Thomas Breen photo
L.L. Bean groupie Gordon Daniell at new Elm Street store.
Inside the store on opening day.
Gordon Daniell entered the new L.L. Bean store that opened on Elm Street Wednesday already wearing L.L. Bean-brand khakis, shoes, and a sun-blocking hiking shirt.
He left the store with a new daypack and water bottle — and with the comfort that he’ll no longer have to leave town or shop online to pick up clothes from his favorite outerwear brand.
Daniell was one of hundreds of devotees to visit the new L.L. Bean store at 272 Elm St. on Wednesday during the store’s “soft opening.” The official grand opening is Friday.
The two-story, glass-fronted hiking and active wear store replaces a former surface parking lot in the Yale Properties-dominated Broadway-Elm Street commercial district, and sits beneath four stories of new Yale graduate student housing.
On Wednesday morning and afternoon, some two dozen enthusiastic store employees wearing earth-green collared shirts walked customers through the 9,000-square-foot retail space and its wealth of hiking shirts and pants, climbing gear, chairs, headlamps, watches, sleeping bags, and hiking boots.
Daniell, who moved to New Haven 72 years ago at the age of 6, used to run the now-closed Jackson-Marvin Hardware store on Whalley Avenue He said he has been shopping L.L. Bean stores for decades.
“They’ve got their own brands, and they stand behind them,” he said. “Consistent good quality.”
He said he doesn’t hike as frequently as he used to, but he is still a regular on the trails of East Rock Park. He picked up the new daypack and waterbottle, but said the store didn’t have the walking shoes he was interested in, so he’d have to look elsewhere.
Lisa Orlando Parisi and Michael Parisi.
Lisa Orlando Parisi and Michael Parisi, who have been shopping at L.L. Bean since the early 1970s, said they were glad to have a store in town so that they could try on clothes before buying them and not have to worry about ordering clothes online only to find that they don’t quite fit.
“This is perfectly-fitted for the student population,” Michael Parisi said.
“I was hoping for a bit more,” Lisa Orlando Parisi admitted. “This is definitely geared for casual.” She said she would still need to go to the larger L.L. Bean store in South Windsor to pick up some of the more specialized hiking clothing and equipment that she turns to the shop for.
L.L. Bean employee Rain shows how to tie a paracord bracelet.
Eric Smith, a spokesman for L.L. Bean, said that the New Haven store indeed has a more curated collection than some of the retailer’s larger outlets elsewhere in the state.
He said New Haven’s store is much smaller than that in South Windsor. After a new location that the Maine-based retailer opened in South Street Seaport in Boston earlier this year, the Elm Street store is only the second urban location for L.L. Bean. He said the store’s collection of active wear, hiking gear, and casual clothing is geared to both students and city residents interested in exploring the natural environs outside of New Haven.
Store manager Susan Gardella said New Haven’s L.L. Bean will hold free clinics twice a week on topics ranging from how to pack a hiking bag to how to tie a paracord bracelet. She said store employees will also regularly lead hikes from the store to nearby hiking trails.
But for many who came in and out of the store on Wednesday, the drawbacks of having a slightly smaller selection compared to that at other L.L. Bean stores paled in comparison to having a new clothing retailer downtown.
“It beats going way out to Milford,” said Reggie Green, who recently moved to New Haven from Birmingham, Alabama.
“I’ve been shopping here for 40 years,” said a man from Madison who asked not to be identified. “Half my wardrobe comes from L.L. Bean.”
Estena Wright: Nothing for church.
One visitor who left a little disappointed on Wednesday was Estena Wright, a Jamaican transplant to New Haven, who was unable to find exactly what she was looking for.
“It’s lovely,” she said, “but I’m looking for church clothes.” She said she had already been to a number of clothing stores in the area looking for a dress or a suit to wear to her church, Church of Christ on Gem Street, but had left stymied each time by the more casual fare.
“We can’t leave out God,” she said with a smile.
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