Celebrating 10 Years of Conquest Maps: A Road Trip Down Memory Lane

Who are we?

We are Conquest Maps, and we are so excited to have you join us to celebrate our 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY!

In the last decade, we have traveled a long way and a lot has changed – but a lot has stayed the same, too.

Over time, we have grown into more than just a map company. We’re on a mission to provide the beautiful but functional products and helpful resources needed to help 1 million people travel more!

We are proud to say that 10 years later, our maps are in the homes of over 100,000 people. There’s still a long way to go, but we have learned that sometimes it’s about the journey, not the destination :)

We’re celebrating our journey today, so…

Let’s map it back to the beginning!

Like many great stories, ours began with two people falling in love.

When Ross Worden created his first ever push pin travel map to track his travels with his wife Kendeigh, he couldn’t have predicted that he was taking the very first step of an adventure that would pave the way for an entire industry.

Both avid travelers, they began looking for ways to commemorate their trips together when they returned home from their honeymoon in 2012. To their disappointment, push pin maps were nearly impossible to find, much less any that were worthy of showing off their special memories. So Ross decided to take matters into his own hands.

Thus, the first Conquest Map was born in early 2013!

This first map was an early iteration of our Rustic Vintage design, with a personalized legend that read, “Our Conquest.” Once Ross and Kendeigh began pinning their honeymoon destinations along with all the places they wanted to go together in the future, they couldn’t believe how inspired they felt to get out there and knock out their bucket list.

As time went on, Ross realized that having a beautiful visualization of their bucket list really was making an impact on their travels. They were setting out on more frequent trips, and were able to make travel a bigger priority in their lives than ever before.

Ross could tell he was really on to something here. Could it be that pinning your travels was the key to traveling more? He thought so.

Eager to share this revelation with other travelers, he used his background as an industrial designer to create the Golden Aged and Modern Slate designs, then began selling his creations on Etsy with the mission of helping 1 million people travel more.

It turned out that his maps were exactly what other travelers were searching for, too, and the Conquest Maps Etsy store took off before he knew it! At this point in 2014, Ross turned his basement and garage into Conquest Maps HQ. This was the brand’s first dedicated space!

But there was still room to grow. Within a couple years, Ross committed to selling maps exclusively. By late 2015, Conquest Maps launched its first Shopify store and by late 2016, it was apparent that the basement HQ wasn’t going to cut it anymore, so Ross moved the business into its first commercial space.

Are we there yet?

By this point, he had established Conquest Maps as the leader in the new push pin map industry and by 2018, our maps had made their way into the homes of over 10,000 people, hitting the first major milestone of our mission!

Becoming the leader in a growing industry hasn’t come without challenges, but our incredible team has proven to be resilient enough to handle anything. When the COVID-19 crisis hit in 2020, travel became nearly impossible.

But with all the uncertainty the world was facing, we knew people needed hope and inspiration more than ever and we were able to come out of 2020 stronger than before, even making it on the Inc 5000 list for the first time less than two years after the first lockdown.

Fast forward to present day and you will find a 13,000 square foot campus ran by a robust and talented team that is hard at work each day to create the personalized push pin maps that inspire our customers to achieve all of their wildest travel dreams!

So What Hasn’t Changed?

Since the beginning, there has been a crucial aspect of our brand that has remained constant – and that’s our people! The travelers, the dreamers, the creators, and the doers behind the map and our mission.

Our commitment to quality and customer service is paramount in everything we do, so we can be proud of every product that leaves our warehouse!

From the production workshop and shipping department to the marketing and customer service teams, we can’t say enough about how lucky we are to have each and every member of our team working together to fulfill our mission.

We put our company values behind every single thing we do, to ensure that our brand is doing its part to make the world a better place!