As all great stories do, ours starts with a song; in this case, a Todd Snider song called "Doublewide Blues"! 'Jimmy' is me, Laura Zander, and together with my husband Doug, we opened Jimmy Beans Wool in 2002!
So really, why 'Jimmy' right?! In "Doublewide Blues", Snider talks about his neighbor Jimmy who's so cool, he's got a blue plastic pool on the deck in front of his house! Doug started saying I was 'cool like Jimmy' and well, the rest is history!
In 2002, while we were trying to figure out a name for our new, crazy adventure (a yarn shop!), 'Jimmy' was a clear choice. 'Beans' was added since we sold coffee in our original location (in Truckee, California), and 'Wool' because, well... :)! Since then, the yarn has overrun the store, the coffee is gone, we welcomed our son Huck (the heir to the mohair!) and we've grown to 75 employees... and still the name lives on!
Flash forward to today, both we and the company now reside in Reno, Nevada, where we occupy a 20,000 square foot retail and warehouse space (I know, right?! So crazy!)! The yarn has continued to lead the business but we've also added a few of our favorite brands to our wheelhouse with our recent acquisition of Namaste, della Q, and Madelinetosh! Fun Fact: Kelly, the former owner of Namaste, Della, former della Q founder and owner, and Amy, former owner and creative genius behind Madelinetosh, had all been good friends of mine for almost a decade! We also recently launched (and patented!!) SmartStix, the brainchild partnership of my friend and Jimmy Beans General Manager, Shannon Flores, while on a trip to India! You can read that story on our SmartStix page!
Thanks for joining us in our little corner of the internet! I'm truly honored to have you here!!
Our very first location in Truckee, California!
Meet my family! That's Doug, Huck and me, Jimmy!
We're so lucky to love where we live! Reno has dozens of trails and Princess Leia (and not pictured, our other dog, Dodger!) take full advantage!
Adding Mad | Tosh to the Jimmy Beans Wool family was the highlight of 2019! We're so excited to keep creating and pushing the limits of color!
I can't express enough how grateful and honored I am to take the della Q baton and run with it.
Me and Linli in China! She's my right hand for all our della Q products and I feel soooo lucky to have her on the team!
