its a big week at the office for elaine benes the j peterman co said friday that it is going public on seinfeld elaine toiled as a copywriter for the mailorder catalog led by an eccentric adventurer played by john ohurley mr ohurleys flamboyant sitcom take was a riff on the reallife john peterman who founded his catalog company in the mid1980s to sell clothes inspired by the outdoors and by historical fashion trends the company filed for bankruptcy in 1999 but stayed alive after a default in 2019 a new parent company formed to buy the original j peterman cos assets setting the stage for a nowplanned ipo the date for which isnt yet set