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Designer Brands is one of North America’s largest designers, producers and retailers of footwear and accessories. Our business segments include world-class design and sourcing operations, a robust wholesaling business, and more than 1,000 points of distribution.

Designer Shoe Warehouse Opens Store on The Las Vegas Strip
Store showcases retail innovations, offers customers engaging experiences

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Aug. 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- DSW Designer Shoe Warehouse (NYSE: DSW), a leading branded footwear and accessories retailer, has opened its newest store on the Las Vegas strip.

Located in the Showcase Mall at 3785 S. Las Vegas Boulevard, the store is half the size of a typical DSW but delivers the experience and spectacle Vegas crowds expect. It builds on the company's recent moves to innovate with nail bars, repair services, custom performance inserts, and a new store design, based on its Polaris lab store near Columbus, Ohio.

At the Las Vegas location, customers are drawn from the Strip into the store through a video-covered passageway creating a sensory experience of light and sound on three sides, giving the feel of being inside the visual display. "Our 'video tunnel' is an immersive and exciting feature that makes customers feel as if they're flying over a city, swimming under water, or walking through a desert," says DSW Inc. Chief Executive Officer Roger Rawlins. "In reality, they're travelling down an escalator into the new DSW sales floor, where more unique experiences await."  

The store features a one-of-a-kind "Shoevator™," or shoe elevator. The display wall of shoes includes three elevator lifts, serviced from a mezzanine over the sales floor. Customers order shoes from the wall via the DSW app or a tablet located at a nearby kiosk, which alerts an associate on the mezzanine. The associate receives the order, picks the ordered shoes, and sends it to the sales floor in a numbered bin via the "Shoevator™" where the customer picks it up. "It's essentially a giant shoe vending machine," explains Rawlins, "inspired by the assembly line-style mechanisms that we use to move product around our actual warehouse." Despite the store's smaller footprint, it also boasts a full assortment of brand name and designer shoes and accessories.

Customers can also win a pair of special kicks by playing the Heat Vault Keymaster™ machine. Reminiscent of an arcade classic, Heat Vault Keymaster challenges players to retrieve sneaker swag in just two moves by inserting a key into a keyhole using a joystick.

"DSW has been transforming itself by creating engaging experiences that stir emotion and inspiration," says Rawlins. "From the innovations we're bringing to retail through our service tests like nail bars, repairs, and custom in-soles to this one-of-a-kind experience in Las Vegas with our 'Shoevator' and video tunnel… DSW is creating endless opportunities for self-expression."

About DSW
DSW Designer Shoe Warehouse is a leading branded footwear and accessories retailer offering a wide selection of brand name and designer dress, casual and athletic footwear and accessories for women, men and kids. DSW operates more than 500 stores in 44 states and operates a robust ecommerce website at www.dsw.com, a mobile site at m.dsw.com and via mobile app. Founded in 1991, DSW is a division of Columbus, Ohio-based DSW Inc.

About DSW Inc. 
DSW Inc. is a leading footwear and accessories retailer that operates a portfolio of several value retail concepts under the DSW and Town Shoes Limited brands. DSW also supplies footwear at leased locations in the U.S. through its Affiliated Business Group and franchised international locations. Products are available across North America at close to 1,000 retail outlets and via ecommerce sites and a mobile app.  More information can be found at www.dswinc.com.

 

SOURCE DSW Inc.

For further information: Margaret Standing, Director, Corporate Communications mediarelations@dswinc.com; Christina Cheng, Senior Director, Investor Relations, investorrelations@dswinc.com
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