Brown Shoe Names Gary Rich President of Wholesale Division and Byron Norfleet President of Naturalizer

ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI, August 17, 2000 -- Brown Shoe Company, Inc. (NYSE: BWS) today promoted Gary M. Rich to the newly created position of President, Brown Shoe Wholesale, and Byron D. Norfleet to the new position of President, Naturalizer. Both Rich and Norfleet are members of the company's Executive Management committee.

In his new position, Gary Rich, formerly President of the Brown Pagoda division, also assumes responsibility for Brown Shoe's LifeStride brand and the recently-introduced b'lu New York designer line. Norfleet, formerly Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Naturalizer Retail chain, takes charge of the complete Naturalizer brand -- adding responsibility for its wholesale operations. Naturalizer is the company's flagship brand of women's shoes.

"Gary Rich and Byron Norfleet are two outstanding individuals who have demonstrated great leadership at Brown Shoe," said Chairman and CEO Ron Fromm. "Our goal is to continue to develop and expand their roles in the organization by challenging them with new growth opportunities.

"Since Byron joined us in mid-1998, he has worked closely with Skip Zimmerman, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Naturalizer wholesale business, to turn around our Naturalizer brand. He has returned the Naturalizer Retail chain to positive same-store comps, making it a showcase for the brand. In his new position, he will focus on achieving that same growth and energy for the brand globally," said Fromm.

"In 1999, Gary Rich led Brown Pagoda to another record year," Fromm noted. "As President of Brown Pagoda since 1989, Gary's energy and drive have succeeded in making the Pagoda side of our wholesale business the most respected in the industry. We now look to him to champion our moves to re-energize LifeStride and introduce better-grade footwear brands to our department store partners."

Gary Rich began his career at Pagoda in 1975, 11 years before the company became part of Brown Shoe. He started in Sales Administration and was appointed Executive Vice President of the company in 1981. In 1989, he was named President. The following divisions will report to Rich in his new position: Brown Pagoda women's and men's private label and licensed footwear; Buster Brown & Co. the kid's division; Westport private label and branded footwear for better stores; LifeStride brand of women's shoes; and the recently introduced b'lu new york and Carlos by Carlos Santana lines.

Byron Norfleet came to Brown Shoe in mid-1998 from Genesco where he served in both brand management and retail chain management during his 15-year tenure. In his new position, he will have overarching responsibility for the Naturalizer brand.

"We believe that by combining our Naturalizer Retail and wholesale operations under a single leadership team, we can capitalize on the progress already made in revitalizing this great brand," said Fromm.

Brown Shoe is a $1.6 billion footwear company with worldwide operations. The company operates the 900-store Famous Footwear chain and 485-store Naturalizer chain of footwear retail stores. Brown Shoe also markets leading brands including Naturalizer, LifeStride, NightLife, Buster Brown, and licensed brands including Dr. Scholl's, Carlos by Carlos Santana, Barbie, Digimon: Digital Monsters, Rugrats and baseball-hero Sammy Sosa footwear.

Brown Shoe is headquartered in St. Louis, MO. Its 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.