Keds (shoes)
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| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Sportswear and Sports Goods |
| Founded | 1916 |
| Headquarters | Lexington, Massachusetts, United States |
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Areas served
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Worldwide |
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Key people
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Chris Lindner, President Blake Kruger, CEO of Wolverine World Wide |
| Products | Footwear |
| Parent | Wolverine World Wide |
| Website | www |
Keds is an American brand of canvas shoes with rubber soles. Founded in 1916, the company is owned by Wolverine World Wide. The original shoe design, the Champion, was the first mass-marketed canvas-top "sneaker."
In 1916, U.S. Rubber, one of the original 12 stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average in 1896, consolidated 30 different shoe brand names to create one company. Initially, the brand name "Peds" was chosen for the company from the Latin word for feet, but the name was already trademarked. Keds was founded in 1916 and was later acquired by Stride Rite Corporation. Because the shoes had a soft rubber sole, they became known as sneakers as the rubber soles allowed "sneaking around silently". By the early 1920s, the shoes were worn by Olympic soccer players, national and international tennis champions, and college athletes. In 1926, the Keds Triumph shoe was introduced.
Keds released "Kedettes", a line of washable high-heeled shoes for women, in 1938. In 1949, Pro-Keds were introduced as a line of sneakers designed for athletic performance. Designed specifically for basketball players, the original style, the Royal Tread, was endorsed by George Mikan. In 1953, the Minneapolis Lakers were outfitted with Pro-Keds. Pro-Keds were intended to compete with the industry standard, Converse. Pro-Keds were worn by NBA stars including Willis Reed, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Nate "Tiny" Archibald, JoJo White, Bob Love, Lou Hudson, Bob Lanier and "Pistol" Pete Maravich, as well as music icons, The Ramones. The shoe earned cult status in the hip-hop community by the late 1970s.
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Wikipedia