Brown Shoe Co. Inc.’s profit jumped 57 percent in the third quarter thanks to a strong back-to-school selling season.

The St. Louis-based shoe retailer reported a profit of $16.3 million for the quarter ended Oct. 31, up from a profit of $10.4 million a year earlier.

Net sales totaled $625.6 million in the third quarter, down 1 percent from $631.7 million a year ago.

Same-store sales for Famous Footwear increased 4.7 percent during the quarter, and specialty retail same-store sales increased 4.1 percent, Brown Shoe said.

“Our strategies to offer trend-right product, an enhanced store experience, and the increased reach of our marketing communications helped deliver a strong back-to-school selling season at Famous Footwear,” Chairman and Chief Executive Ron Fromm said in a statement. “In addition, improved consumer reaction to our Naturalizer product and our other wholesale brands drove better sell-thrus at retail and, in particular, strong same-store sales results at our Naturalizer stores.”

[Germany] Several federal and regional government officials in Germany are trying to put a ban on Google Analytics, the search giant’s free software product that allows website owners and publishers to get detailed statistics about the number, whereabouts and search behavior of their visitors (and much more).

According to an article in today’s Zeit Online (poor Google translation here), multiple federal and state government officials charged with guarding over national data protection are convinced that Google Analytics is against the law in Germany and are mulling imposing fines on companies who use the service to gather detailed stats based on their website visitors’ usage patterns without the explicit consent of those visitors.

In an effort to reduce its energy demand and contribution to global warming The Timberland Company (NYSE: TBL – News) announced today that state of the art LED lighting will be replacing less efficient incandescent spotlights in 70% of its North American stores by the end of 2009. By reducing the electricity used on a daily basis for lighting in its stores, Timberland expects to shrink the carbon footprint of its US stores by an additional 11%.

“Our retail store design puts our environmental commitment into action,” said John Trott, Timberland’s Vice President North America Consumer Direct. “Where you walk, what you touch, how the lighting showcases our product with the least impact on our environment, all reflect our heritage of environmental stewardship.”

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I was surprised by an article I’ve just seen in The Telegraph covering a Which? survey on deliveries by online retailers, which found that nearly 7% of customers were unhappy with deliveries.

According to Which?, almost 200 out of 2,500 customers surveyed reported some kind of delivery issues, and  some of them are shocking. In one case, a laptop was thrown over a six foot wall, items were left in dustbins, while others were simply left carelessly in public view.

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Heelys, Inc. (NASDAQ: HLYS – News) announced today that on November 17, 2009, the federal judge presiding over the previously disclosed consolidated securities class action and consolidated shareholder derivative action approved the settlements of those lawsuits and signed a Final Judgment and Order of Dismissal with Prejudice with respect to each lawsuit. These cases were pending in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division. These settlement agreements were described in the Company’s prior filings. Defendants did not admit any liability or wrongdoing in the settlements.

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(TrendHunter.com) Married to the MOB teamed up with Lacoste and put together a sweet pair of high top Hironia lace sneakers, designed with the ladies in mind. The result, the perfect match-lavender and lace.

The black lace pattern overlays the lavender base adding a feminine touch. The MOB red lips logo is raised on the inner sole, and Lacoste stamped on the tongue tag and heel. The Hironia lace sneakers have a touch of Christian Louboutin inspiration as the top of the outsoles are red.

Look to see these lovely lace sneakers released later this year.

(TrendHunter.com) Reebok has released a new plaid pump for the 2009 holidays.  Perfect for your upcoming Thanksgiving night out, the kicks remind us all of something Paul Bunyan would have worn if he were shooting hoops with Babe the Big Blue Ox. Or maybe we are all just a little to fixated on lumberjacks lately. Come on, like that has never happened to you.

The Omni Lite Plaid Sneaker is just out of the entire new Holiday collection from Reebok.

This week I’m writing for the SME audience on Econsultancy, a sweet homage to the much debated yet scarcely implemented topic of website testing, something which should be an integral part of your strategy, the testing plan being the culmination of analysis of web data and voice-of-customer. 

If you are not yet testing and are spending money on marketing/advertising, then read this post and do something about it. Testing is not the preserve of major brands with big budgets, it’s the mental gap you need to cross not the financial one.

Smack in the face with numbers

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(TrendHunter.com) French shoe designer Christian Louboutin has unveiled a new collection of men’s studded sneakers for the Spring/Summer of 2010. These shoes are perfect for anyone with a serious obsession for the studded style. Running at about $1,200 for the pair, you better like wearing your rent on your feet if you decide to purchase these bad boys.

(TrendHunter.com) Espadrilles are a summer mainstay in terms of footwear, and I love the pop art spin this Sauerkids-The String Republic collaboration puts on this classic fashion staple. Sauerkids is an artist duo comprised of Mark Moget and Taco Sipma, and The String Republic commissioned them for this Summer 2009 shoe.