Ypsilanti’s Michigan Ladder Company had a supporting role in lingerie retailer Victoria’s Secret latest campaign for a new strapless bra.

The nation’s largest lingerie retailer bought 2,000 wooden stepladders from the nation’s oldest ladder company this spring, using them in retail store displays for a new line of multi-way strapless bras. Tom Harrison, Michigan Ladder CEO, said he expects to sell another 2,000 ladders to Victoria’s Secret in the fall for another store display campaign. The Victoria’s Secret store in Briarwood Mall does not have the ladder window display.

A Victoria's Secret display at Water Tower Place in Chicago features Michigan Ladder Company's ladders.

Photo courtesy of Tom Harrison

The 109-year-old ladder company, located just outside of Depot Town in Ypsilanti, shipped the four-foot and six-foot southern yellow pine ladders to the Victoria’s Secret distribution center in Reynoldsburg, Ohio, in late March, said Harrison, who is in the process of buying the company. There are 1,000 Victoria's Secret lingerie stores in the U.S., mostly in shopping centers.

The ladders cost about $50 each, Harrison said. “But don’t ask me how they connect wooden ladders with strapless bras. I don’t know.”

A representative from Victoria's Secret declined to comment for this story.

While it was the first time Victoria’s Secret has used Michigan Ladder products in its displays, it follows other retailers who have incorporated the company’s ladders in their marketing, Harrison said, including department stores Nordstrom and Sears, Levi Strauss stores and the now-defunct Montgomery Ward stores. Ladders, Harrison said, can add flair. “It’s getting creative using an old economy product,” he said.

While 2,000 ladders are considered a large order, Michigan Ladder overwhelmingly sells for commercial and industrial use. They sell between 75,000 and 100,000 ladders a year, Harrison said. The company sells to New York City's fire department and other fire departments around the country as well as the military.

It’s not Michigan Ladder’s first brush with fame. It used to make the Detroiter ping pong table that appeared in the movie “Forrest Gump,” but has since sold that division, Harrison said. “The ping pong table in ‘Forrest Gump’ was made in Ypsilanti.”

Victoria’s Secret got its start after founder Roy Raymond felt uncomfortable shopping for lingerie for his wife in department stores. He opened his first Victoria’s Secret with wood-paneled walls and a comfortable environment for men.

Michigan Ladder manufacturers its line of wooden ladders in Ypsilanti, and still uses two of the original barns built in 1901. The company also sells fiberglass and aluminum ladders under the Michigan Ladder name, but they are contracted to other manufacturers using company specifications.