Vermont Teddy Bear Company
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Everyone knows the teddy bear was named after American president Theodore Roosevelt. But in 1981, John Sortino was shocked to find out that that American invention was made exclusively overseas. He started making his own teddy bears, selling them from a pushcart in Burlington in 1983.
From those humble beginnings, the cotton-stuffed empire of the Vermont Teddy Bear Company (6655 Shelburne Rd./Rte. 7, 802/985-3001, www.vermontteddybear.com, 9 a.m.–6 p.m. daily early June–Oct.; 9 a.m.–5 p.m. daily Nov.–May, $2 adults, children 12 and under free) was born. Now the company’s flagship store is always packed with groups touring the operation and picking out their own fabric and stuffing to make their own creation.
The factory and gift shop (if anything, bigger than the factory) retain enough home-grown charm to avoid seeming like a complete tourist trap.
© Michael Blanding and Alexandra Hall from Moon New England, 2nd Edition
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