Caleres History

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The Company Description of Its Time

Caleres is filed under a name the company explains itself: their name comes from the Latin word calere - meaning to glow with passion or intensity - and the word speaks to a culture that has propelled the company through 137 years of success, in the profile's own count. Caleres was formerly known as the Brown Shoe Company, whose own filing sits in the B letter of this directory; this page is the same corporate story continued under the newer name, and the two filings are cross-linked below so a reader arriving under either name finds both records.

Family, Healthy Living and Contemporary Fashion

Famous Footwear and Famous.com serve as the Family brands - the value family shoe-store chain most shoppers meet first. The Contemporary Fashion brands include Sam Edelman, Franco Sarto, Vince, Via Spiga, Diane von Furstenberg, Fergie Footwear and Carlos Santana. Naturalizer, Dr. Scholl's, LifeStride, Bzees and Ryka represent the Healthy Living brands. Each group's own site is in the References below, because a portfolio company's profile is most useful as a map: it tells you which nameplate answers which need, and where each one lives.

In 2017 Caleres acquired Allen Edmonds, and the acquired maker(?:'|')s own standard belongs with the news: Allen Edmonds still maintains its traditional 212-step manufacturing process, the basis for handcrafting its Goodyear welted shoes since 1922. Combined, these brands make Caleres a company with both a legacy and a mission - the legacy being more than 130 years of craftsmanship, a passion for fit and business savvy, and the mission to continue to inspire people to feel good, feet first. That feet-first line is the company's own summary of the Healthy Living idea, and it is kept as recorded.

Naturalizer and the 1927 Idea

The longest single story belongs to Naturalizer. In 1927, during a decade of tremendous cultural shifts and progressive thinking, the company launched a women's footwear line with the radical idea of combining current fashion with comfort features. Naturalizer became one of the first shoe brands women could turn to for feminine style they coveted and comfort they thought impossible to attain. Set that launch against its moment: the recent suffrage movement had given women new-found freedoms, hemlines became shorter and shoes became the focus of fashion, and Naturalizer symbolised what modern women had achieved.

The brand's present-tense promise, as recorded, is to honour that original promise - feminine, stylish, comfortable shoes delivered in a manner relevant to the busy lifestyle of today's woman. The Apparel Search fashion blog(?:'|')s article on Naturalizer at Work shoes is linked from this page. For current ranges, prices and store details, the brand sites in the References are the authority; this page keeps the portfolio map and the two dated stories - 1927 and 2017 - that explain how the modern Caleres was assembled.

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