Brown Shoe Takes Big Step in Canada

Brown Shoe Co. Inc. (St. Louis) has named Kenneth Gilbertson president of its Canadian subsidiary, Brown Shoe Canada.

With this move, the company combines the retail, wholesale and manufacturing components of its Canadian business, which primarily markets and sells the Naturalizer women's footwear brand.

Gilbertson, a 17-year veteran of the shoe manufacturer and retailer, was most recently president of Brown Shoe Canada – Wholesale, the company's wholesale and manufacturing operations. He will now oversee its retail chains, which include the 150-store Naturalizer, 16-store F.X. LaSalle and four-store Exalt chains. Naturalizer, in particular, is a strong women's shoe brand in Canada.

Brown Shoe is a $1.84 billion footwear company with worldwide operations. The company operates more than 900 Famous Footwear stores and 400 Naturalizer stores in the U.S. and Canada. It also owns such brands as Naturalizer, LifeStride, Connie and Buster Brown, and markets licensed brands including Dr. Scholl's and Carlos by Carlos Santana for adults, and Barbie, Star Wars, Spider-Man and Bob-the-Builder character footwear for children.

“We are extremely excited about the enterprise-wide synergies we believe this consolidation will create,” said coo David Schwartz.