Press Release from Brown Shoe Company, Inc.
ST. LOUIS and NEW YORK, June 2 -- 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.
