Richard F. Outcault create the Buster Brown comic strip in 1902 which first appeared in the New York Herald. Buster was named after Buster Keaton who was at the time a child vaudeville actor. In 1904 Outcault went to the St. Louis World Fair, selling licenses for the character and the Brown Shoe Company purchased the and introduced to the Buster Brown Shoe Company to the world at the fair. In the 40’s and 50’s Buster Brown Shoes introduced a comic book as a give-a-way, prompting the stores to rubber stamp their business name and address on the comic book.
Many of you may remember the jingle
“I’m Buster Brown, and I live in a shoe. That’s my dog, Tige, and he lives there, too,” Tige was a pit-bull terrier and his sister’s name was Mary Jane.
In 2015, the company rebranded as Calares which in Latin means passion. You may know them today as Naturalizer, Dr. Scholl’s Shoes, LifeStride, Bzees, and Rykä.
Hi Steve!
Those shoes were horrible! When you got a new pair, you could always count on a new batch of blisters! And mom wouldn’t spring for a pair of tennies, either. They were, “bad for your feet”!