Famous Footwear

Famous Footwear

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Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Retailing
Founded	Madison, Wisconsin (1960)
Founder	Neil Moldenhauer
Headquarters	St. Louis, Missouri, US
Number of locations	1,109 (January 2011)
Products	Footwear
Parent	Caleres (1980–present)
Website	famousfootwear.com

Famous Footwear is a nationwide chain of retail stores in the United States dealing in branded footwear, generally at prices discounted from manufacturer's suggested prices. Established in 1960 as a single store, "Famous" is regarded as both a forerunner and champion of the trend towards the establishment of discount shopping malls in America. The chain is currently a division of the St. Louis-based Brown Shoe Company and maintains over 1,125 storefronts in 2010.

Today's Famous Footwear began in 1960 with the establishment of a single shoe store, Neil's Factory Shoe Outlet (launched as "Neil's Shoes"), in Madison, Wisconsin. The store was launched by 29-year-old Neil Moldenhauer and was financed by a $10,000 loan.

In 1963, Neil's Factory Shoe Store hired a college student named Brian Cook as a stock boy, a man who would rise up the company ladder to become President of Famous Footwear in 1979. Nearly half a century later Cook recalled:

"We were one of the first factory outlets in the Midwest.... The store bought all closeouts and was primarily a women's store. The market had never seen anything like that... Most of the stores that shoppers went to were mom-and-pop stores, department stores were all very expensive, not at all like they are today. The market was wide open for big, open formats selling discount product. As a result, we started a rapid store expansion program. We ended up putting a lot of little stores out of business....

The name "Famous Footwear" was launched in 1964 when Moldenhauer opened a second store in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. By the end of the decade of the 1960s, eight Famous Footwear and Neil's Factory Shoe Outlet stores were in operation, with combined annual revenues approaching the $1 million mark.