“We probably spend as much time on our people as we do on anything.”
In a few weeks, more than 100 million Americans will be tuning into Super Bowl LII. At press time, the two teams were not known, but one fact is certain: Many fans will be watching the big game from the comfort of a La-Z-Boy recliner.
La-Z-Boy Inc. has come a long way since 1927, when cousins Edward M. Knabusch and Edwin J. Shoemaker partnered to invest in a furniture business in the small town of Monroe, MI. The two men set out to design a chair for what they called “nature’s way of relaxing.” Using orange crates to mock-up and refine their idea, they invented a wood-slat porch chair with a reclining mechanism. The seat moved forward as the back reclined. Within a year, the cousins were producing an upholstered version of the chair for indoor use.