Becoming an L.L.Bean Bootlegger

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[00:00:00.00] [MUSIC PLAYING]

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[00:00:00.00] People drive a giant boot truck.

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[00:00:02.00] Do you want me to take your photo with you in front of it?

[00:00:04.14] [LAUGHTER]

[00:00:05.24] Quite a bit. Hey. The whole family is waiting.

[00:00:09.26] How's this women's extra small look?

[00:00:10.92] Looks like we got some visitors. You never know who's going to come look at the Bootmobile.

[00:00:15.20] [CHUCKLING]

[00:00:16.66] [MUSIC PLAYING]

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[00:00:17.38] Text: A Day in the life of an L.L.Bean Bootmobile Driver.

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[00:00:20.56] So it's just past 9 o'clock. We're walking to the office today. Got a bunch of different stuff we have to do.

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[00:00:25.99] Tucker goes in.

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[00:00:27.60] Hello. Good morning.

[00:00:28.90] Good morning.

[00:00:29.46] Have a great one.

[00:00:30.26] Thank you, you too.

[00:00:31.02] So, one of my favorite parts when you walk in this building-- if you look to the right here, there's a whole timeline of the history of L.L.Bean, so. There we are-- the Bootmobile, 2012. So I've been driving the Bootmobile since 2019. When I'm not driving the Bootmobile, I'm usually mountain biking or I'm fishing. We have this site called Sponsorium-- I'll log into it right now.

[00:00:50.32] We get all sorts of requests from Touch a Truck events to people's weddings. You never know what you're going to get. They want the Bootmobile to be placed just below this 13-foot drop, so when the mountain bikers come off the ramp--

[00:01:05.57] Dude, they're probably going to get distracted and look down at, like. We gotta go install some hearts on the side of the boot for the Hearts of Pine shoot.

[00:01:13.11] We're going to put hearts all over the Bootmobile.

[00:01:15.45] So we just came out of the headquarters building, and we are heading to the Double L building. So this is where we have our brand engagement space. So we'll do events up at ski mountains, and so we'll just hand these out, throw these out the Bootmobile. If you're not a pom hat person, you could have a beanie. We have bandannas, fanny packs, chapstick, insulated water bottles.

[00:01:33.95] So L.L.Bean sponsors Portland's first professional soccer team, the Maine Hearts of Pine. So we're going to be doing a photo shoot with the hearts of pine this afternoon, and we're going to try to make the Bootmobile look like a Hearts of Pine jersey.

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[00:01:47.14] They carry a sheet of heart decals.

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[00:01:49.25] Let's do it. I got the door for you.

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[00:01:50.79] The bootmobile is in a garage.

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[00:01:52.85] Here it is. This is the brand new one. It was built earlier this year. We've already put 13,000 miles on it. They wanted to make it look as identical as they could to an 8-inch bead boost, so they actually 3D printed these all to scale. So the detail is incredible. So we do like, four maybe. See how those look spaced out, and then.

[00:02:09.06] I think we'll find once we're up here.

[00:02:11.74] Yeah.

[00:02:12.34] How often is the Bootmobile breaking or having problems?

[00:02:16.82] Depends which one it is.

[00:02:18.20] [LAUGHTER]

[00:02:20.54] I think--

[00:02:21.06] [MUSIC PLAYING]

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[00:02:22.43] They apply the heart decals.

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[00:02:25.89] Get some more hearts.

[00:02:28.78] --be able to do it, one, two, three.

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[00:02:31.49] They use a ladder to reach.

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[00:02:34.94] When we pull this thing into events, or we come into a new town, what people really want to do is they just want to come up and touch it.

[00:02:40.80] [MUSIC PLAYING]

[00:02:43.06] If this was a real shoe, it'd be a size 708. All right.

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[00:02:49.87] The bootmobile backs out of the garage.

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[00:02:54.86] Check out this little pen. There goes the Bootmobile. I was thinking about just putting a piece of tape right in the middle. That'll get us up there.

[00:03:02.09] That'll get us up there.

[00:03:03.01] Yeah.

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[00:03:04.03] Tucker loads things into the boot.

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[00:03:06.43] I have my little skateboard-- my little penny board. This thing is so fun. Sometimes when we're traveling, I'll just take that thing through town. Rip around, go grab a snack with it. I got a degree in communications and a little bit of graphic design experience, too. But I did not think I was going to be driving a Bootmobile after college, but, here I am.

[00:03:23.93] [DOOR WHIRRING, CLICKING]

[00:03:25.95] Yeah, so it's a little after 12:00. We're back in HQ right now, we're going to go to the Beanery and have some lunch.

[00:03:31.05] [CHATTER]

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[00:03:31.77] Employees eat in a cafeteria.

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[00:03:34.15] Let's see what it is today. All right. So I always got to stop here. This is the kale salad.

[00:03:39.61] [ENGINE STARTING, RUMBLING]

[00:03:42.87] Oh man, it's hot in here. Woo.

[00:03:45.75] What's this little quest?

[00:03:47.13] Running up to the monogram department to see if our bags are ready for this weekend. We're going to a wedding this weekend, and the couple gets a custom monogrammed boat and tote. We go to all sorts of different things-- festivals, we've been to sports games, we've been to Red Sox games. Hello.

[00:04:02.16] [LAUGHTER]

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[00:04:03.66] Pedestrians wave.

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[00:04:05.16] --front of us.

[00:04:07.24] These people are filming us. I'll flash them real quick. It's not terribly hard to drive, you just have to watch your height clearance. Because we're almost feet tall, so you got to watch low power lines, and you can't really go through any drive-throughs, or anything like that.

[00:04:22.50] No drive-throughs?

[00:04:23.34] No drive-throughs. Yeah, no Mickey D's in the Bootmobile. When we go on road trips, we have to follow a special trucking GPS that'll take us on a semi-truck route. Hey, Carl. How's it going? Hey, we're filming a day in the life of the Bootmobile driver.

[00:04:35.14] Beautiful.

[00:04:35.56] You might be famous here. We're going to go try to pick up some monogram orders.

[00:04:38.94] Beautiful.

[00:04:39.32] This is a dangerous place. I usually always buy some fishing lures when I'm in here, but on the clock, I got to stay focused. This is behind the scenes. This is the ops section back here. How's it going, Deb? Nice to see you. There we go.

[00:04:53.03] [BEEPING, CLICKING]

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[00:04:55.05] Tucker walks through a warehouse.

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[00:04:58.13] This is one of my favorite walls in here. This is all the hunt and fish employees with their catches. Oh, excuse us.

[00:05:04.45] Saturday.

[00:05:05.17] 25. That's it. So here are the bags. They came out pretty good. Look at that. Nice little wedding gift.

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[00:05:12.89] He returns to the bootmobile.

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[00:05:14.77] Yeah, this is the old one. But this one traveled all across the country for years and years and years. I think it had like 240,000 miles on it before we had to retire it.

[00:05:23.03] You guys need a photo at all? Do you?

[00:05:26.07] Is this--

[00:05:26.89] Awesome. Are they lasting a long time?

[00:05:28.43] Forever.

[00:05:29.09] That's good. That's good to hear.

[00:05:30.59] [ENGINE STARTING, RUMBLING]

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[00:05:33.42] A woman approaches.

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[00:05:36.17] Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, you got to have a photo with the Bootmobile. All right. What's your dog's name? That's a big dog.

[00:05:43.79] [LAUGHTER]

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[00:05:45.07] The couple poses for a photo with their dog.

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[00:05:48.29] I think one thing that surprised me is the amount of travel. It's great to have this thing on the road, but we are on the road for a couple months out of the year. Yeah, the travel is-- it's quite a bit. Hey, we got some-- we got some honks over there.

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[00:06:00.87] More pedestrians wave.

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[00:06:02.94] Hello.

[00:06:04.46] The other thing you have to be careful with when you drive the Bootmobile is just the amount of distractions. You always have people honking and looking over at you, and filming you. And the same goes for other drivers on the road. You have to really be a defensive driver. There's been a number of instances where people have been filming in their car. Next thing you know, they're nearly hitting us. So you got to be pretty careful when you drive this thing around.

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[00:06:26.63] In a parking lot, he pours gasoline from a can into the bootmobile.

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[00:06:33.42] Looks like we got some visitors. How's it going?

[00:06:36.46] Hey.

[00:06:36.78] Yeah, come check it out. This is the Bootmobile right here.

[00:06:39.26] We were following you into town in that thing.

[00:06:40.86] Come check it out. This is the newest Bootmobile we've built. You guys get right in there. I'll get a good one. Awesome. Thank you guys for coming in.

[00:06:48.26] Thank you very much.

[00:06:48.68] Awesome

[00:06:49.02] Appreciate you.

[00:06:49.52] Nice to meet you guys. All right. You never know who's going to come look at the Bootmobile.

[00:06:53.29] [CLICKING, JINGLING]

[00:06:57.43] All right.

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[00:06:58.60] 5:07pm.

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[00:07:00.07] So this is going to be fun. We're going to shoot some promo content for the Hearts of Pine, and figure out how to hang this flag off the back of the Bootmobile and have it not fly off into the ocean.

[00:07:10.17] [MUSIC PLAYING]

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[00:07:11.64] He drives across a bridge. In a parking lot, they use a ladder to hang a flag.

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[00:07:20.67] I think up there it would catch wind better, and.

[00:07:24.67] Yeah. All right, well, let's try it.

[00:07:26.13] If they're trying to if they're trying to get a shot. So we just got the hearts of pine flag hung on the back of the Bootmobile. We got the hearts on. So we're ready for the shoot. So this is some of the marketing team for Maine Hearts of Pine so they're organizing the photo shoot. They just gave me this sweet jersey I'm putting on.

[00:07:42.41] If you want to lean into your deepest Mainer-- up the Hearts!

[00:07:47.21] They're going to have me yell "Up the Hearts," but I gotta do it in my best Maine accent. "Up the Hearts."

[00:07:52.52] [SNICKERING]

[00:07:54.06] [ENGINE RUMBLING]

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[00:07:54.12] The bootmobile drives on.

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[00:07:59.16] This is a first for the Bootmobile. I don't think we've ever been out to Littlejohn Island. I'm going to blinker up here, see what they want to do. Yeah, this is nice, isn't it?

[00:08:09.00] I just want to see--

[00:08:10.12] [DRONE BUZZING, ENGINE RUMBLING]

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[00:08:10.18] A drone flies up. A moose mascot walks up with a flag.

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[00:08:14.24] [CHUCKLING, HORN BEEPING]

[00:08:17.60] Up the Hearts!

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[00:08:19.66] The moose chases the bootmobile.

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[00:08:21.96] Can't make this up.

[00:08:23.10] [ENGINE RUMBLING]

[00:08:25.84] How's this women's extra small look on me?

[00:08:27.68] All right, can I just show you?

[00:08:28.42] Yeah.

[00:08:28.64] [ENGINE RUMBLING]

[00:08:30.80] So that's what it's going to look like on the--

[00:08:32.54] [ENGINE RUMBLING]

[00:08:35.24] Things you don't run by every day.

[00:08:36.98] Boot and a moose with hearts all over it. They had to look back.

[00:08:40.62] They said straight up rain tonight if we're getting lucky.

[00:08:43.18] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:08:45.00] Yeah.

[00:08:45.42] OK Pat, can you come a little bit-- yep.

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[00:08:48.89] The moose stands on the back of the boot.

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[00:08:51.65] I've got someone coming in.

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[00:08:53.73] 7:31pm

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[00:08:55.93] I'm feeling good. I'm ready for a nice little meal. I think they got all the content that they needed, and now we're heading back to headquarters.

[00:09:03.13] What makes the Bootmobile special? Well, it's just an incredible marketing tool, and it just puts a smile on almost every face that sees it. I think, after watching all the stuff we did today, I think people are-- I think people think of Bootmobile driver as just going to events, but it's all sorts of stuff. There is a lot of-- yeah, a lot of behind the scenes work that people don't realize.

[00:09:22.07] [MUSIC PLAYING]

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[00:09:22.64] The sun reflects on the water's surface as he drives across the bridge.

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[00:09:26.25] My name is Tucker Van Dusen. My role is experiential marketing specialist, but I just tell people I drive the Bootmobile.

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[00:09:33.92] Text: Tucker is still driving the Bootmobile all over the USA. He dreams of packing it with his fly rods and driving to Nova Scotia someday. L.L. Bean. Be an outsider.