• MSNBC/AP, Thursday, May 31, 2007 10:30 AM

Casual Male Retail Group has launched "LivingXL," an online and print catalog it hopes will parlay the marketing know-how it has gleaned from its 500 Casual Male XL stores into the largely untapped market for specialty products for obese men and women.

The catalog features products such as a "Big John" toilet seat with a 1,200-pound capacity ($124.95) and a lawn chair that supports up to 800 pounds ($139.95).

LivingXL is the incarnation of www.SuperSizeWorld.com, a Vancouver, Wash.-based online store that Casual Male bought for $400,000 last October. The switch to a new name was in keeping with the company's re-branding of its stores last year from the old name: Casual Male Big & Tall to Casual Male XL. The move dropped the word "big" to eliminate a term often seen as a code word for "fat" in the euphemism-ridden world of retail branding.

Read the whole story at MSNBC/AP »