Keds - Fashion Company Profile
Keds is the American canvas sneaker brand created in 1916 by U.S. Rubber - maker of the Champion, the first mass-marketed canvas-top shoe, and the brand that coined the word sneaker - owned since February 2023 by Designer Brands Inc., the parent of DSW.
Company Snapshot
- Status
- Operating - the canvas sneaker brand founded in 1916, owned and operated by Designer Brands since February 2023
- Type
- Brand of Designer Brands Inc. (NYSE: DBI), which acquired Keds from Wolverine Worldwide in February 2023
- Headquarters
- Waltham, Massachusetts, United States
- Founded
- 1916, by U.S. Rubber - the Champion was the first mass-marketed canvas-top sneaker
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Company Profile
Current styles are on the Keds website, linked above; the shop box covers Keds products sold through Amazon and eBay. Ownership has moved several times since the Champion's early decades: Stride Rite held the brand from 1979, Wolverine Worldwide acquired it in 2012, and Designer Brands acquired Keds - including PRO-Keds and the brand's e-commerce business - from Wolverine in February 2023. The earlier record - the Champion's named wearers, the PRO-Keds Royal and its 1970s NBA years, with the photograph - is kept in full on the history page.
The cultural record the filing keeps is a list of wearers and editors. The Champion was worn by Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe and Jackie O, and consistently celebrated by Vogue, Elle and Women's Wear Daily. Keds continues, the profile says, to attract fashion designers, stylists and top editors in the industry with its classic, authentic style, and a new generation has discovered the brand - helping to inspire a collective spirit of new American style, youthful optimism, collaboration and togetherness. The positioning is unusual for a shoe this simple: no performance claims, no technology story, just a classic silhouette that each generation of stylists rediscovers on its own terms.
Keds History
The earlier record for this company - its history, past brand line-ups, figures and photographs from the periods described - is kept on a separate page for historical reference.
Keds History & Historical Profile →Common Questions
Who owns Keds now?
Designer Brands Inc. (NYSE: DBI), the parent of DSW, which acquired Keds from Wolverine Worldwide in February 2023.
When was Keds founded, and what is the Champion?
Keds was founded in 1916 by U.S. Rubber. The Champion, the historical record canvas shoe with a soft rubber sole, was the first mass-marketed canvas-top sneaker - the shoe that gave sneakers their name.
What is PRO-Keds?
The brand's sporting line, acquired with Keds by Designer Brands in 2023; its classic Royal, in canvas high and low tops with a red and blue power stripe, was worn by numerous NBA stars in the 1970s.
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