Tess and Ted School Shoes

Pink star with white letters and black text on a yellow background in the middle of an illustration of a man and woman.

Tess and Ted, "the Star Brand kids," were characters created in the early 1900s to be featured in advertising materials for children's shoes manufactured by the Roberts, Johnson, and Rand Shoe Company in St. Louis, Missouri. The rhyming adventures of Ted and Tess were featured in trade catalog books and became a song and dance act performed for children in St. Louis. The Roberts, Johnson, and Rand Shoe Company merged with the Peters Shoe Company, and these two largest shoe companies in St. Louis became the International Shoe Company in 1911. The Roberts, Johnson, and Rand-International Shoe Company Complex still stands on the corner of Mississippi Street and Hickory Street in St. Louis. It has been listed in the National Register of Historic Places since 1984.