Orvis is an American family-owned retail and mail-order business specializing in fly fishing, hunting and sporting goods. Founded in Manchester, Vermont, in 1856 by Charles F. Orvis to sell fishing tackle, it is the oldest mail-order retailer in the United States.[2]
Orvis operates 40 retail stores and 1 outlet/warehouse locations in the US and 0 retail stores and one outlet store in the UK. Owned by the Perkins family since 1965, the company has changed hands twice and has had five CEOs in its history.
Charles F. Orvis opened a tackle shop in Manchester, Vermont, in 1856. His 1874 fly reel was described by reel historian Jim Brown as the "benchmark of American reel design," the first fully modern fly reel.[3][4]
Prior to the Civil War Orvis was sending out catalogs, which predated more famous ones from Sears, Roebuck by more than 20 years.[5]
Charles's daughter, Mary Orvis Marbury, took charge of the Orvis fly department in the 1870s. In 1892, she published an encyclopedic reference book on fly patterns Favorite Flies and Their Histories.[4][6]
Following Charles's death in 1915, sons Albert and Robert managed the company until the 1930s, when it essentially collapsed during the Depression. Investors, led by Philadelphia businessman-sportsman Dudley Corkran, purchased Orvis in 1939 for US$4,500 (equal to $98,569 today), and quickly revitalized the business.[4] Corkran hired master bamboo rodbuilder Wes Jordan, who by the late 1940s had developed a Bakelite impregnation process that made Orvis bamboo rods uniquely impervious to weather, rot, and other perennial perils.[7]
After World War II, as fiberglass claimed the fishing rod market, Orvis competed with bamboo rod builders, such as Payne, Gillum, and Garrison, while its fiberglass and graphite rods competed with Shakespeare, Fenwick, and other emerging post-bamboo-era firms.[8] The firm produces high quality flies and fly-tying tools, employing professional tyers like A.K. Best and Tom Rosenbauer to create new versions for sale.[9]
Purchase by the Perkins family
In 1965 after nine months of negotiations with Corkran, Leigh H. Perkins (27 November 1927 - 7 May 2021) bought Orvis for $400,000, equal to $1,933,685 today. Perkins had since his youth held an admiration for the company which he purchased using $200,000 in savings and the rest in the form of a loan.[5] At the time the company had 20 employees and $500,000 in annual sales.
In 1966 Perkins established the Orvis fly-fishing school in Manchester, Vermont, which is thought to have been the first of its kind in the United States. His idea was to both to democratize the world of fly casting and at the same time to expand his customer base. Eventually the company was to establish a total of seven such fishing schools.
Perkins recognized the opportunity to make Orvis synonymous not only with fly fishing but with an entire way of life, and greatly enlarged the product line in the 1980s into gifts and clothing.[5] Described by contemporaries as a genius at mail order, Perkins pioneered the trading of customer mailing lists among his chief competitors, including L.L. Bean, Eddie Bauer and Norm Thompson.[4][10] Inspired by Perkin’s respect for working dogs, the company introduced the Orvis Dog Nest bed in 1977, which not only launched an entirely new category for the company, but which was the first of its kind sold in the United States.
Under Perkins and Jordan's successor as chief rod builder, Howard Steere, Orvis became one of the most innovative manufacturers of high-quality fly rods and reels, especially in the development of graphite fly rods.[11] In 1989, Tom Peters, author of In Search of Excellence, named the Orvis fly rod one of the five best products made in the United States in the 1980s.[12] Historian Kenneth Cameron has written that Perkins' accomplishment was to "define the look of contemporary fly fishing and the entire social universe in which it fits, no small achievement."[13]
By the time that Perkins retired in 1992 and turned Orvis over to his sons the company had grown to have annual sales of $90 million and more than 700 employees.[5] Under the leadership of Perkins' sons, then-CEO Leigh ("Perk") Perkins, Jr., and Executive Vice Chairman Dave Perkins, Orvis has more fully formalized- and broadened its corporate vision. Whilst Orvis has thrived and revenue has more than tripled under the second generation of Perkins leadership, a long-simmering corporate identity crisis had to be addressed: the company's growth had strained Orvis's sense of direction - e.g. between 1982 and 2000, Orvis purchased six other firms, most of whose own identities did not mesh well with Orvis and thus put the clarity of the brand at risk.[4][14] As a result beginning in 2000 a rebranding effort began to focus Orvis as a name synonymous with a distinctive, outdoor style of living.
An Orvis Green Highlander salmon fly.
Simon Perkins, the son of Leigh “Perk” Perkins (former Orvis CEO), and grandson of Leigh H. Perkins took over the company as president in 2020.[15]
Orvis also operates three shooting grounds, featuring a "full-time staff" with a "host of offerings that include sporting clays, upland and waterfowl hunting, and the renowned Orvis Schools."[16] The three locations are the Hill Country Shooting Grounds in Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania; the Sandanona Shooting Grounds in Millbrook, New York; and the Pursell Farms Shooting Grounds in Sylacuaga, Alabama.[16]
Conservation programs
Orvis's conservation activism began with Charles Orvis's work in fisheries conservation and management in the late 19th century and has continued since. Leigh Perkins continued with conservationism as a company value, donating to wildlife organizations before such practices were widespread. In 1994 Perkins was recognized for his efforts when he received the Chevron Corporation's Chevron Conservation Award for lifetime achievements in conservation.[10]
In 2020, Orvis announced a series of layoffs and furloughs affecting its workforce. The company cited the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic as the primary reason for these measures.
In October 2024, Orvis announced a significant restructuring plan aimed at ensuring the company's longevity as a family-owned, purpose-driven brand. This plan included laying off 112 employees, representing about 8% of its workforce, closing a limited number of its retail stores, and discontinuing its iconic catalog after 170 years. The affected employees were offered two months of full pay and benefits, additional severance pay, and assistance with health insurance and job transition services.[18]
^Brown, Jim (1990). A Treasury of Reels: The Fishing Reel Collection of The American Museum of Fly Fishing. Manchester, Vermont: The American Museum of Fly Fishing. ISBN978-0962511103.
^ abcdeSchullery, Paul (2006). The Orvis Story: 150 Years of an American Sporting Tradition (Paperback). Manchester, Vermont: The Orvis Company, Inc. ISBN978-0979009709.
