Boden (clothing)
Boden is a British clothing retailer founded by Johnnie Boden in 1991. It started as a mail-order business. In 2024 Boden reported annual sales of £363m, predominantly in the US, the UK and Germany, 1.8m customers and 862 employees. Although Boden sells its clothes online, the printed catalogue that first brought the brand to the attention of British families still plays a part in its marketing. Boden has a large international following. In 2024 the business made 45% of its sales in the US, its largest market.
History
After working as a stockbroker in the City of London and on Wall Street – a job he reportedly spent years "loathing" – Johnnie Boden decided to go out on his own. He identified a gap in the British market for an upmarket mail order clothing catalogue of the kind he'd seen during his time in New York. The brand’s launch catalogue in November 1991 was a hand-drawn affair conceived on the founder's kitchen table with just eight menswear products. Womenswear launched in 1992. The Mini Boden childrenswear range followed in 1996. Boden started selling clothes online in the UK in 1999 and then launched websites in the US, Germany, France and Australia. The business upgraded its websites in January 2025 and customers can shop from dedicated Boden websites in its UK, US and EU markets and through a number of large third-party retailers globally.In October 2025, Boden triggered backlash after it launched a campaign featuring models posing as fisherman holding dead salmon. Critics called the fashion shoot “irresponsible” at a time when salmon stocks in Britain’s rivers are at an all-time low.