Just For Feet

Just for Feet Inc. began with a single store at Century Plaza in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1977. One of the slogans the store used to position itself was "The World's Largest Athletic Shoe Store". The store was also famous for their promotion of buying any 12 pair of shoes, and then getting one pair for free, in the process, hence the other slogan, "Where Your 13th Pair is Free!" ==Marketing==

In 1999, Just For Feet broadcast a commercial during Super Bowl XXXIII, produced by the agency Saatchi & Saatchi. In the spot, a group of Caucasian men in a humvee are seen tracking down a barefoot Kenyan runner, sedating him with drug-laced water, and forcing Nike shoes on his feet while he is unconscious. When the runner wakes up, he rejects the shoes and attempts to shake them off whilst running away. ==Bankruptcy and acquisition==

In November 1999, Just For Feet filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and in February 2000, the company was forced into Chapter 7. Footstar, Inc., at that time the parent company of Footaction USA, purchased the Just For Feet name and the leases of over 70 of its stores in February 2000. Those stores that remained opened continued to do business under the Just For Feet name until Footstar itself filed for Chapter 11 protection in 2004. That same year, the last of the Just For Feet stores closed. According to The Wall Street Journal (April 23, 2007): 'Just for Feet collapsed in 1999 amid an accounting fraud. Three former executives pleaded guilty to crimes related to a scheme to overstate earnings by $8 million between 1996 and 1998. The bankruptcy judge appointed a trustee to recover money for the company's creditors. The estate of Harold Ruttenberg, Just for Feet's founder and former chief executive, agreed in August 2006 to pay $15 million ($ in ). Unfortunately for the estate, six months later, a Delaware Court in the case of North American Catholic Educational Programming Foundation Inc. against three directors of the Delaware corporation, Clearwire Holdings Inc., ruled that creditors and trustees of Delaware corporations that are insolvent or in the so-called "zone of insolvency", like Just for Feet, Inc. was, have no right to assert direct claims for breach of fiduciary duty against its directors. The elder Ruttenberg died in 2005 at 63. Just for Feet's auditor, Deloitte & Touche agreed to pay $24 million, and in April 2007 five former outside directors agreed to pay $41.5 million – one of only 13 cases in the past 25 years where outside directors of public companies have made out-of-pocket payments and one of the largest ever settlements. (Enron Corporation's 10 directors paid only $13 million). In all, the trustees recovered roughly $80 million for the company's creditors. Today, the company's former corporate headquarters is occupied by Jack Henry & Associates. ==References==