Duluth Trading Co.: Brings inventive catalog brand to life with new flagship store featuring the ‘Wally Keller Tool Museum’

-Opening today: Duluth Trading Introduces a Shopping Experience for Folks Who Dig In and Get Their Hands Dirty-

BELLEVILLE, Wis. (Nov. 1, 2010)– Finally, a shopping experience for men and women who crave quality, rugged, and downright useful products from Ballroom™ Jeans, to the Longtail T®, to Buck Naked Underwear. Today, Wisconsin-based catalog and online retailer, Duluth Trading Company, opens its flagship store to give customers, loyalists and locals a physical hub to browse, man-handle, and test the company’s seriously usable workwear. In addition to featuring Duluth Trading products, the new 7,500-square-foot store at 100 West Main Street in Mount Horeb, Wis., the former home of the Mount Horeb Mustard Museum, showcases the new Wally Keller Tool Museum, a tribute to the hands-on passion of renowned local folk artist, sculptor and Industrial Era tool collector, Wally Keller.

The destination store, about 20 miles west of Madison, Wis., offers many Duluth Trading products currently only available via catalog and at http://www.duluthtrading.com, including men’s and women’s workwear, outerwear, gear, footwear, tools, workshop, car and truck organization, bags/totes and holiday gifts. In addition to the Wally Keller Tool Museum, the completely renovated 1882 mercantile (Mount Horeb’s original hardware store) includes original factory cart fixtures, distinctive Duluth Trading-style artwork, and a comfortable hospitality area for browsing books, having a cup of coffee and resting hard-working feet.

“We appreciate our customers’ loyalty, their candor, and their desire to come to a place called Duluth Trading, to see and experience this very different brand of ingenious workwear,” says Stephanie Pugliese, senior vice president for Duluth Trading Company. “They asked. We listened. And in less than one year, our flagship store concept has been designed, built and opened.”

And, a nice perk before the stressful holiday season, visitors to the new Duluth Trading store will enjoy the company’s “No Bull Guarantee” – the no-hassle, no-nonsense promise that guarantees an exchange or refund for any product at any time if the customer is not completely satisfied.

A company that taps real tradesmen and tradeswomen to help develop and test their products, Duluth Trading’s store brings the unique personality of the brand and the durability and functionality of its products to life so customers can challenge Duluth Trading’s claims firsthand – for example, the tear-resistant durability of Fire Hose fabric, extra crotch room in Ballroom Jeans, and the Longtail T’s ability to solve plumber’s butt.

Wally Keller Tool Museum

The Wally Keller Tool Museum showcases an extensive collection of Industrial Era hand tools, dating from the end of the Civil War through 1950-60, collected by well-known Mount Horeb folk artist/sculptor, Wally Keller. The late artist was known for the scrap metal creatures he lovingly crafted from old farm machinery, commercial and automotive parts and proudly displayed in his yard. What people didn’t know is that Keller was also the owner of an extensive 3,147-piece hand tool collection. When Steve Schlecht, owner of Duluth Trading Company visited Wally Keller’s home in 2009 in search of sculpture, he was treated to a gander at Keller’s tool collection. At the request of Keller’s wife, Duluth Trading later acquired the entire collection to showcase in downtown Mount Horeb at the home of Duluth Trading’s new flagship store.

According to Schlecht, every tool in Keller’s collection tells a very personal, individual tale, while the collection as a whole has an overall story to tell. “It speaks to the ingenuity of Americans at the start of the Industrial Age, when work was more physical and more personal,” says Schlecht. “For instance, Wally had over 150 different pipe wrenches, representing some 100 patents – looking at them, you can see how each tool evolved from the prior model into the pipe wrench with which we’re familiar with today.”

Duluth Trading’s flagship store is home to a selection of the tool collection is open to the public and free during store hours.

Media Contact: Shannon McCarthy, (952) 401-0125 x2

About Duluth Trading Company

Duluth Trading Company was founded in 1991 by two tradesmen brothers tired of making do with inadequate job site equipment. Their first catalog included just nine tool organizers, all field-tested for practicality by grizzly construction guys and hard-as-nails tradesmen. Since then, Duluth Trading has expanded its offering to include hundreds of unique, tough, functional workwear products, tool and car organizers and gotta-have gadgets. Recently, Duluth Trading has introduced and retooled its women’s workwear line, building on the durability, functionality, and unique usefulness built into its men’s line.

Duluth Trading’s adherence to authenticity and commitment to craftsmanship is evidenced in the products. Men’s workwear is designed and tested by the Duluth Trades Panel and the women’s line is tested and approved by the Duluth’s Real Women Test Panel. All panel members have hands-on occupations who know a good – or bad – product when they see one. Signature products include the Longtail T® (the cure for “plumber’s butt”), men’s Ballroom Jeans (with a comfy crotch gusset for crouching without singing soprano), and exclusive Fire Hose® Workwear (made from tough but soft cotton canvas inspired by the kind that once protected actual fire hoses).