Stride Rite to launch new Pro-Keds line
The Stride Rite Corporation has reacquired rights to the Pro-Keds brand from licensee and hip-hop mogul Damon Dash. The company is to bring the brand back in-house as part of a new strategic direction for the Pro-Keds business. The shoes will be available in November, with a wider collection available in spring 2009.
The new brand strategy includes a brand re-imaging, enhancing classic styles such as the Royal, Court King and Royal Master with fresh materials, colours and other trend details, as well as offering commemorative limited-edition collections to celebrate the brand’s 60th anniversary.
Pro-Keds was established in 1949 as a performance athletic footwear line primarily aimed at basketball. The first style was the Royal, a classic canvas basketball shoe offered in high- and low-top versions featuring a red and blue ‘power stripe’ adjacent to the toe. Over the years, new styles were added across the categories of basketball, baseball, football, tennis and track and field.
