Keds® Announces Sponsorship of Taylor Swift's The Red Tour in Asia; Expands Distribution Throughout Asia with Latest Collection

LEXINGTON, Mass., Feb. 26, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Keds® announces its sponsorship of seven-time Grammy winner Taylor Swift's The RED Tour, making stops throughout Asia this June. The critically acclaimed RED Tour, which has reached over 1.5 million fans in sold-out stadiums and arenas on three continents thus far, includes stops in Tokyo, as well as Manila, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, where the tour is presented by Cornetto.

Each venue on Taylor's Asian tour will feature the Keds® Style Studio, a unique interactive pop-up brand experience where fans can learn more about Keds® footwear, learn how to be brave with their personal style, take photos, and win exclusive prizes. Throughout the length of the tour's Asian leg, Keds® will be running a series of giveaways that include seat upgrades and backstage tours. Follow Keds® on their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts (@Keds for all) for tour updates and information on how to get in on the action.

The Taylor Swift tour sponsorship marks an exciting new chapter in Keds® presence in Asia, marked by an unprecedented growth cycle and demand from fans over the past several seasons. Expanded distribution now includes six new powerhouse partners serving markets throughout Asia, which will help ensure that girls have more access than ever before to the freshest collections, largest assortments, and unique feminine style that is undeniably Keds®.

"We're thrilled to be part of Taylor Swift's The RED Tour, and to be offering our fans fun and exciting ways to experience Keds®," said Rick Blackshaw, President, Keds®. "It was awesome to see Taylor wearing Keds® on stage, and during her US tour we saw over a million of her fans and so many brave girls who love our sneakers as much as Taylor does. We can't wait to bring that same fearless style to even more fans around the globe."

About Keds®
In 1916 Keds® redefined footwear with the introduction of the Champion sneaker.  The simple and chic design ignited a style revolution, capturing the hearts of girls everywhere from fashion icons to the girl next door. Today, Keds® is a head-to-toe fashion lifestyle brand fueled by a passion for imagination, inspiring a new generation of girls to stay authentic, optimistic and brave. For more information, please visit www.Keds.com.  Keds is a division of Wolverine Worldwide, the world's leading maker of casual, work, outdoor, athletic and children's footwear.

About Taylor Swift
Lauded by The New York Times as "one of the most important pop artists of the last decade," and by Rolling Stone as "one of the few genuine rock stars we've got these days," 24 year-old Taylor Swift is a seven-time GRAMMY winner, and is the youngest winner in history of the music industry's highest honor, the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. She is the best-selling digital music artist of all time, and with the 2012 release of her album RED, she is the only female artist in music history (and just the fourth artist ever) to twice have an album hit the 1 million first-week sales figure. She holds the record for the biggest digital sales week ever for a song by a woman, and for the second-largest song sales week overall, as well as the worldwide iTunes record for highest ever first-week album sales. With the 2012 release of her album RED, Taylor became the first artist since the Beatles (and the only female artist in history) to log six or more weeks at #1 with three consecutive studio albums.

Taylor has an album on Rolling Stone's prestigious The 50 Greatest Albums of All Time (by women) list, and Time magazine has named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world. She is Billboard's youngest-ever Woman of the Year, and her more than 100 industry award wins have included the American Music Awards' Artist of the Year, the Country Music Association and the Academy of Country Music's Entertainer of the Year and three European Music Awards.

Taylor, who writes all of her own songs, has career record sales in excess of 26 million albums and 75 million song downloads worldwide, and her two most recent albums are two of only 18 albums in the entire history of music to sell more than 1 million copies in a single week. She has had singles top both the country and pop radio charts around the globe, and has thus far scored 13 #1 singles across multiple radio formats. She is one of the top 5-selling digital music artists worldwide, and is the top-selling digital artist in country music history.

SOURCE Keds