While traveling on vacation in March of 1982, neighbors and friends Patricia R. Miller and Barbara Bradley Baekgaard were awaiting a flight in Atlanta when they noticed a lack of colorful, distinctive luggage.
These dynamic women turned $500 into a company named after Barbara’s mother to design, manufacture and market colorful, high-quality handbags, luggage and accessories for women.
Brand History
A Stitch in Time
Amid colorful fabrics and smart sketches spread out on a basement ping-pong table, a brilliant idea was born. A sisterhood of like-minded creative women quickly followed. Female-led ingenuity and the desire to make the world brighter remain at the company's heart today.
Vera Bradley Foundation for Breast Cancer
In 1993, amid the success of building the Vera Bradley brand, our cofounders suffered the loss of their longtime friend and colleague, Mary Sloan, to breast cancer. In response, Barb and Pat started a foundation that has to date raised over $40 million to fund life-saving research at the Vera Bradley Foundation Center for Breast Cancer Research at the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, Indiana.
