Company Creation The founders, Baekgaard and Miller, met in 1975 in Fort Wayne. Baekgaard was redecorating her home by hanging wallpaper when Miller, who was new to the area, came over to her house and introduced herself. Baekgaard asked for help hanging the wallpaper and this experience developed into a wallpapering company they created, called Up Your Wall. The two were in an airport while traveling back from Florida for a spring trunk show, the pair noticed the bland, masculine carry-on bags that many travelers were using. Baekgaard and Miller thought that women may want the option to use something brighter and more feminine. Once back in Indiana, they borrowed $500 from their husbands, bought some fabrics inspired by the Pierre Deux French Provençal look popular at the time, and had a seamstress friend develop prototype bags. They disassociated the bags from the wallpaper they sold in order to find out what the demand would be if the customers were not aware the bags were produced by them. The two named the bags "Vera Bradley" after Baekgaard's mother. The bags sold well, and family members ran the business out of Baekgaard's basement. Family involvement was at the forefront of "Vera Bradley" with the first logo created by Baekgaard's teenage daughter, and mother Vera became a sales representative in Florida. Vera Bradley Designs was incorporated on November 15, 1982.
Retail The majority of bags were initially sold through small shops as well as
Marshall Field's. The business did not have issues selling the bags, but did encounter difficulty keeping up with the demand. They hired local seamstresses as well as provided a loan for the creation of Phoenix Sewing, a company dedicated to making Vera Bradley products. Phoenix Sewing was under contract to not produce other products unless their board agreed to do so, where Baekgaard and Miller were board members. Eventually several sewing companies formed and expanded in the area to produce the products. In 2019, the company purchased a 75% stakeholder share in Creative Genius, parent company of
Pura Vida Bracelets, a bracelet company based in La Jolla, California. They have the option to purchase the remainder of the company in 2024.
Corporate In March 2026, the company named Ian Bickley as the company's new CEO and Chairman. Bickely, who has been with the company for over 24 years, previously served as Executive Chairman. ==Overseas Production Expansion==