Famous Footwear Goes International

Famous Footwear Goes International

Brown Shoe Company, Inc. (NYSE: BWS) (brownshoe.com) today announced it will be expanding its Famous Footwear retail chain outside of the United States. On August 1, Famous Footwear will open at Toronto Premium Outlets in Halton Hills, Ontario, joining 84 other designer and name brand retailers.

Famous Footwear is a leading, branded footwear retailer, with nearly 1,100 stores. Each year, more than 110 million consumers visit Famous Footwear and Famous.com as a one-stop-shopping destination for high quality, affordable styles for a family’s every occasion.

“This is a great opportunity for Famous Footwear to step into the growing Canadian retail market,” said Rick Ausick, division president, Famous Footwear. “Brown Shoe Company currently operates nearly 90 Naturalizer stores in Canada, so we’ve already developed a deep appreciation for the Canadian consumer and their shopping preferences.”

Current plans call for Famous Footwear to open more than 50 new stores in the U.S. next year. The retailer is also looking at additional expansion opportunities in Canada, for 2014.

About Brown Shoe Company

Brown Shoe Company is a $2.6 billion, global footwear company whose shoes are worn by people of all ages, from all walks of life. Our products are available virtually everywhere — in the nearly 1,300 Famous Footwear and Naturalizer retail stores we operate, in hundreds of major department and specialty stores, on 14 branded ecommerce sites, and on many additional third-party retail websites. Through our broad range of products, we serve three key market segments. Our Family brands — Famous Footwear, Famous.com, and shoes.com — are one-stop-shopping destinations for high quality, affordable styles for a family’s every occasion. Active people who want comfort, style and performance can look to our Healthy Living brands — Naturalizer, Dr. Scholl’s Shoes, LifeStride and Ryka. Our Contemporary Fashion brands — Via Spiga, Vince, Sam Edelman, Franco Sarto, Carlos Santana and Fergie Footwear — keep fashionistas in step with the latest trends. At Brown Shoe Company, we inspire people to feel good and live better… feet first!