Brown Shoe embarks on brand building exercise

On the heels of an expectation exceeding first quarter performance, Brown Shoe Company’s new “Caleres” corporate identity takes effect following the company’s shareholders meeting on May 28, which begs the question, what’s a Caleres?

Famous Footwear parent company Brown Shoe announced a corporate rebranding in April in a move reminiscent of another footwear retailer’s rebranding effort 15 years earlier. The company’s choice of Caleres, a name that sounds like a new car model or figure from Greek mythology, is derived from the Latin word “calere.” Definitions vary, but Brown Shoe said calere loosely translates to “passionate, to glow,” and previously indicated it needed the new identity to affirm the company’s evolving position in the marketplace. When first announced the company said the new name would help focus the company on a renewed standard of excellence as it looks to best position its brand portfolio for accelerated growth and global expansion. How exactly changing the name of the company will cause people to buy more shoes is unclear and the company’s first quarter performance suggests it is already faring quite well. “First quarter exceeded our expectations virtually across the board – including sales, margin and earnings — despite a late start to spring and caution around potential west coast port delays,” said Diane Sullivan, CEO, president and chairman of Brown Shoe Company. “We’re pleased with our first quarter results, which were achieved thanks to strong sales from our brand portfolio and exceptional gross margin and operating margin gains at Famous Footwear combined with better than expected same-store-sales.” Sales increased 1.9% to $602 million and same store sales increased 3.1%. Net income increased 24.8% to $19.3 million, or 44 cents a share, compared to $15.4 million, or 35 cents a share, in the first quarter the prior year. “We reported a very strong first quarter, which included a relatively uneventful untangling of the west coast port situation,” said Brown Shoe CFO Ken Hannah. “With the strong sales and margin performance we saw in the first quarter, we feel comfortable raising our diluted EPS guidance range for 2015 to $1.84 to $1.94.” As the company adopts its new Caleres identity, it is worth remembering another retailer attempted a similar move 15 years earlier. In the late 90’s, when Woolworth was the parent company of Footlocker it changed its name to Venator. Several years later after learning the error of its ways the company abandoned the Venator name in favor of Footlocker, its largest division.