Walk-Over shoes is a historic shoe brand in the U.S. It was founded in 1874 by George Eldon Keith under the name George E. Keith Co. [1] [2] [3] He donated land to Brockton, Massachusetts and Keith Park was named for him. [4]
Shoemaking was a family business, though the brand gained recognition and popularity over the years, with George E. Keith (February 5, 1850 – December 8, 1920) opening a factory and expanding the business. [5] [3] In 1899, a store was established in London, and in 1902, a women's shoe line was introduced.
By 1920, Walk-Over had multiple production plants, factories, a distribution center in St. Louis, and stores in England and France. [5] It also had stores in various cities, including Detroit and Chicago, with the Detroit store located at 152 Woodward Avenue. [6] [7] [8] Walk-Overs were even sold by L.L. Bean when it operated as a shop. [9]
The shoes were made in the Campello section of Brockton, Massachusetts, [10] as well as Middleboro, Massachusetts. [11] In 1919, Keith gave a talk at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York City about Walk-Over's export business. [12] The company filed an unfair competition suit against a store selling shoes as Walk-Overs that were not from the company. [13]
Walk-Over also made shoes under contract for department stores. [14] Walk-Over released a postcard set of 24 famous Americans to advertise its shoes. [15]
Brockton is a city in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States; the population was 105,643 at the 2020 United States census. Along with Plymouth, it is one of the two county seats of Plymouth County. It is the sixth-largest city in Massachusetts and is sometimes referred to as the "City of Champions", due to the success of native boxers Rocky Marciano and Marvin Hagler, as well as its successful Brockton High School sports programs. Two villages within it are Montello and Campello, both of which have MBTA Commuter Rail Stations and post offices. Campello is the smallest neighborhood, but also the most populous. Brockton hosts a baseball team, the Brockton Rox. It is the second-windiest city in the United States, with an average wind speed of 14.3 mph (23.0 km/h).
Harold Alfond was an American businessman who founded the Dexter Shoe Company and established the first factory outlet store.
William Lewis Douglas was an American businessman and politician from Massachusetts. He served as the 42nd Governor of Massachusetts from 1905 until 1906. He also founded and oversaw the growth of the W. L. Douglas Shoe Company, a highly successful Brockton, Massachusetts, business that became one of the world's largest shoe manufacturers. He also opened the first nationwide chain of shoe stores devoted to selling the company's products.
Dorothy Harriet Camille Arnold was an American socialite and heiress who disappeared under mysterious circumstances in New York City in December 1910.
Roots Corporation is a publicly held Canadian brand that sells apparel, leather bags, small leather goods, footwear, athletic wear, and home furnishings. The company was founded in 1973 in Toronto, Ontario, by Michael Budman and Don Green. In 2015, Roots was sold to Searchlight Capital Partners LP, an American investment firm.
Shoemaking is the process of making footwear.
Shinola is an American lifestyle brand based in Detroit, Michigan. It produces and sells watches, bicycles, leather goods, clocks, home goods, and jewelry. Founded in 2011, Shinola takes its name from a common saying that harkens back to the defunct Shinola shoe polish company. The company was founded by Tom Kartsotis and is owned and operated by Texas-based investment group Bedrock Group LP.
Great Lakes Crossing Outlets, formerly Great Lakes Crossing, is a shopping mall in Auburn Hills, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, Michigan, United States. The site of the mall was originally to have been occupied by a different mall called Auburn Mills, which was never built due to financial issues of its intended developer, Western Development Corporation. Great Lakes Crossing was built on the site and opened in 1998. Constructed and owned by Taubman Centers, Great Lakes Crossing Outlets is the largest outlet mall in the state of Michigan. It features 185 stores, with anchor stores including Burlington, Bass Pro Shops, TJ Maxx, and Marshalls; other notable attractions include a 1,000-seat food court, a 25-screen AMC Star movie theater, Round1, Legoland Discovery Center, and Sea Life Michigan.
Florsheim Shoes is an American shoe brand. Founded in Chicago in 1892, it is now a subsidiary of Weyco Group, which is owned by members of the founding Florsheim family.
Thom McAn is an American brand of shoes and was formerly a retail chain. It is currently sold in Kmart and Sears stores. It consists of leather-dress, casual, and athletic shoes. Until the 1990s, Thom McAn had hundreds of retail stores in the US, and was one of the oldest and best-known shoe retailers in the country. As of late 2008, the brand was controlled by Sears Brands, LLC.
Johnston & Murphy is an American footwear and clothing company based in Nashville, Tennessee. Johnston & Murphy designs, sources, markets and distributes footwear, apparel, leather goods and luggage. A subsidiary of Genesco Inc., the Johnston & Murphy Group operates retail and wholesale businesses.
The Grover Shoe Factory disaster was an industrial explosion, building collapse and fire that killed 58 people and injured 150 when it leveled the R. B. Grover shoe factory in Brockton, Massachusetts on March 20, 1905. Following a boiler explosion, the four-story wooden building collapsed and the ruins burst into flames, incinerating workers trapped in the wreckage.
Barratts was a brand of high street shoe shops operating in the UK and Ireland. The Barratts shoes brand traded from 100 UK and Ireland stores.
Horween Leather Company is an American company specializing in the manufacturing and refining of leather and related products. It is one of the oldest continuously running tanneries in the United States of America. Since its founding in the early 20th century it has been located in Chicago.
Tandy Leather Factory, Inc. is an American specialty retailer and wholesale distributor of leather and leatherwork related products. It operates more than 100 stores worldwide. Originally part of the Tandy Corporation, Tandy Leather has gone through a series of acquisitions and mergers, eventually being sold to The Leather Factory in 2000. The Tandy Leather flagship store next to their corporate headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas also houses the Al and Ann Stohlman Leathercraft Museum.
Henry Bradford Endicott was the founder of the Endicott Johnson Corporation as well as the builder of the Endicott Estate, in Dedham, Massachusetts. During World War I he served in numerous public capacities, including as a labor strike negotiator and as director of the Massachusetts Committee on Public Safety.
Charles Andrew Whitney (November 14, 1834 – December 31, 1912) was an American businessman and industrialist in the late 19th century, born in Princeton, Massachusetts. He was part of the prominent American Whitney family. In 1859, Charles, his brother Levi L. Whitney, and Orville E. Thompson helped lead the large-scale manufacturing of leather boots and shoes in Chicago and were attributed with successfully running the first factory of its kind there. Whitney himself held patents for the manufacture of leather.
Hannahs is a New Zealand footwear retail company.
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