Naya® Shoes Celebrates Earth Day 2012 By Planting 5,000 Trees

ST. LOUIS, March 29, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Naya®, a brand of Brown Shoe Company, Inc. (NYSE: BWS) www.brownshoe.com, is celebrating Earth Day by planting 5,000 trees in support of Plant-It 2020, a national non-profit organization founded by John Denver. The company will plant a tree for every pair of Naya shoes purchased at Nordstrom or on Nordstrom.com from March 30, 2012 – April 22, 2012.  By the end of April, the Naya brand will have planted a total of 15,000 trees with Plant-It 2020.

Naya, a brand of beautiful, comfortable women's shoes that leave a softer footprint on the earth, will mark its two-year anniversary with the tree planting initiative. In the past two years the brand has planted 10,000 indigenous trees in the United States through the Plant-It 2020 program.

"The Naya brand is committed to helping preserve our earth through our partnership with Nordstrom for Earth Day.  This gives our customers a way to give back by replenishing trees around the globe. We know women want beautiful, comfortable shoes that leave a softer footprint on our earth, and seek opportunities to do something good for the planet. With the selection of materials we use for Naya, this helps our mission of giving back," said Marci Ranger, Vice President of Marketing for Naya Shoes.

The trees planted through Plant-It 2020 are placed in non-harvest locations on public land, and are protected by contract from being cut down. Plant-It 2020 selects trees with a high survival rate and if a maintenance plan is needed, one is set in place before the trees are planted.

Naya shoes utilize materials that are gentler on the planet, such as vegetable-tanned leathers and linings, natural cork, water-based cements and natural or recycled content fabrics.  Naya shoes are packaged in boxes made with 80 percent recycled paper pulp and in reusable shoe bags and shoe forms. The footwear is available at Nordstrom and Nordstrom.com as well as many other retailers nationwide and in more than 20 countries within Asia, Australia and North America, including but not limited to: Canada, Germany, Greece, Japan and the United Arab Emirates. Visit NayaShoes.com to view the line and find a complete list of retailers. Interact with Naya on Facebook ( www.facebook.com/NayaShoes) and Twitter ( @NayaShoes).

About Plant-It 2020 Plant-It 2020 is a 501 ©(3) nonprofit foundation that performs worldwide tree-planting at $1 per tree, donates fuel-efficient cooking stoves to needy families, and provides forestry, soil, and biochar education. Our services not only help reforest the world's cities and forests - they provide direct humanitarian aid by reducing hunger, thirst, malnutrition, poverty and indoor pollution while increasing the sustainability of not only the world's forests but also its people.

About Brown Shoe Company, Inc. Brown Shoe Company is a $2.5 billion, global, footwear company that puts consumers and their needs first, by targeting the strategic Family, Healthy Living and Contemporary Fashion platforms. We have more than 130 years of experience, passion and product innovation and operate more than 1,300 Famous Footwear and Naturalizer retail stores across the United States, Canada and China. We also design, source and market many well-known wholesale shoe brands -- such as Naturalizer, Dr. Scholl's Shoes, LifeStride, Sam Edelman, Franco Sarto, Via Spiga, Etienne Aigner, Vera Wang , Avia and ryka -- across multiple distribution channels. In addition to our retail and wholesale operations, we maintain a strong online presence with our ecommerce sites, FamousFootwear.com, Naturalizer.com and Shoes.com. Visit brownshoe.com to learn more about us. Brown Shoe Company: feel good and live better... feet first!

Contact Jessica Nunez, Nunez PR Group972.380.9597 [e-mail]

SOURCE Brown Shoe Company, Inc.

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