General Financial Releases

FAMOUS FOOTWEAR REACHES BILLION DOLLAR SALES MARK

Madison, Wis. Famous Footwear, the 920-store division of Brown Shoe Company, Inc. (NYSE: BWS), announced today that it had reached the $1 billion sales mark for the first time in its 41-year history. The sales achievement was announced by Famous Footwear President Brian Cook at a company meeting for all employees at its Madison headquarters location.

In making the announcement, Cook acknowledged the thousands of employees who have helped Famous Footwear achieve this billion dollar sales mark.

"We have grown from a one store operation, started in Madison in 1960, to a billion dollar company with stores in all 50 states, Guam and Puerto Rico, employing almost 10,000 people. We are the nation's largest retailer of brand name shoes for less for the entire family."

The $1 billion milestone represents one of many for the Madison based company:

	1960	Neil's Factory Shoe Outlet opens in Madison, Wisconsin, introducing the concept of Brand name shoes for less".
	1963	Brian Cook, an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, takes a part time job at the store as a stock boy. He would rise to the level of president in 1979.
	1965	The business expands into Iowa with the opening of a store in Cedar Rapids.
	1979	Famous Footwear stores now number 35 and Brian Cook is named president.
	1981	Famous Footwear is acquired by Wohl Shoe Company, a division of Brown Shoe Company, Inc. of St. Louis formerly known as the Brown Group). Under terms of the acquisition, Cook remains president and the company maintains its headquarters in Madison.
	1986	Famous Footwear merges with Wohl's southern 80-store retail division and reaches a total store count of 232 by the end of the year.
	1990	To keep pace with rapid growth, the company opens a 288,000 square foot distribution center in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin (expanded to 750,000 in 1993). The center is equipped with state-of-the-art inventory processing systems, which dramatically increase the retailer's distribution capacity.
	1992	With 477 stores by year end, Famous Footwear is now the nation's largest chain of shoe stores selling branded footwear for the entire family.
	1994	With 722 stores in 44 states, the company breaks ground on a 800,000 square foot distribution center in Lebanon, Tennessee. The new facility will service stores in the southern and western U.S.
	1998	Famous Footwear increases its presence in the Pacific, opening stores in Hawaii and Guam.
	2000	Famous Footwear acquires the Mil-Mar Shoe Co. Inc., a privately-owned, 26-store footwear chain based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. With stores in Illinois, Iowa and Milwaukee, the chain does business as Warehouse Shoes and All About Shoes.

As of December 30, 2000, the chain includes 920 stores and nearly 10,000 employees. Its stores do business under the names: Famous Footwear, Factory Brand Shoes, Supermarket of Shoes, Warehouse Shoes and All About Shoes.
Brown Shoe is a $1.6 billion footwear company with worldwide operations. The company operates the Famous Footwear and Naturalizer chains of footwear retail stores and markets leading brands including Naturalizer, LifeStride, NightLife, Buster Brown, and licensed brands including Dr. Scholl's, Barbie, Digimon and RugRats character footwear.

Brown Shoe press releases are available by fax through PR Newswire's Company News On-Call fax service at 800-758-5804, extension 109435. Brown Shoe information also is available on the Company's web site at http://www.brownshoe.com.