A lot of tool catalogs cross my desk, and there's none I enjoy reading more than that of the Duluth Trading Co., a Wisconsin-based work-gear company that epitomizes the notion of "Yankee ingenuity." DTC started in 1989 with two tradesman brothers noticing a common jobsite phenomenon: Workers hauling empty 5-gallon buckets, of the sort that paint and joint compound comes in, to haul tools. Workers would "hack" these buckets to conform to their hauling needs, kitting them out with wire and bungee cord to hold a variety of tools.

Soon the brothers had developed the Bucket Boss, a canvas tool organizer that fit a standard 5-gallon bucket.

Shortly thereafter they released an eight-page catalog of tool storage and organizing products they'd developed, and by 1991 they turned a refurbished dredging barge on Lake Superior into their floating headquarters.

In 2002 Duluth developed their breakout hit, a simple innovation that essentially added three inches to the back of a T-shirt. Their Longtail T was advertised as "the cure for Plumber's Butt:"

Now guys who bend over when they work have new respectability with clients and no longer frighten unsuspecting passersby.

The pop-up ass-crack was a prevalent problem that other companies perhaps thought too scatological to address, but Duluth took it on and was rewarded.

Nine years later Duluth has expanded into women's gear, opened a 140,000 square foot distribution center, and developed a line of innovative products we'll look at next.