Shoe Carnival’s New Company Name is Now Official

Shoe Carnival’s company name change is official.

On Thursday, the Fort Mills, S.C.- based shoe retailer said it received shareholder approval to change its name from Shoe Carnival, Inc. to Shoe Station Group, Inc., effective June 12.

In connection with the name change, the company’s common stock is expected to begin trading on Nasdaq under the symbol “SHOE” on Friday. Shares will continue trading under the symbol “SCVL” through the close of market on Thursday, June 11.

Cliff Sifford, interim president and chief executive officer, said in a statement that the company is “pleased” that shareholders “overwhelmingly approved” the new corporate name.

“The new name and new ticker are reflective of our multi-banner strategy with Shoe Station as our primary long-term growth vehicle and Shoe Carnival continuing in markets where it is dominant,” Sifford noted. “We will also seek to expand our business through strategic acquisitions of other footwear retailers.”

The official name change comes months after the move was first revealed in November. At the time of the announcement, the retailer noted that the name change reflected the “winning” performance of its Shoe Station banner, which the company acquired in 2021 for $67 million.

But despite the banner’s success, the company said in March that it was easing up on its aggressive plan to convert a majority of its stores to Shoe Station locations. Sifford, who rejoined the company in February after Mark Worden unexpectedly stepped down as CEO, noted at the time that the company will be taking more time to evaluate some of the stores it has already converted.

Management said in March that fiscal 2025 marked the first large-scale deployment of the company’s rebanner program, with 101 store rebanners completed beyond the initial 10-store test conducted in fiscal 2024.

By the end of fiscal 2025, Shoe Station represented 144 stores and 34 percent of the company’s 426-store fleet, up from 10 percent of the fleet at the start of the fiscal year.

The company now expects to rebanner approximately 21 stores during the first half of fiscal 2026 while this evaluation is conducted.

For the first quarter ended May 2, the retailer posted a net loss of $5.6 million on revenue of $270.7 million. That compares with net income of $9.3 million on revenue of $277.7 million in the same year-ago period.