Most notably, U.S. Shoe was the parent company of optical retailer LensCrafters from 1984 until its own acquisition by Luxottica in 1995.
After two years of negotiations, the new United States Shoe Corp. was created with Stern as its president.
[1] The company survived the Great Depression by cutting the price of the Red Cross shoe from $10 to $6.
In 1995, Luxottica launched a hostile takeover attempt of U.S. Shoe, with the goal of acquiring LensCrafters.
[8] In October 1995, Luxottica spun off U.S. Shoe's apparel division, which by this time was known as the Women's Specialty Retailing Group and included Casual Corner, to a company operated by Luxottica founder Leonardo Del Vecchio and his family.