retail industry supplies products aiding in the relief and prevention of back pain founded austin texas u.s. 1984 1984 headquarters la palma california u.s. number of locations 121 stores 2009 at 2009 03 01 area served united states canada products zero gravity recliners mattresses pillows office chairs massage chairs lumbar supports exercise balls inversion tables website relaxtheback.com relax the back is a chain of specialty retail stores with over 120 locations in the united states and canada specializing in back support products . relax the back at wayside commons in burlington massachusetts history edit the first relax the back store opened in austin texas in 1984 . in 1987 an entrepreneur named virginia rogers purchased the original store and packaged the business into a franchise format . 1 the first franchise was opened in san antonio in 1989 by coby dietrick a former professional basketball player with the san antonio spurs . 2 in 1996 having grown the chain to 59 stores rogers sold the company to a franchisee dairl johnson for 6 million . 1 johnson continued to develop the company s independent franchising model . 3 relax the back corporate offices are currently located in la palma california . as early as 1998 us news noted that the four major back related stores healthy back store better back store relax the back and joanne s bed & back shops had a combined business of 75 million . 4 references edit a b r. michelle breyer largest retail franchise devoted to back problems sold for 6 million . austin american statesman reprinted by knight ridder tribune business news september 7 1996 . via highbeam subscription required meena thiruvengadam former texas basketball star sells furniture business after franchise dispute . san antonio express news march 10 2005 . via highbeam subscription required neil cavuto interview with the relax the back ceo cavuto business report february 25 1998 . via highbeam subscription required . u.s. news & world report . u.s. news publishing corporation . 1998 . p. 194 . retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title relax the back & oldid 667725690 categories retail companies of the united statesergonomics companiescompanies based in californiaretail companies established in 1984american companies established in 19841984 establishments in texashidden categories subscription required using viapages containing links to subscription only content navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 20 june 2015 at 05 30 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view