Stunning interior of Browns' flagship Montreal store [Image Source]

Montreal-based Browns Shoes continues its Canadian expansion of free-standing stores. The most recent of these will be on Vancouver's Robson Street, and other new locations will follow. Browns currently has 48 free-standing Canadian store locations. In the last few years the company has drastically expanded its Canadian stores after losing concessions at Holt Renfrew and Hudson's Bay Company stores.

Image: Browns Shoes

Browns Shoes gained concession rights within Holt Renfrew and Hudson's Bay Company stores in the early-to-mid 1990's. Holt Renfrew's entire shoe operations were run by Browns, while The Bay had Browns concessions within selected existing shoe departments. Holt Renfrew severed ties with Browns in early 2007 and Hudson's Bay did the same in the summer of 2010. This author found both losses disappointing, but was pleased to see Browns opening several large, free-standing replacement stores.

The Holt Renfrew and Hudson's Bay Browns concessions allowed the company to expand nation-wide. Western Canadian cities, especially, first experienced Browns Shoes shops in department stores and, more recently, with free-standing Browns boutiques.

Browns' flagship, Montreal [Image Source]

Interestingly, Browns flirted with an international expansion in the 1990's by opening several concessions within Chicago-area shoe chain Joseph's of Chicago. Joseph's, unfortunately, shuttered and Browns stores are now only in Canada.

Browns carries both private-label and designer shoe brands. It also carries selected designer accessories, many of them from Canadian designers. It's clear Browns is a proudly Canadian company and it has launched a spring advertising campaign with Canadian supermodel Coco Rocha and model Petra Nemcova. These stunning women showcase shoes in images near the top of this article, and directly below.