origin

  • Primed for Success

    Amazon.com is the largest Internet-based retail company in the United States, and the 6th-most-visited website in the world, but it hasn’t gotten to that lofty position without some growing pains. Amazon in one of the newest companies we’ll be covering in Garage Greatness, since they made their first sale in 1995, a mere twenty years ago. In those twenty years, Jeff Bezos, the manically-driven mastermind behind Amazon’s record-shattering success, has moved his business from a garage-based bookseller to a household name and competitor in nearly every industry and country around the globe. At the beginning, however, it began in a garage.

  • Garage Door Origins

    The origins of the garage door are difficult to trace. If you consider early chariot gatehouses to be garages, then the earliest doors date to around 450 BC. These early doors were used to shelter chariots when they weren’t being used in sport or war, and functioned very similarly to barn doors. Romans used their chariots for carrying archers around the battlefield and to transport their leaders, and perhaps more often for sports like hunting and racing. The invention of the spoked wheel made chariots possible as early as 2000 BC, and chariot races were still popular through the 6th century.

  • Holding a Candle to Yankee Candle

    The Kittredge family may just have a little wax in their blood. Michael Kittredge II started making candles when he was just 16, starting The Yankee Candle Company in his parent’s garage. Forty years later, his son Michael III founded Kringle Candle, establishing the company just 20 miles from Yankee Candle’s flagship store. Michael III is intent on following in his father’s footsteps to greatness, although of course having a multimillionaire father means that he has plenty of help beginning his journey. Michael Kittredge the II, his father, only had three things – a dream, a garage, and a single candle.