Collective Brands History
Earlier company descriptions, brand line-ups, store counts and photographs from the history of Collective Brands, kept for historical reference.
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The Company Description of Its Time
Collective Brands, Inc. is a producer of compelling lifestyle, fashion and performance brands for footwear and related accessories to consumers worldwide, operating a portfolio of brands and private brand labels through retail, wholesale, e-commerce, licensing and franchising. This page is the parent filing for a four-page family in this letter: the group itself, its licensing unit, Payless ShoeSource and Stride Rite each have their own profiles, cross-linked below, and each leads with its own unit's record so the siblings do not repeat one another. The group's own headline is its ending, kept at the top: Collective Brands was acquired by Wolverine Worldwide, in a consortium comprised of Wolverine Worldwide, Golden Gate Capital and Blum Capital Partners, announced in October 2012.
Three Companies Coming Together in 2007
Collective Brands is the result of three companies coming together in 2007, through Payless ShoeSource's acquisition of Collective Licensing International, a brand management and global licensing company, and the completion on August 17, 2007 of the acquisition of The Stride Rite Corporation, the leader in lifestyle and athletic branded footwear and high-quality children's footwear. Collectively - together - they became an expanded enterprise that ranks as the largest non-athletic footwear company in the Western Hemisphere and the largest footwear company in the Western Hemisphere based on retail stores. The name was chosen to communicate exactly that: three units and their combined expertise creating a stronger enterprise.
The three units had distinct missions. Payless ShoeSource: on a mission to democratize fashion and design in footwear and accessories through its nearly 4,600 store retail chain, with brands including Airwalk, American Eagle, Champion, Dexter, Tailwind, Disney, the Shaquille O'Neal-endorsed Dunkman, and designer collections Abaete for Payless, Lela Rose for Payless and alice + olivia for Payless. The Stride Rite Corporation: premium lifestyle and athletic branded footwear and high-quality children's footwear, through wholesaling and more than 300 Stride Rite stores, with Stride Rite, Keds, Sperry Top-Sider, Tommy Hilfiger footwear, Saucony, Hind and Robeez. Collective Licensing International: brand management and global licensing of youth, lifestyle and fashion athletic brands including Airwalk, Vision Street Wear, Lamar, Sims, LTD, genetic, Dukes, Rage, Ultra-Wheels and Skate Attack. Children's brands are noted in product terms only, as throughout this directory.
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