In May 2002, Designs, Inc. acquired the Casual Male Big & Tall chain of stores at a bankruptcy auction.

At the time, Casual Male was the largest specialty retailer of men's clothing in the U.S. big and tall market.

[citation needed] That same year, Casual Male hired former champion boxer George Foreman to promote the chain and act as spokesman for new lines of clothing bearing his name.

[10] In 2010, the company opened its first DXL store in Schaumburg, Illinois offering customers an extensive assortment of products, ranging from value-oriented to luxury-oriented with an increased presence of name brands.

[citation needed] In 2011, based on the success of the DXL store format, the company launched the destinationxl.com ecommerce website, which has since been rebranded to dxl.com.