Footstar, Inc.

Retail giant Melville Corp., paring down to become CVS, closed Thom McCann and needed to spin out its other more successful shoe businesses -- the Footaction chain, plus the contract operator of Kmart’s shoe departments, combined in a new parent. Identity challenge: How to position and thus name the new parent?

Answer, led by CEO J.M. Robinson: boldly, and pre-emptively. The combined businesses make a world player, operating more than 3,000 retail units. Why not position it for global leadership from day one, accepting the challenge of a name that has to be earned every day? Spaeth advised; and with Robinson’s hands-on help, Nat Connacher designed a confident, straightforward wordmark. No little feet-pictures, no star icons were needed or wanted; the name, Footstar Inc., itself is rightly the focus