Saucony’s Duane Solomon, Jr earns spot on Team USA at 2012 U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials, release, note by Larry Eder

SAUCONY®’S DUANE SOLOMON, JR. EARNS SPOT ON TEAM
USA AT

2012
U.S. OLYMPIC TRACK AND FIELD TRIALS

“Team Saucony” Finds Its “Strong” Clinching Team
USA Berths for Solomon, Madison, Trotter,
Williams and Baker; While Huddle, Lewy-Boulet, True, Higginson and
Cathey Advance to Finals

LEXINGTON,
MA (June 26, 2012) –
Global
performance running footwear and apparel brand
Saucony, Inc. today announced that “Team
Saucony” athlete Duane Solomon, Jr. has earned himself a spot on the 2012 USA Olympic Team.
The 27-year- old finished third in the men’s 800-meter final at the U.S. Track and Field Trials in
Eugene,
Oregon on Monday night, establishing himself as one of the
greatest 800-meter runners in the country. After falling half a second
short of qualifying for Team
USA in 2008, Solomon, Jr.’s 2012 time of 1:44.65 met the Olympic “A” standard at the same time to qualify for the London Olympics.
A first-time Olympian,
Solomon, Jr. joins
fellow “Team Saucony” athletes
Tianna
Madison (100-meter dash); DeeDee Trotter (400-meters); Lauryn Williams
(4X100-meter relay) and Keisha Baker (4X400-meter relay) in the
quest for gold this summer in
London.

“I want to thank Saucony
for believing in me when no one else did,” said Solomon, Jr. after the
800-meter final. “Everybody was counting
me out, but I knew I had something special today. The whole goal this
year was to focus on the team, and I knew that in order to make the
team, I had to set a personal best and I did that.”

“Watching
our athletes over the past four days has been an incredibly uplifting
experience,” said Mark Bossardet, vice president of
sports marketing for Saucony.  

“Not
only are these extraordinary athletes raising the bar for the sport,
but they’re inspiring the whole running community with their
personal realization of ‘strong.’ The entire Saucony family is incredibly proud of ‘Team Saucony‘ and we can’t wait to cheer them on to more amazing performances over the next few days,” added Bossardet.

At the close of the Trials’ first session,
Saucony-sponsored track and field athletes have
delivered outstanding performances. In addition to Solomon, Jr., Madison
and Trotter each qualifying for London in individual events, two-time
Olympian (2004 and 2008) Lauryn Williams has been named to the U.S.
4X100-meter relay team and Keisha Baker has been
selected for the U.S. 4X400-meter relay team.

Other “Team Saucony”
athletes have also advanced from preliminary rounds over the first four
days of competition to the finals scheduled
during the second half of the event: American record holder Molly
Huddle and 2008 Olympian Magdalena-Lewy Boulet are set to compete in the
women’s 5,000-meter final on Thursday, June 28; Benjamin True will
compete in the men’s 5,000-meter final also on Thursday;
and Ashley Higginson and Mason Cathey advanced to the women’s
3,000-meter Steeplechase final which is scheduled for Friday, June 29.

The U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials run from June 21 to July 1 at the
University of Oregon’s Hayward Field in
Eugene,
Oregon. Follow “Team Saucony” at http://www.saucony.com/store/SiteController/saucony/TeamSaucony_Saucony

The entire
“Team Saucony” roster competing at the 2012 U.S. Track and Field Trials is as follows:

Saucony, Inc.: Saucony,
Inc., a subsidiary of Collective Brands, Inc., is a leading
global running lifestyle brand that fuses performance, innovation and
style to create compelling footwear and apparel with its widely
recognized brands Saucony and Saucony Originals.  Founded in 1898, Saucony continues to inspire runners everywhere with its
award winning innovations, including ProGridâ„¢, PowerGridâ„¢ and ViZiPROâ„¢ apparel. For more information, go to
www.saucony.com.

Collective Brands, Inc. (NYSE: PSS)
is
a leader in bringing compelling lifestyle, fashion and performance
brands for footwear and related accessories to consumers worldwide. The
company operates three strategic
units:  Payless ShoeSource, Collective Brands Performance + Lifestyle
Group (PLG) and Collective Licensing International.  Payless is the
largest specialty family footwear retailer in the
Western Hemisphere and is dedicated to providing
incredible value pricing for trend-right styles of footwear and
accessories for the entire family to enjoy.   PLG is focused on
lifestyle and performance branded footwear and
high-quality children’s footwear sold primarily through wholesaling,
with its brands including Stride Rite®, Keds®, Sperry Top-Sider®
Robeez®, and Saucony®, among others; and
Collective Licensing International, the brand development, management
and global
licensing unit, with such youth lifestyle brands as Airwalk®, Above The
Rim®, Vision Street Wear®, STRIKEFORCE™, Clinch Gear™, Sims®, Lamar®
and LTD®, World Snowboarding Championships™ and Hind®.