Our Mission

Best Unique Unexpected

At Hammacher Schlemmer, we’ve been known by generations for our extraordinary products as much as our unusual name. We travel the globe in search of innovative products that solve problems in new and unique ways or discover remarkable items you may not even know existed. But for every item accepted into our product selection, dozens more are rejected because they fail to meet our uncompromising standards of quality.

Our story began over 175 years ago in the Bowery district of New York. Our hardware store became famous for stocking hard-to-find tools of the highest quality, along with exceptional customer service. As we grew over the ensuing decades, we began offering more refined items for the home, as well as innovative electric appliances. We introduced consumers to items that were at first considered novelties, but eventually became a standard part of every household, such as the pop-up toaster, the microwave oven, and the telephone answering machine.

Hammacher Schlemmer’s reputation for the extraordinary is so well known that our products have been featured in Hollywood movies, a Broadway musical, the cartoons of The New Yorker, and even a TV quiz show.

Today we continue to amaze (and sometimes amuse) those seeking “the Best, the Only, and the Unexpected” with our singularly curated collection that includes classics such as our Turkish cotton robes and protective pet covers to exotic curiosities such as a golf cart hovercraft, a jewel-encrusted silver coin replica of the Queen Mother’s crown, and a life-size tyrannosaurus rex skeleton.

We stand behind our products with customer service perfected over generations of experience and a lifetime guarantee that is second to none. We believe this is why shoppers continue to look to us for new innovations and to solve their most challenging gift-giving needs.