Brown Shoe Company, Inc. (NYSE: BWS)(www.brownshoe.com)
and Marvel Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: MVL), a global character-based
entertainment licensing company celebrating the 70th anniversary of its
founding in 1939, have entered into a new license agreement to bring
characters from Marvel's upcoming slate of feature films to kids, men
and women through several footwear collections.
As Marvel's footwear partner for these new collections, Brown Shoe will
design, produce and market lines of athletics, casual shoes, sport
sandals, beach and EVA sandals, seasonal boots and slippers featuring
popular characters from Marvel's upcoming movie pipeline.
"Marvel's rich world of Super Heroes and Super Villains, action and
adventure has been part of people's lives for decades. Through this
footwear partnership, we can give fans even greater access to the
characters they love," said Brown Shoe Wholesale President Gary Rich.
The first collections will debut at retail in Spring 2010 in toddler,
youth and young adult sizes and will include footwear based on Marvel's
self-produced Iron Man 2 (scheduled release date May 7, 2010). Future
collections will include merchandise featuring characters from other
major event films, including the Marvel produced Thor (scheduled release
date May 20, 2011), The First Avenger: Captain America (expected release
date July 22, 2011) and The Avengers (expected release date May 4, 2012.)
"We are excited to enter into a strategic licensing agreement with Brown
Shoe for a collection of footwear around these major event films," said
Paul Gitter, President of Consumer Products for North America, Marvel
Entertainment. "This agreement bolsters our overall strategy to expand
the presence of the Marvel brand and our popular Super Hero franchises
into key distribution channels. Increasing our presence in the footwear
category will help fuel continued awareness for the Marvel brand and
will further maximize the retail exposure for these phenomenal film
properties."
Brown Shoe will debut the footwear for retailers beginning in June, and
the shoes are slated to be in stores for Spring 2010.
About Marvel Entertainment
Marvel Entertainment, Inc. is one of the world's most prominent
character-based entertainment companies, built on a proven library of
over 5,000 characters featured in a variety of media over seventy years.
Marvel utilizes its character franchises in licensing, entertainment
(via Marvel Studios and Marvel Animation) and publishing (via Marvel
Comics). Marvel's strategy is to leverage its franchises in a growing
array of opportunities around the world, including feature films,
consumer products, toys, video games, animated television, direct-to-DVD
and online. For more information visit www.marvel.com.
About Brown Shoe
Brown Shoe is a $2.3 billion footwear company with global operations.
Brown Shoe's Retail division operates Famous Footwear, the more than
1,100-store chain that sells brand name shoes for the family,
approximately 300 specialty retail stores in the U.S., Canada, and China
primarily under the Naturalizer brand name, and footwear e-tailer
Shoes.com. Through its Wholesale divisions, Brown Shoe markets leading
footwear brands including Naturalizer, Dr. Scholl's, Franco Sarto,
LifeStride, Etienne Aigner, Via Spiga, and Sam Edelman. Brown Shoe press
releases are available on the Company's website at http://www.brownshoe.com.
/Web Site: http://www.brownshoe.com
http://www.marvel.com
