For more than a century, Itasca-based manufacturing company Fellowes Brands has produced a staple of the American office — the Bankers Box. The sturdy cardboard boxes were widely adopted across the business and legal fields for their usefulness in storing documents. They also became fixtures in movies and TV shows, as characters leaving an office holding bankers boxes became symbolic of getting fired or laid off. Fellowes still produces the boxes, which lost popularity when record-keeping largely moved online. But in the 1980s, the company expanded to manufacture new office products like paper shredders and changed its name from the Bankers Box Company. The company continues to evolve. Fellowes, a private, family-run company that ranks No. 45 among midsize employers on the Tribune’s Top Workplaces list, as measured by consultancy Energage in Exton, Pennsylvania, sells a variety of products that help revitalize office spaces even as in-person work has declined in recent years. Many of Fellowes products are designed to improve the “wellness of the workspace,” said Mitch Rydholm, director of training. That’s crucial for Fellowes as the company itself transitions to more in-office work. The company, which went fully remote during the COVID-19 pandemic, has increased the time its employees are required to spend in the office from three to four days a week. “I think a lot of them prefer that, ” Rydholm said. “Because you and I can speak together, right? We get so much more done in less periods of time.” Fellowes, which sells office furniture and supplies, took an initial hit when most workplaces went remote. But sales of some products actually increased during COVID. “We manufacture moving boxes with the same technology, same tools, same equipment (as the bankers boxes),” Rydholm said. “Everybody moved during the pandemic, so our sales just exploded during that time.” Sales of Fellowes’ air filters also spiked, particularly its commercial High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters designed to capture harmful, microscopic air particles. Jillian Williams, showroom and event coordinator at Fellowes, works at a standing desk designed by the company. (Addison Annis/for the Chicago Tribune)A newly renovated dining room space at the Fellowes office in Fulton Market. (Addison Annis/for the Chicago Tribune)Products on display at the Fellowes office. (Addison Annis/for the Chicago Tribune)Seating in the Fellowes office in Fulton Market. (Addison Annis/for the Chicago Tribune)Renovated dining room space at the Fellowes office. (Addison Annis/for the Chicago Tribune)Office space inside of the the Fellowes office building in Chicago's Fulton Market. (Addison Annis/for the Chicago Tribune)Seating in the Fellowes office in Fulton Market. (Addison Annis/for the Chicago Tribune)Show Caption1 of 7Jillian Williams, showroom and event coordinator at Fellowes, works at a standing desk designed by the company. (Addison Annis/for the Chicago Tribune)Expand Though the company released its first version of air purifiers in 2008, Rydholm said companies increasingly realized the importance of air quality because of the pandemic. Many of Fellowes’ filters include monitoring systems that measure air quality on an online dashboard. “The systems tell us at any time how our air quality is within our space, down to actual rooms. We also can check across the world,” Rydholm said. “For an international company, that would be very helpful — you can pick out where you’re having issues.” Fellowes is also employing new technology to keep workers healthy. Earlier this year, Fellowes started manufacturing far-ultraviolet light machines. A study by Columbia University’s medical school found these machines could be effective in reducing the transmission of airborne diseases like COVID-19. All of this technology can help companies clean up their air and meet higher air-quality standards, Rydholm said, which is particularly useful in case of a future pandemic. Fellowes also sells ergonomic office furniture such as computer monitor arms that can hold between one and six screens. The height and distance of these monitor arms can be easily adjusted to “custom fit a workspace” for individual employees, Rydholm said. Fellowes produces desks that can be easily converted between sitting and standing positions. Working at a standing desk offers numerous health benefits. “These [products] are critical, frankly, to any workspace if you’re sitting for a very long period of time,” Rydholm said. Many Fellowes employees work out of its headquarters in Itasca. But the company wanted to build a new space to showcase its newest furniture and technology. In June 2023, it opened a 12,000-square-foot Design & Experience Center in Fulton Market. Jami Bruno, a marketing manager who oversaw the space’s design, described it as a “working showroom.” It features a rounded bar, plenty of open seating and a balcony overlooking the city. The large entertainment space is useful for employee training and events, she said. “We wanted to make it a place where people would want to stay, not just come in and see the products,” Bruno said. “Our employees come in and out to work.” Fellowes gives weekly showroom tours to clients who come from across the country and the world. Throughout the space, clients see firsthand what an office fully outfitted with Fellowes products looks like. The showroom also has a new virtual experience called PORTRAY. Using video game technology, clients can customize and project an office space on a 27-foot display screen. PORTRAY helps clients make design decisions that can be stressful, Bruno said. “(Using the virtual system), the person making the decision has confidence — yes, this is going to look amazing,” she said. Revitalizing offices could be helpful in attracting employees to work in-person, Rydholm said. “Obviously, a lot of organizations want to get more people back to work where they were,” he said. Jenny Hellwig is a freelance writer.