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Non-Tech : Just For Feet (FEET) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: aps who wrote (645)	8/18/1998 11:59:00 AM
From: lanac	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 750

Date: Tuesday, July 21, 1998 Page: B09 Edition: FIFTH Section: BUSINESS Column: Corrections: Memo: RETAILER PLANS MAKEOVER OF SHOE STORE * SNEAKER STADIUM IN WHITEHALL WILL REOPEN AS JUST FOR FEET. by SUSAN TODD, The Morning Call An Alabama retailer that demands a certain flair for its footwear specialty stores will completely re-do the Sneaker Stadium in Whitehall Township before reopening it under the name Just for Feet. Just for Feet Inc., a burgeoning Birmingham retailer, acquired privately held Sneaker Stadium on July 2. The Whitehall store is among 38 across the country that will be closed in October, reconstructed and then reopened sometime between December and April. "The Sneaker Stadium stores are not up to our standards. Not in design. Not in merchandise," Chief Executive Officer Harold Ruttenberg said in a telephone interview on Monday from his office in Birmingham. The typical Just for Feet store measures 22,000 square feet and carries brand-name athletic and outdoor footwear. It also offers a full line of sports apparel. The company will pump $20 million into the Sneaker Stadium stores, Ruttenberg said. The makeover includes new fixtures, signs and more merchandise, he said. The nearest example of the what the retailer does can be found in Palisades in northern New Jersey. Just for Feet generally offers the most comprehensive collection of footwear among the big-box footwear chain retailers. Its sales people are well-versed on merchandise -- from Nike to Timberline. Like Sneaker Stadium, Just for Feet strives to do more than woo shoppers inside. They want to make it fun once they get there. Ruttenberg, who founded Just for Feet, is known for being meticulous. The makeover of the Sneaker Stadium stores may not be so dramatic, but it will certainly make the stores conform to the chain's existing big-box styled outlets, one analyst said. When the Sneaker Stadium deal was sealed earlier this month, Ruttenberg said the acquisition would accelerate the company's national expansion program, particularly in the key Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states. Just for Feet, which stands behind Footstar Inc.'s Footaction stores and Venator's Foot Locker as the No. 3 sports-apparel retailer, had 222 stores before the acquisition. The company's stock, which trades on Nasdaz under the ticker symbol FEET, closed on Monday at $24.63, down 63 cents from Friday. godwinco.com