Collective Brands Appoints Rick Blackshaw as Keds Brand President

LEXINGTON, Mass., Jan. 24, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Collective Brands Performance + Lifestyle Group announced today the appointment of Rick Blackshaw as president of the Keds brand.  Blackshaw has extensive footwear experience with brands including Converse, Timberland, and the former division of Reebok, Avia, and most recently served as vice president and general manager for the Chuck Taylor All Star Division of Converse, Inc.  He will start in his new role Jan. 24 and succeeds Kristin Kohler Burrows who recently departed  the position to pursue career opportunities closer to her home in New York.

Blackshaw will report to Gregg Ribatt, president and chief executive officer of the Performance + Lifestyle Group (PLG) of Collective Brands, and will head all functions of the Keds team including product design and development, sales, marketing, merchandise planning and operations.

"We are thrilled to have Rick join and lead the Keds team.  His background and achievements in the footwear industry are impressive, including generating significant growth across multiple brands," said Ribatt.  "We look forward to his leadership and valuable contributions to our Keds brand as we drive market and product category expansion and share this iconic American brand with more and more consumers across the globe."

Most recently, since 2004, Blackshaw served as vice president and general manager of the Chuck Taylor All Star Division of Converse, Inc., a unit of Nike, where he oversaw the strategy and execution of the Chuck Taylor All Star brand.  From 2003 to 2004, Blackshaw worked as an independent strategy consultant, consulting on a range of general management and strategic issues.   Blackshaw served as president of Packs & Travel Corporation, a division of Sunbeam, from 2000 to 2003 where he was responsible for all aspects of management and leadership of the global licenses for Timberland and Coleman in the packs and travel gear categories.  He started up the business for Coleman in 1996 as general manager.

Blackshaw also served as the global marketing director at the Avia Group, as well as with The Timberland Company serving in a range of management roles including business unit manager.  Earlier in his career he worked for Frito Lay's Smartfood division as a marketing manager, as well as in advertising at Clarke Goward Fitts.

Blackshaw holds a Master of Business Administration with a finance concentration from The Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Arts in Entrepreneurial Studies and Marketing from Babson College. 

About Keds® 

Keds, LLC is a subsidiary of Collective Brands, Inc. (NYSE: PSS).  Keds® is a global lifestyle brand founded in 1916.  Since then, its original Champion silhouette has been worn by legends and style icons through the decades.  Today, Keds continues its almost 100-year legacy of keeping it light by injecting feel-good style into everything it makes from head to toe -- for life, play, and the passionate pursuit of happiness. For more information, visit www.keds.com. 

Collective Brands, Inc. (NYSE: PSS) is a leader in bringing compelling lifestyle, fashion and performance brands for footwear and related accessories to consumers worldwide. The company operates three strategic units covering a powerful brand portfolio, as well as multiple price points and selling channels including retail, wholesale, ecommerce and licensing. Collective Brands, Inc. includes Payless ShoeSource, focused on democratizing fashion and design in footwear and accessories through its nearly 4,500-store retail chain, with its brands Airwalk®, Dexter®, Champion®, Zoe & Zac™, the first-ever affordable green footwear brand, and designer collections by fashion designers Christian Siriano, Lela Rose, Isabel Toledo and Silvia Tcherassi; Collective Brands Performance + Lifestyle Group, focused on lifestyle and performance branded footwear and high-quality children's footwear sold primarily through wholesaling, with its brands including Stride Rite®, Keds®, Sperry Top-Sider® Robeez®, and Saucony®, among others; and Collective Licensing International, the brand development, management and global licensing unit, with such youth lifestyle brands as Airwalk®, Above The Rim®, Vision Street Wear®, STRIKEFORCE™, Clinch Gear™, Sims®, Lamar® and LTD®, World Snowboarding Championships™ and Hind®. Information about, and links for shopping on, each of the Collective Brand's units can be found at www.collectivebrands.com.

SOURCE Collective Brands, Inc.