Living Large: Products for the Obese

"I was on a plane going somewhere reading another article about obesity in the United States, and some line in there that caught my eye about this dotcom company called Supersize World," he said.

The company was selling seat belt extenders and other specialty products for larger Americans.

"I went back home, looked up their Web site and it was pretty unsophisticated and more medical looking," Levin said. But within a few weeks, Casual Male purchased the company for a mere $400,000.

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Levin and his team revamped the Web site, expanded the product offerings and started mailing a catalog to men in its database from the clothing stores.

"We found that the best way to present this was kind of as a cross between Martha Stewart and Sharper Image," Levin said. "It clicked from day one."

One of its biggest sellers has been a household scale.

Living XL offers several models specifically designed for larger people. First of all, its scales are designed to handle and register more weight. Then they have added features to let people know how much they weigh. Some people, Levin explained, are simply too large to see the scale. So Living XL offers talking scales, and scales with remote displays.

Then there are the seat belt extenders.

"A person has to ask for a seat belt extender. Well that's not the most pleasant thing to have to do," Levin said. "And if they don't have one or they've used them up, they won't let you on the airplane."

Now, he said, large travelers can just throw the seat belt extender in their briefcase or carry-on bag and not have to worry again.

The company also offers customers special products for oversize clothing. If you have a size 58 suit, Levin said, "you can't hang your suit on a regular hanger. It's going to hang over the edges." So the company makes special hangers.

"These are all little things that you, myself, we don't think about in our daily life," Levin said.

Howard Tubin, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets, said Living XL "offers a really unique and eclectic assortment of accessories and home goods." He said the product line includes a lot of things "that you would not think about" and that aren't widely available elsewhere.