George Warren Brown
Founder
Brown Shoe Co.
Laureate 2006
Born 1853 in upstate New York, George Warren Brown attended a one-room school house, spending his afternoons and summers working on the family farm. Deciding as a teenager he not want to be a farmer, George enrolled in business school. At age 21 he headed for the Southwest. Brown made it as far as St.Louis, where he worked for his older brother selling East Coast-made shoes throughout the western United States. Brown understood that their shoes would be cheaper manufactured locally, but couldn’t interest his brother. So in 1878, Brown and two partners opened the Brown Shoe Company in St. Louis. His business formula was simple: make shoes as fine as those from the East Coast, and guarantee the quality of each pair. In 1907, they established headquarters at 1600 Washington Avenue in a building they called “The White House.” Wanting their children’s shoes to be high quality, and fun to wear, George bought licensing rights to the popular Buster Brown comic strip character and, at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, introduced Buster Brown shoes. Buster Brown shoes became the best selling kids’ shoes in the world thanks to George’s belief in quality, fun, and advertising. He invested much to build St. Louis. Religious and deeply committed to serving his fellow man, he used his money and time to support people in need. When he died in 1921, George willed half of his estate to the community via the YMCA, missions, colleges, orphanages and homes for the elderly. Today, thanks to George’s vision of quality and fashion, Brown Shoe still provides footwear to millions of men, women, and children.
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