The G.R. Kinney Company was an American manufacturer and retailer of shoes from 1894[1] until September 16, 1998. It was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in March 1923, with the symbol KNN.[2] The shoe concern was started by George Romanta Kinney whose father ran a general store in rural Candor, New York. The father became indebted and George vowed to repay his debts. In 1894, at the age of 28, he had saved enough to purchase a Lester retail outlet in Waverly, New York. Lester Shoe of Binghamton, New York was the predecessor to the Endicott Johnson Corporation. Kinney succeeded by selling affordably priced shoes to working Americans.[3]
The business chain numbered 362 stores at the conclusion of 1929, with 44 of these opening in the final year of the decade.[4] Foot Locker began as a division of the Kinney Shoe Corporation in 1974.