Red Goose Shoes of Illinois Keychain

The Red Goose Shoe Company of St. Louis, Missouri, began selling shoes to pioneer families headed west in 1869. The company's name was originally Gieseke-D'Oench-Hayes, after its founders, but when the company became advertising conscious in the early 1900s, they changed the name. Gieseke is German slang for "goose" so the goose image came naturally. The red color came later when, during the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904, some stock boys painted the goose on the cartons red. The head of the company liked the idea, and so Red Goose Shoes was trademarked in 1906. In 1911, the Roberts, Johnson & Rand Shoe Company merged with the Peters Shoe Company to form the International Shoe Company in St. Louis. Red Goose was swallowed up by the International Shoe in the first half of the 20th Century. International Shoe dropped Red Goose. And, by 1953, International Shoe Company changed its name to Interco and bought Florsheim Shoes. Red Goose Shoes were hugely popular, rivaling their more famous competitor Buster Brown for many decades. The firm specialized in children's shoes, and tens of millions of American kids came of age in their hugely durable Red Goose shoes. In the 1920s through the 1960s, there were a lot of Red Goose Shoe Stores across the nation. The shoe stores were especially popular in the Chicago, Illinois region. Getting kids to ask for Red Goose shoes may have been a headache for parents, but it was marketing genius! It had little to do with the quality of the shoe and everything to do with the big red goose that was strategically placed near the cash register. This was no ordinary goose. When a purchase of Red Goose Shoes was made the fortunate buyer received the privilege of pulling down on the long extended neck and head of the goose releasing a plastic golden egg from underneath the goose. Within that golden egg could be anything. Toys, prizes and candy were hidden inside the golden eggs for children. The eggs had slots in them to be used for a bank after removing the toy.