JOHNSTON & MURPHY HISTORY

1850: Auspicious beginnings
It all started in Newark, New Jersey, a town near the New York City port of Ellis Island, where the vast majority of European immigrants entered the United States. One of those immigrants was William J. Dudley, a master craftsman who had been schooled in the classic tradition of English shoe making. Filled with hopes of American opportunity, he established the William J. Dudley Shoe Company in his Newark home. For a while, Dudley was the company's only associate. He manufactured the shoes, and then he sold them. But as word of the quality and value of his shoes spread, Dudley soon found himself unable to meet the demand single-handedly. He needed help, and Ellis Island provided it in the form of skilled shoemakers from his native England and points throughout Europe. It was a new company, but its reputation as a maker of quality shoes was already growing. In 1850, Millard Filmore became the 13th President of the United States. It was also the year in which he received a pair of handmade shoes from the William J. Dudley Shoe Company.

1875: Growth begets growth
During its first 25 years, the company's growth forced five moves to ever-larger locations. The William J. Dudley Shoe Company was specializing in quality, highly durable work shoes for men, women and children. People who knew the value of a dollar were buying Dudley's shoes.

1880: New partner, fresh ideas, needed capital
Any growing company can often find itself in need of capital, and such was the case with Dudley's company. Newark businessman James Johnston had plenty of capital, along with lots of business savvy. When he joined the company as Dudley's partner in 1880, his vision was to expand both product lines and distribution channels. The company took the durability of its work shoes and built that into a line of higher-fashion footwear that quickly became popular. When, one year later, founder William Dudley died, Johnston assumed control of thecompany. Its new name: The James Johnston Company.

1884: The governor's brother takes a role
Enter William A. Murphy, another prominent Newark businessman from a distinguished family - his brother was soon to become governor of the state. But William Murphy's mind was on business, not politics, and he was intrigued by the success of a local shoe company run by James Johnston. The two talked, a partnership was formed, and Johnston & Murphy became the name that would come to signify the highest-quality shoes in America.

1891: The largest building in Newark
Productivity increased when Johnston & Murphy moved into a plant, office and retail complex designed and built to William Murphy's specifications. The Johnston & Murphy building was for years the largest structure in Newark, and it remained in active use until 1957. Occupied by teams of craftsmen from many nationalities, it produced the country's finest shoe and boot workmanship in an old-world manner.

1895: "The best shoes anybody can buy"
William Murphy sold his interest in the company to Herbert P. Gleason, a former top salesman for the company. Because Gleason was a born marketer who knew the value of a recognized brand name, he retained the Johnston & Murphy name. Gleason developed a national sales and marketing force, and by the 1920s, he and his son, George, had made the company into a true leader in fine mens' footwear.

1920s: Appealing to the Country Club set
After coining the company's first slogan, "The best shoes anybody can buy," the younger Gleason made a serious commitment to quality advertising. He developed a series of "handsome lifestyle" advertisements and ran entire campaigns in such high-profile magazines as Vanity Fair and The Saturday Evening Post. His campaigns were popular and memorable: the Photographic Series explored the full range of uses for Johnston & Murphy shoes by featuring executives traveling by train and gentlemen at leisure. For the Country Club Series, the ads pictureddifferent American country clubs, each spotlighting a different Johnston & Murphy shoe. By this time, Johnston & Murphy had also entered the golf shoe market, a line that would become one of its most popular.

1940s: Courting the "Ivy League"
Johnston & Murphy developed a network of traveling salesmen, many of whom began calling on America's most renowned universities and established country clubs. The effort was highly successful, and it helped create a new generation of loyalists who would revere the Johnston & Murphy name for years to come.

1951: A new parent
As a means of adding a top-quality series to its existing product line, General Shoe Corporation, now Genesco Inc., bought Johnston & Murphy. General Shoe had revenues that year of $103.2 million. In 1957, the company closed Johnston & Murphy's Newark location and moved the operation to its headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee.

1960s: The market changes
It was America's expressive period, its nonconformist period, its time to reject many traditional values and anything that represented them - and this at a time when Johnston & Murphy offered traditional dress shoes, most in black or dark brown. Johnston & Murphy began to expand its contemporary dress selection and introduced its After Hours line of casual footwear for consumers who wanted that Johnston & Murphy look and quality even during their leisure pursuits.

1970s & '80s: Time-honored values gain appeal
America's return to traditionalism gave Johnston & Murphy a significant boost. Once again, the company was able to capitalize on its strengths, classic styling and superior workmanship, while at the same time it introduced updated traditional lines, thereby expanding business. The company opened the first retail shop bearing its name in Schaumburg, Illinois, in 1971. It then rapidly expanded its retail operations to complement a strong presence in better specialty shops and department storesnationwide. In 1983 the company opened the first Johnston & Murphy Factory Store in Clearwater, Florida. Johnston & Murphy further expanded its markets by introducing an upscale direct mail catalog featuring fine men's footwear.

1990s & 2000s: A rejuvenated and growing lifestyle brand
In the 1990s, Johnston & Murphy not only continued to expand its reach by opening more retail locations, but also focused on becoming more of a lifestyle brand. The retail stores began offering a more diverse mixture of accessories and apparel. And beginning in 1998, the brand signed licensing agreements for collections of belts, hosiery, shoe care products, leather outerwear and small leather goods. Johnston & Murphy continued to look for new ways to appeal to successful, affluent professional men in the marketplace. In 1996, www.johnstonmurphy.com went live as a full-service website where consumers could purchase their favored brand. The brand also began opening stores in busy airports, train stations and on prominent streets to better reach professional men on the go. In 1998, Johnston & Murphy opened a flagship store on the corner of Madison and 54th Street in New York City to prominently showcase all facets of the brand.

Shoemaker to the American Presidents since 1850

President, Year Inaugurated
Millard Filmore, 1850
Franklin Pierce, 1853
James Buchanan, 1857
Abraham Lincoln, 1861
Andrew Johnson, 1865
Ulysses S. Grant, 1869
Rutherford B. Hayes, 1877
James A. Garfield, 1881
Chester A. Arthur, 1881
Grover Cleveland, 1885
Benjamin Harrison, 1889
William B. McKinley, 1897
Theodore Roosevelt, 1901
William Howard Taft, 1909
Woodrow Wilson , 1913
Warren G. Harding, 1921
Calvin Coolidge, 1923
Herbert Hoover, 1929
Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1933
Harry S. Truman, 1945
Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953
John F. Kennedy, 1961
Lyndon B.Johnson, 1963
Richard M. Nixon, 1969
Gerald R. Ford, 1974
Jimmy Carter, 1977
Ronald Reagan, 1981
George Bush, 1989
Bill Clinton , 1993
George W. Bush, 2001