Top 10 Companies Who Started Off In Very Different Industries

Before becoming a retail giant, Sears sold watches by mail order, with Richard Warren Sears laying the company’s foundations in 1886. After Alvah Curtis Roebuck joined the team, they rebranded as Sears, Roebuck & Company and replicated the business model by selling all kinds of merchandise at low prices. Following the success of their legendary Sears Catalog and ownership changes, Sears opened its first store in 1925, eventually becoming America’s largest retailer. However, the changes started when the catalog was discontinued in 1993 to focus on their department stores. Due to declining sales in the 2010s, the company shut down many stores and became involved in real estate holdings instead.

Long before all the advertising controversy and sexy shirtless models at store openings, Abercrombie & Fitch was a sporting goods store. Between 1892-1977, the outfitter was known for its pricey shotguns, tents, fishing gear and other sporting goods. After the company filed for bankruptcy in the late ‘70s, the brand name was purchased and resurrected as another sporting goods retailer before being sold again in the late ‘80s, eventually becoming the preppy, apparel store we know today.

In 1923, the Hassenfeld Brothers began selling textile remnants in Rhode Island; they eventually started making their own pencils and selling school supplies. While this is not what they’re famous for today, it did help the brothers fund their future jump into toy manufacturing. The launch of Mr. Potato Head in 1952 was an incredible success. By 1964, the company had coined the term “action figure” thanks to the creation of G.I. Joe, and since then – under the name Hasbro – they’ve gone on to create popular toys and games like Transformers and Guess Who? What’s more, in 2015, Hasbro teamed up with Paramount Pictures to begin developing a Cinematic Universe based on their toy properties.

Command Adhesive Strips, Scotch Tape, Post-it Notes: products so simple and yet so useful. They’re all manufactured by 3M; a company that specializes in manufacturing office supplies and especially adhesive products. But, the company that invented Scotch Tape was once known as Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing. Founded in 1902, it was a mining company that initially intended to sell corundum for the production of grinding wheels, but they soon discovered that the mineral was worthless. After encouraging employees to branch out, 3M realized they had a knack for innovation and soon developed a number of incredibly simple and useful goods. In addition to adhesives, 3M has also manufactured everything from pharmaceuticals to traffic signals to board games.

Twitter grew out of 2004’s Odeo, which was a site where people could create, find, and subscribe to podcasts. When Apple’s iTunes began to take over the podcast market, Odeo gave employees some time to come up with new ideas for the company. Twitter was born after a daylong brainstorming session between Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, and Odeo founders Noah Glass and Evan Williams, and pretty soon, Odeo was sold off. The new site really started to take off when its microblogging platform took South By Southwest by storm in 2007 and the rest is – as they say – history.

Way back in 1887, Torakusu Yamaha founded the Nippon Gakki Company – a piano and reed organ manufacturer – in Hamamatsu, Japan. Political tensions between China and Japan in the 1900s eventually climaxed in World War II, forcing Yamaha to take on the production of wartime machinery. But after the war, they used what was left to make their first motorcycles. The company has grown significantly over the last century, producing everything from their signature musical instruments and motorcycles to sporting goods, appliances, robots, and more.