Star Brand Shoes are Better

White text on blue background around outer edge, five-pointed red star with J & R S R on yellow background in center. 

The initials "R, J, R, & S" stand for the Roberts, Johnson, and Rand Shoe Company. The company was started in 1898 by brothers Jack and Oscar Johnson, with the help of their cousin Frank C. Rand, and financial backer John C. Roberts, in St. Louis, Missouri. Shoe manufacturer Beverly Hixson met with Oscar Johnson to share his prepared samples of the Star Brand, a six-inch-high women's shoe and persuaded Johnson of the value of the unusual shoe. Roberts, Johnson, and Rand Shoe Company provided additional funding for the Hixson Company, and the Star Shoe Company was incorporated in 1899. Star Brand shoes were manufactured at a plant in Hannibal, Missouri into the twentieth century. 

By 1905, St. Louis was third in the country in shoe production. Roberts, Johnson, and Rand Shoe Company merged with the other large shoe company in St. Louis, Peters Shoe Company, to form the International Shoe Company in 1911, but each company maintained its own identity.