1963

A young advertising copywriter named Gary Comer, who had long pursued a love of sailing in his spare time, decided to pursue his long-standing dream of opening his own business. Comer quit his job of ten years, and started a company that sold marine hardware, as well as sails, and in due course, Comer took over the job of selling such equipment through a mail order catalog, serviced from the basement of a building along the Chicago River in the city’s old tannery district.