Brown Shoe Company, Inc. (NYSE: BWS, www.brownshoe.com) and FN (Footwear News) are partnering for the 2011 FN Shoe Star competition, a web-based reality series that will crown the next footwear design star, selected from a group of six talented Accessories Design students from the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York City.

The contest, sponsored by Brown Shoe, will be presented as a 22-week long webisode series on FNshoestar.com. The January 24th premiere episode will be hosted by Fergie, who launched her Fergie Footwear and Fergalicious by Fergie shoe collections with Brown Shoe in 2009.

?We are excited to begin the search with Brown Shoe for the next big design star,? said Michael Atmore, FN Editorial Director. ?The 2011 competition promises to be rigorous and the winner will have a leg up on every other young designer and design student out there. The FN Shoe Star winner will not only get a job with one of the footwear industry's leading companies, they will also receive the kind of attention that guarantees they will be noticed and remembered.?

The series will follow the six FIT students, who were chosen from a larger group of entrants by the editors of FN, as they compete against one another to be become the next FN Shoe Star. Following each of five competitive challenges, one contestant will be eliminated until the champion is selected during the final round in June. The first place winner will be crowned the next FN Shoe Star and win a design position with Brown Shoe.

?Fostering new design talent is essential to our ability to bring innovative, exciting footwear to consumers, and is an important commitment for our industry. FN Shoe Star introduces us to the footwear designers of tomorrow, and provides the students an invaluable opportunity to learn from accomplished design professionals. There may only be one winner, but the experience will be an invaluable education for all involved,? said Brown Shoe President and Chief Operating Officer Diane Sullivan.

Each of the six competitive challenges will be judged by FN's Michael Atmore, and various Brown Shoe designers and executives, as well as a select group of to-be-announced celebrity judges. The FN Shoe Star competition will take place in New York City.

?This is an exciting opportunity for our Accessory Design students,? said Joanne Arbuckle, Dean of the School of Art and Design at FIT. ?Our students are natural and creative competitors. They are well studied in the workings of fashion trends past and present and have the skill sets to execute their design concepts. Their instruction requires them to be exacting in the execution of all the dimensions of shoe design and construction, and to meet the dictates of manufacturability while promoting couture."

The FNshoestar.com website will also offer weekly fan contests, featuring prizes from Brown Shoe, behind-the-scenes reports on the contestants and the on-going competition. Fans can also follow the action on Facebook and Twitter. The FN Shoe Star series is produced by B Productions in New York.

About Brown Shoe – Brown Shoe is a $2.5 billion global footwear company. Brown Shoe's Retail division operates Famous Footwear, a leading family branded footwear destination with over 1,100 stores nationwide and e-commerce site FamousFootwear.com, approximately 260 specialty retail stores in the U.S., Canada, and China primarily under the Naturalizer brand name, and footwear e-tailer shoes.com. Through its wholesale divisions, Brown Shoe designs and markets leading footwear brands including Naturalizer, Dr. Scholl's, Franco Sarto, LifeStride, Etienne Aigner, Sam Edelman, Via Spiga, Vera Wang Lavender and Buster Brown. Brown Shoe press releases are available on the Company's website at www.brownshoe.com.

About FN – FN (Footwear News) and Footwearnews.com deliver extensive coverage of the footwear industry, including reporting on and analysis of global issues, fashion designers, style leaders and entertainment trendsetters, and the retail marketplace. FN is published weekly by The Fairchild Fashion Group, a unit of Condé Nast. The Fairchild Fashion Group includes WWD (Women's Wear Daily), WWD.com, Style.com, FN (Footwear News), Footwearnews.com, WWD Beauty Biz, Menswear, Fairchild Summits and Fairchild Books. Condé Nast is a division of Advance Publications, which operates in 25 countries.

About FIT – The Fashion Institute of Technology, a leader in career-oriented education, is a college of art and design, business and technology of the State University of New York (SUNY), with 46 majors leading to the AAS, BFA, BS, MA, MFA, MFA and MPS degrees. The college serves more than 10,000 students and offers courses in a wide range of fields. Visit www.fitnyc.edu.

Fairchild Fashion Group
Dan Scheffey, 212-630-4111
dan_scheffey@condenast.com
or
Brown Shoe
Erin Conroy, 718-913-0960
econroy@brownshoe.com
or
FIT
Cheri Fein, 212-217-4700
press@fitnyc.edu