Footwear

River Forest, Ill. — Richard Spinell, principal of Mid-America Asset Management Inc., announced that the firm recently secured three leases at River Forest Town Center in River Forest, Illinois, a western suburb of Chicago.

Massage Envy, Accelerated Rehabilitation, and Native Foods signed leases at River Forest Town Center. Massage Envy signed on for 3,946 sq. ft. and Accelerated Rehabilitation signed for 3,077 sq. ft. Both tenants are taking half of the former Talbot’s space.

Footwear maker Crocs is undergoing a major restructuring that includes closing stores and job cutbacks.

The plan comes on the heels of the company's disappointing second-quarter earnings results. Earlier this month, Crocs reported that second-quarter profit fell 44% to $19.7 million.

Timberland has elevated Stewart Whitney to brand president, effective Oct. 5. Whitney, who has led Timberland’s growth in the Asia Pacific region since 2008, will report to Patrik Frisk, who has held the position since the brand’s 2011 acquisition by VF Corporation and was promoted to coalition president, Outdoor Americas for VF, in April.

New York -- Footwear maker Crocs Inc., best known for its colorful plastic clogs, announced a major restructuring that includes closing stores and job cutbacks.

The plan comes on the heels of the company's disappointing second-quarter earnings results. Earlier this month, Crocs reported that second-quarter profit fell 44% to $19.7 million.

Dodgeville, Wis. - Lands' End Kids is running a promotion involving digital pop-up stores in partnership with The Bakery by blogging site PopSugar. Seven style influencers and popular PopSugar Select mom bloggers will curate a collection of "First-day Faves" with a new digital pop-up shop launching each week on the Lands’ End e-commerce site.

Model, actress and television presenter Kelly Brook has signed on with Skechers to appear globally in the footwear company’s multiplatform marketing and social media campaigns through 2015.

"It doesn’t get any bigger than Skechers when it comes to lifestyle footwear so I’m thrilled to be working with this amazing brand,” said Brook. “Skechers has brilliantly comfortable shoes in so many colors and looks. I love it and can’t wait to get started with this campaign!”

San Francisco -- Continuing its global growth, Gap Inc. on Monday announced that it will introduce the Gap brand to Slovenia and Austria through agreements with new and existing franchise partners. Magistrat International, a new partner, has been selected for the launch of Slovenia. Gottex, which currently manages the Gap franchise business in Israel and Hungary, will launch Austria.

Dublin, Calif. - Ross Stores opened 23 Ross Dress for Less stores and seven DD’s Discounts locations across 17 states in June and July. These new locations are part of the retailer's plans to add a total of approximately 75 Ross and 20 DD’s Discounts stores during 2014.

Ross believes that future growth opportunities include almost doubling its store count from its current 1,194 stores to 2,000 stores, and also growing DD’s Discounts from 144 stores to 500 stores.

Austin, Texas – Parents spend, on average, $659 on school-related costs throughout the year per family. According to a survey from digital coupon provider RetailMeNot, 67% of parents start their back-to-school shopping by the end of July, which is down slightly from 2013 (71%).

Ross Stores is in the process of opening 23 Ross Dress for Less and seven dd's Discounts stores across 17 different states. The new locations are part of the off-price retailer's plans to add a total of 75 Ross and 20 dd's Discounts stores during 2014.

"These latest openings reflect our ongoing expansion strategy to fill in our presence in existing markets while also increasing penetration in our newer Midwest region where we added another eight Ross locations in July,” said Jim Fassio, president and chief development officer.