1892 1892 headquarters glendale wisconsin united states parent weyco group website florsheim shoes florsheim shoes is a shoe brand in the united states . contents 1 history 2 notable people 3 references 4 external links history edit florsheim & co. was founded in 1892 by milton s. florsheim . he and his father sigmund florsheim made the first shoes in chicago . by the time of the great depression the company had 2 500 employees 5 factories 71 retail outlets 9 000 dealers and a network of regional wholesale distributors . 1 the company helped people who wanted to sell the shoes around the country so many small towns had stores selling florsheim . 1922 newspaper ad for florsheim shoes in portland oregon . eventually some cities had stores owned by and selling only florsheim . by 1930 florsheim was making women s shoes and had five chicago factories and 2500 employees with 71 stores partly or entirely company owned and 9000 stores around the united states selling florsheims . milton florsheim died and his son irving took over heading the company in 1936 . his other son harold became president in 1946 as the elder brother became chairman . in 1953 international shoe company the world s largest shoe maker bought florsheim for 21 million . three years later florsheim became a division but operated as a separate entity . during its first ten years florsheim was international shoe s most important unit doubling its sales and responsible for a quarter of the parent s sales and more than twice that fraction of earnings . florsheim had 70 percent of high quality men s shoes and succeeded when its parent company was struggling . florsheim eventually sold women s shoes through thayer mcneil stores also owned by international shoe by this time called interco . in the 1980s florsheim began selling athletic shoes and interco s shoe division became part of florsheim . in 1991 interco declared bankruptcy but kept florsheim until the company got out of the shoe business in 1994 . florsheim became a separate company and in 1996 changed its name to florsheim shoe group . 2 until the mid 1990s almost every mall in the united states had a florsheim store . however with the rise of such shoe stores as journeys and finish line inc. and the de emphasis of shoe stores in american malls most florsheim stores closed down by the early 2000s . this followed the fate of other companies such as kinney shoes and thom mcan . in 2002 the company was repurchased by members of the founding family . thomas w. florsheim jr. and john w. florsheim of weyco group based in glendale wisconsin repurchased the brand for 47 million from rival florsheim group according to the wall street journal . full citation needed notable people edit michael jackson would wear florsheim shoes to dance in . he wore the models como and como imperial and had leather heels installed . 3 4 references edit stodhill ron 2007 06 24 . the florsheims back in their own shoes . the new york times . retrieved 2015 06 16 . florsheim shoe group inc. company history . fundinguniverse.com . retrieved 2012 01 20 . jewels pearls and plain florsheim shoes for michael jackson . reuters . 12 october 2012 . retrieved 1 december 2012 . michael jackson signed loafers . retrieved 26 february 2013 . external links edit florsheim corporate site weyco group corporate site florsheim australia site florsheim family genealogy retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title florsheim shoes & oldid 735570329 categories shoe companies of the united statesshoe brandsamerican companies established in 1892manufacturing companies established in 18921892 establishments in illinoisglendale wisconsincompanies based in wisconsinhidden categories articles needing more detailed references navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 21 august 2016 at 17 14 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view