Courtesy / ChappyWrap
ChappyWrap blankets are prominently displayed at the L.L.Bean Home store in Freeport.
Updated: June 20, 2023
It's a wrap: Maine blankets take the shelves at L.L.Bean
File photo / Tim Greenway
Christina Livada runs ChappyWrap, a seller of heirloom-quality blankets and shawls made in Germany and Poland, from her home in Cape Elizabeth.
ChappyWrap, a family-owned blanket brand based in Cape Elizabeth, has landed at the L.L.Bean Home store in Freeport.
“We have been in talks with L.L.Bean for a few years, so they have become very familiar with our story and our product over that time and have even placed several small test orders for the Freeport Home Store in years past,” Christina Livada, ChappyWrap’s president, told Mainebiz.
L.L.Bean “approached us earlier this year with interest in placing a larger order and establishing a bigger ChappyWrap presence there,” she added. “We were thrilled to work with them in a larger capacity.”
Livada was unable to say how many blankets had already been sold at the store, which has displayed the blankets in a prominent spot next to a staircase.
ChappyWrap blankets, which retail for $135, are heirloom-quality covers manufactured in Germany and Poland. Livada, who started the business with her mother, Beth LaSala, in 2016, manages a team of seven remote employees from her home in Cape Elizabeth. The company also sells throws and shawls.
The blankets are sold online and at boutique retailers in several states. Retail distributors in Maine include Whimsical in Saco, Match on Maine in Brunswick and Black River Gallery in Boothbay Harbor.
For now, sales of ChappyWraps are limited to the L.L.Bean's Freeport home store. By spring 2024, the blankets will also be sold on the retailer’s website.
For L.L.Bean, the news comes as it invests more than $50 million to revamp its flagship store. And last week, the company unveiled a $110 million makeover of its corporate headquarters, also in Freeport.
ChappyWrap's road ahead
In general, ChappyWrap’s business is going well, Livada said.
“We had our first-ever in-person sample sale in April and sold out of every piece of inventory we brought with us — 750 samples in one and a half hours,” she said.
She also said the company is working on several collaborations and partnerships, including a children’s collaboration with Penguin Young Readers set to launch later this month.
“We’ll also have a very fun pop-up coming to Portland in September,” she said.
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