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Search on AmazonWhat Happened to Kinney Shoes?
🔒 Fate: Closed; athletic specialty banners (e.g., Foot Locker) continued under the corporate successor
The shoe chain that quietly launched Foot Locker — and then disappeared when the parent company doubled down on sneakers.
Kinney Shoes began in 1894 and became a coast-to-coast shoe retailer known for affordable family footwear. Under F.W. Woolworth ownership, Kinney incubated the specialty athletic concept Foot Locker (1974), which quickly outpaced the legacy Kinney format. During Woolworth’s late-1990s restructuring, the company closed the remaining Kinney stores in 1998 to focus on athletic banners; the parent later became Foot Locker, Inc. Kinney’s name vanished, but its most successful offshoot defines the successor company.
Timeline
- 1894
G.R. Kinney Company founded; expands as a value footwear chain.
- 1963
Acquired by F.W. Woolworth (later The Venator Group, then Foot Locker, Inc.).
- 1974
Kinney division launches Foot Locker as an athletic-focused specialty retailer.
- 1997
Parent exits general-merchandise Woolworth stores; emphasis shifts to specialty banners.
- 1998
Remaining Kinney Shoes stores closed; company concentrates on Foot Locker banners.
- 2001
Corporate successor adopts the Foot Locker, Inc. name.
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