• The New York Times, Monday, June 25, 2007 10:33 AM

Five years ago, the Florsheim shoe company was in shambles and its owner, Apollo Management, put it into bankruptcy. Then two of the Florsheim scions--Thomas Jr. and John, along with their father, Thomas Sr.-- bought the broken shoemaker for about $45 million, nearly 50 years after their family first gave up control.

The Florsheim's second act offers a crash course in resurrecting a failed brand name. The turnaround comes just as so-called heritage brands like Dr. Scholl's and Chuck Taylor have found a growing cachet among younger customers.

The Florsheims own more than one-third of a small, publicly traded company, the Weyco Group, that also distributes such moderately priced footwear lines as Nunn Bush, Stacy Adams and Brass Boot. Weyco faces a delicate balancing act as it tries to make Florsheim live up to its new tag line, "The Best ... Again!"

In some cases, the renewal effort has meant jettisoning longtime customers, such as Sears. Thomas Jr. says he killed a subbrand of Florsheim casual shoes sold there because it put a damper on the high-quality image Florsheim wants to project going forward.

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