of wolverine world wide traded as nyse www industry footwear predecessor green shoe manufacturing company stride rite corporation payless shoesource founded 1919 founder jacob a. slosberg philip green headquarters lexington ma key people blake krueger ceo of wolverine world wide arnold hiatt former president jacob a. slosberg founder philip green founder products children s shoes parent wolverine world wide website striderite.com stride rite formerly the stride rite corporation and stylized as stride rite is a marketer of children s footwear in the united states and is a major marketer of athletic and casual footwear for children and adults . in addition to the stride rite brand the company is known for designing and manufacturing footwear for co brands from the wolverine world wide group under the following owned or licensed brands keds grasshoppers robeez saucony sperry top sider merrell hush puppies and jessica simpson kids . the company is a manufacturer and wholesaler of footwear selling in department stores independent shoe stores value retailers outlet stores and specialty stores . stride rite has company owned children s shoe stores that carry children s stride rite and other company owned children s brands . the company markets products in countries outside the united states and canada through independent distributors and licensees . contents 1 history 1.1 founding and early years 1.2 acquisitions and expansion 1.3 collective brands 1.4 wolverine world wide 2 stride rite stores 3 see also 4 references 5 external links history edit founding and early years edit stride rite was founded in boston massachusetts in 1919 as the green shoe manufacturing company green shoe by jacob a. slosberg and philip green . after founding the company green sold his interest to slosberg twelve years later and slosberg s sons samuel and charles lead up the company as the heads of sales and manufacturing respectively . green shoe became a public company in 1960 and was listed on the new york stock exchange . in 1966 green shoe adopted the stride rite corporation name to emphasize the brand name of one of its best known products . citation needed the name was purchased from another shoe manufacturer in 1933 . 1 in 1968 arnold hiatt the son of a lithuanian immigrant became president of the firm and sales were 35 million . 2 hiatt pursued a policy of acquisitions to keep the firm in tune with consumer preferences . 2 acquisitions and expansion edit stride rite s first retail store was opened in 1972 . the sperry top sider and keds brand names were purchased from uniroyal in 1979 . stride rite purchased toddler university in 1994 . 3 during 2005 stride rite completed its acquisition of saucony and in 2006 stride rite purchased robeez . 4 hiatt was instrumental in bringing in socially conscious business methods such as opening a day care center in 1971 banning smoking in 1986 and sponsoring 40 inner city youth to attend harvard university hiatt s alma mater . 2 in 1992 hiatt stepped down as chairman to pursue philanthropy through the company s foundation and he has become a staunch advocate for electoral reform . 5 collective brands edit in 2007 payless shoesource of topeka kansas acquired stride rite . on august 16 2007 the company changed its name to collective brands inc. by 2009 it was announced that stride rite would operate under the further revised name of collective brands performance lifestyle group . 6 wolverine world wide edit in 2012 stride rite keds sperry top sider and saucony became part of wolverine world wide after a joint agreement with blum capital partners and golden gate capital acquired the performance lifestyle group of collective brands for 1.23 billion usd . 7 stride rite stores edit stride rite at the natick mall stride rite retail children s stores are located primarily in larger regional shopping centers clustered generally in the major marketing areas of the u.s. . the number of retail stores as of 2012 by type for the stride rite retail segment is represented in the table below . stride rite children s stores outlet stores leased children s shoe departments total stride rite retail stores 231 102 7 at macy s 340 see also edit arnold hiatt wolverine world wide references edit 1 a b c stephanie strom april 20 1992 . stride rite chairman to resign . the new york times . retrieved 2011 12 13 . arnold hiatt the shoe salesman who pioneered no smoking offices and child care at the work place is stepping down as chairman of the stride rite corporation to devote himself full time to the company s philanthropic foundation . 2 collective brands 2007 annual report form 10 k april 1 2008 . pdf . secdatabase.com . retrieved 2012 05 16 . groups launch push for new campaign finance bill . cbs news . july 8 2010 . retrieved 2011 12 13 . among those financing the effort is arnold hiatt the former ceo of stride rite corp. and major democratic party contributor who earlier this year urged other big political donors to give only to candidates who committed to support the legislation . 3 saucony keds and sperry acquired by wolverine worldwide . inside insight . 2012 05 01 . retrieved 2012 12 14 . external links edit official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title stride rite corporation & oldid 742746772 categories lexington massachusettscompanies based in massachusettsclothing companies established in 1919shoe companies of the united stateshidden categories all articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from april 2011 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 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