I enjoy shopping at L.L. Bean. Most times, I’ll just window-shop through the Colonie Center store, I’ll eyeball all the clothing and fishing and hiking accessories, and then maybe I’ll purchase a flannel shirt or two. Nothing major, but I do shop at L.L. Bean on occasion.
And I had a plan for 2017. After my foot surgery and recovery, I was going to visit the Colonie Center L.L. Bean store and splurge on a pair of good, solid hiking boots. Actually, I’m looking at THIS pair of good, solid hiking boots, size 10 1/2. Then I would traipse back to the Boreas Ponds in the Adirondacks, get a fantastic set of photos, and feel good for the rest of the year and beyond.
Then … unfortunately … THIS happened.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/819541997325316096?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Apparently Linda Bean, a family member who sits on the board of L.L. Bean, donated money to a SuperPAC that supported Donald Trump’s Presidential campaign. And now the President-Elect is using his most trusted form of communication with the American people – his Twitter account – to essentially endorse L.L. Bean with regard to that political contribution by one of its board members.
So now here’s the quandary.
Does buying these hiking boots essentially mean that I’m endorsing Donald Trump as President, just as he endorsed L.L. Bean products?
That’s the quandary that consumers now face. Currently there’s a hashtag movement, #GrabYourWallet, that encourages customers to boycott products that either have ties to Donald Trump or the Trump Organization.
And there’s an easy-to-reference website, grabyourwallet.org, that contains an online spreadsheet of companies and their connections to Donald Trump.
Trust me, there’s a lot of companies out there on that list.
Personally, I wouldn’t equate Donald Trump with L.L. Bean products. I always associated L.L. Bean products with the docksider shoes and duckboots worn by my Hamilton College classmates. I associated L.L. Bean with hunting and fishing and hiking and camping and the outdoors lifestyle. For me, purchasing L.L. Bean products doesn’t automatically make me a Donald Trump supporter any more than purchasing a pair of Doc Martens boots automatically makes me a safety-pin-through-the-nose-wearing punk rock groupie.
And when it comes to footwear, my personal choices for purchasing – or not purchasing – are more directly related to the company itself. For the longest time, I would never buy Nike sneakers or shoes because of their manufacture outside of the United States, where the shoes are made in sweatshops in Vietnam or Bangladesh. In fact, during that stretch of time i would specifically wear Converse sneakers – Chuck Taylor canvas models – which I knew were manufactured in a factory in North Carolina.
Of course, then Nike bought Converse and shipped the manufacture of the Chuck Taylor sneakers off to Vietnam, so there’s that.
So personally, I have time to decide whether to buy those hiking boots from L.L. Bean or not. Or I could purchase them from Eddie Bauer or EMS Mountain Sports or any other footwear specialty store. Heck, I’d purchase them from Thom McAn if there were still Thom McAn stores out there.
And the connection to L.L. Bean isn’t that the company made the donation to the Trump campaign. One descendant of the company’s founder donated money on her own.
Besides, I still have foot surgery in a couple of weeks, and then recovery and physical therapy. So even considering purchasing any sort of hiking footwear isn’t as much of an immediate concern.
And if Donald Trump really wants to support L.L. Bean products … it would then explain what footwear he’s sporting when he sticks his foot in his mouth during his Presidential campaign.
Amirite?
Chuck The Writer 
Chuck, if you spend much more time overthinking this nonsense, it’ll be time to shop for sandals and shorts.
Where your next can of tuna fish comes from, and what’s inside it, however, might be more worth stressing over.
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The Press Herald has a great article about LLB’s official response: http://www.pressherald.com/2017/01/09/l-l-bean-chairman-responds-to-call-for-company-boycott/ That Grab Your Wallet chose to target LLB and not Linda Bean’s Perfect Maine (directly owned and influenced by Linda) to me calls into question their criteria for inclusion. This movement is starting to conflate individuals on corporate boards with official corporate positions, which is never good.
And what about Ford, Carrier and other companies? Not that their previously announced changes in factory closings/placements/hirings can directly be linked to Trump, but what will people do when it is clear that he is shaping corporate policy? Do you buy American and – by extension – support Trump (who hasn’t moved production of any of his products back home, ditto Ivanka)? Or do you buy the best product, which may or may not have been manufactured here, because you’re interested in quality and not politics?
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Boycott’s are a complete waste of time. They rarely, if ever accomplish anything. Within a few weeks, this whole affair will be completely forgotten. This is the American public we’re talking about. We have the attention span of a brick, when it comes to issues like this
Bought a pair of their snow sneakers a few months ago. Used them on the Albany Rail Trail on the Voorheesville end of the trail. They haven’t paved that end yet. Love them. They came with a $10 gift card, which you can bet, I’m going to use.
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Thank you for a very well written opine that weighs the ethical and social aspects of brand identification. We’ve been raised on a diet of TV commercials aimed to spur an emotional response that is satisfied with a particular product purchase. I appreciate the outlink to the Grab Your Wallet list as well as the suggestions of retailers where similar goods may be purchased. People have brand loyalty in their eyes since birth. who of us do not instantly recognize Mickey? Voting with your feet is an ancient practice. Their PR to recover from this is going to cost more than her contribution.
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Hi Chuck,
If I can add my two cents, I would like to mention that Ms. been who sits on the board of the company L. L. Been made a private contribution not on behalf of her company.
The game that some people are playing as to not support a company for making a political donations is a dangerous game to play. I know you are not a Trump fan but keeping that in mind how would you feel about doing business with a company who supported your candidate? Would you feel the same way as to not do business with them because they made a political contribution.
We live in a democratic country where every four years we choose the next leader of our country. Good bad or in different we need to rally around whoever the leader is and support their decisions ( to a point ) and try to do everything we can to facilitate their agenda in hopes it is best for the country in the long run.
Whatever the political beliefs are, I think everybody should at least give whoever was elected a fighting chance to succeed.
Given some time, I think you will find that a lot of good is coming out of our latest choice.
As you probably figured out by now, I am a supporter of President elect Trump. I would always be open to a discussion but not an argument over his political agenda.
Jerrold
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I’m not a Trump supporter, but I appreciate the tone of your comment. I just had a response to your request to give him a fighting chance to succeed… Please keep in mind that his party has majority control of the House and Senate, and they also managed to arrange it so that he will get to nominate the next supreme court justice.
He already has a fighting chance to do plenty of whatever it is he plans on doing, regardless of what he majority of the country thinks of him.
I do hope it is for the best for our country, but people have plenty of reasons to be uncertain about that based on what he’s promised (and walked back, and then promised again). We will be watching close to see what gets done these next few years, and will remember who did it. I hope you will be as vigilant… your “to a point” parenthetical give me hope that you will be.
Thanks for considering.
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“Good bad or in different (sic) we need to rally around whoever the leader is and support their decisions ( to a point ) and try to do everything we can to facilitate their agenda in hopes it is best for the country in the long run.” What if most of their agenda is not best for the country in the long run? Just sit back placidly and allow it to occur?
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Buy the boots you want, but rather than solely shopping the Colonie Center store check out the LL Bean website for a larger, more diverse selection. Their lifetime guarantee is rock solid (I speak from many positive experiences).
As for the “retail partisanship” there are many, many more onerous retailers more worthy of public outrage because of their business practices (Google “Vlasic Walmart” to read what happened to a popular pickle company).
Finally, to the anti-Trump crowd, I ask which part or parts of the constitutionally prescribed processes for electing a president were violated? Don’t like way the election turned out? Well, I am not pleased with it either, as was I in 2008 and 2012, but that is history so let’s move on. Folks, the US Constitution is not a menu from which you select the articles with which you agree. Don’t like it? Change it, something I have not heard proposed by the antis.
PS – I would have preferred to post this on another TU blog but that moderator has a bad habit of deleting/editing comments that don’t match his mindset, whatever that is.
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Mugwump – you’re more than welcome to post here on my blog any time you please. I have no problem approving comments that don’t agree with my point of view. It’s called dialogue, and I’m all for it.
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Buy the Bean boots, but dump Hobby Lobby.
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I’m just not feeling the L.L. Bean boycott. I DO think boycotts can be effective, and I’ve participated in more than a few. But this isn’t the company policy, so meh. I must say that L.L. Bean was the correct answer to the Final JEOPARDY! on the 2nd, and final, time I was on. and I was the only one to get the right answer.
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