Levenger is a privately held specialty retail company owned by Steve and Lori Leveen. It was established in 1987
and as of November 2022, it was headquartered in
Delray Beach, Florida.
[ As of that date, it was led by its former chief marketing officer, now CEO, Margaret Moraskie.][ Levenger product components are “made under contract… in China, Hong, Taiwan, Germany and India” with “much of ts productassembly… done in the United States.”][ Levenger order fulfillment and customer service operations are in ]Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...
, and all its customer service is handled at the company headquarters.
Levenger’s products as of November 2022 include leather bags and briefbags, folios and other products to hold tablets and other personal electronics, fine writing instruments, and an extensive line of note-taking products, in particular its Circa® disc-binding
Disc-binding is a type of notebook binding that uses discs to hold the sheets of paper. Each disc has a raised edge. Notebook sheets have perforations along the binding edge that match the profile and spacing of the binding discs.
Notebook sh ...
notebooks.
Levenger designs many of its products, with approximately 75% of its product line being proprietary. The company describes itself as a champion of ''Slow Tech''. One example of the mix of old and new technologies, or dual technologies, is the company’s Shirt Pocket Briefcase®, introduced in 1992.
Levenger CEO and co-founder Steve Leveen has aligned the company with the Conscious Capitalism
Conscious business enterprises and people are those that choose to follow a business strategy, in which they seek to benefit both human beings and the environment.
The conscious business movement in the US emerged from the theory of corporate s ...
movement. To that end, the company has created an initiative called Partnering for Good, which pays product-based royalties to nonprofit institutions whose missions are connected to reading or learning. Among these institutions are the Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
, the New York Public Library
The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress ...
, The Boston Public Library
The Boston Public Library is a municipal public library system in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, founded in 1848. The Boston Public Library is also the Library for the Commonwealth (formerly ''library of last recourse'') of the Commonweal ...
, the Bodleian Library
The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford, and is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. It derives its name from its founder, Sir Thomas Bodley. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second- ...
of Oxford University
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
, and The Morgan Library and Museum. The initiative also links specific products with contributions to literacy programs.
History
Levenger was established in 1987 by the Leveens,Belmont, Massachusetts
Belmont is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts. It is a western suburb of Boston, Massachusetts, United States; and is part of the Greater Boston metropolitan area. At the time of the 2020 U.S. Census, the town's population stood at 27,295 ...
, and aware of the up-and-coming halogen
The halogens () are a group in the periodic table consisting of five or six chemically related elements: fluorine (F), chlorine (Cl), bromine (Br), iodine (I), astatine (At), and tennessine (Ts). In the modern IUPAC nomenclature, this group is ...
lighting technology, the Leveens placed an ad in The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
magazine and began selling lamps, using their neighbor’s garage as the fulfillment center and their own spare bedroom as the main office. The first tagline was “Serious Lighting for Serious Readers.” Two months after running the ad, Levenger had 47 customers. The tagline later changed to “Tools for Serious Readers.”[ By 2004, an analysis of the business described it as having saturated its U.S. market, and being in need of further business innovation to allow it to continue to grow.][
]
References
{{Reflist
External links
Levenger
Levenger Press
Retail companies established in 1987
Online retailers of the United States
Mail-order retailers
Companies based in Palm Beach County, Florida