A magazine-like print presentation of a company鈥檚 or retailer鈥檚 products. Before the Internet, customers would fill out an order form from the catalog and mail it back to the company with a check or money order.
A brief history:
1861: sends out America鈥檚 first gear-oriented catalog, advertising fishing tackle.
1912: launches a four-page catalog featuring his flagship Maine hunting boot, the leather-topped rubber duck boot that鈥檚 still among 鈥檚 most popular products.
1948: 鈥檚 first mail-order catalog goes out to about 3,000 people.
1972: The catalog debuts and in 1976 offers the first product: a tent called the Light Dimension.
1980: launches its catalog. According to the 2010 anthology , founder tells the catalog鈥檚 first editor, Rick Ridgeway, 鈥淗ey Rick, I think I鈥檝e got it figured out. We鈥檒l run photos of real people doing real things.鈥澛
2015: Most catalogs have migrated online, but many companies still use them to drive sales.聽