In the early days, head office was the Tompkins' San Francisco apartment, and the back of their station wagon served as a showroom. Nevertheless the business grew fast. By the early 70s, the company was incorporated as 'Esprit de Corp.' and 7 product lines had been developed, each with its own label.

The new Millennium opened with Esprit asking: 'how much faster can we grow?' In the 2001 financial year, the company has achieved eight consecutive years of turnover and profit growth and controlled over 3 million square feet of retail space in Europe and the Asia Pacific.