Who Owns Hobby Lobby?

David Green started the business in 1970 in Oklahoma City, using a $600 loan to produce miniature wooden picture frames in his garage while managing a local variety store. The frames sold well enough that he opened the first Hobby Lobby retail store in 1972.

The company expanded through Oklahoma and surrounding states in the 1980s, developing its signature large-format stores carrying an exceptionally broad mix of crafts, fabrics, home décor, and hobbies merchandise. From early on, the Green family's Christian faith defined operations, most visibly through the policy of closing every store on Sunday.

Growth accelerated sharply in the 1990s and 2000s as Hobby Lobby rolled out hundreds of stores nationwide, surpassing 1,000 locations in the 2020s to become the country's largest crafts retailer by store count. Its rotating discount strategy, anchored by the famous 40 percent-off coupon, drove strong customer traffic and loyalty.

The brand's public profile rose through two high-profile controversies: the 2014 Supreme Court victory in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, which allowed closely held companies religious exemptions from the ACA contraceptive mandate, and the 2017 settlement over illegally imported Iraqi antiquities destined for the Green family's Museum of the Bible.

Through the mid-2020s, Hobby Lobby continued aggressive store expansion and benefited directly from JOANN's 2025 bankruptcy and liquidation, which left it and Michaels as the two dominant national craft retailers.