning and be out-
side all day long. It wasn’t really a hobby. It was just a way of life.”
ORVIS’ vision statement is “to inspire the world to love the
adventure and wonder in nature” – and they mean it.
Their corporate headquarters in Sunderland, Vermont, is a dream
12 VERMONT
VERMONT
Magazine
16
magazine
FALL 2019