Its always interesting to see the chain of events that accompany some of the names that have been lost to time. Founded by the Brookfield Athletic Shoe Company in 1981, the trademark for Braun Bilt was cancelled in 1988. Three years before the cancellation, Brookfield was purchased by Hyde Athletic Industries (the same company that bought Saucony and eventually changed their name to Saucony). Why did Hyde Athletic Industries buy the company? Well, heres a theory. Canvas shoes like Keds were huge in the late 80’s and Brookfield Athletic Shoe Company held the trademark for PF Flyers (a popular canvas shoe from the 50’s and 60’s). Since Saucony more than likely wanted to capitalize on the Canvas shoe trend and they couldn’t buy Keds or Converse who better to acquire than Brookfield (to acquire the PF Flyer name which already had history)?. Three years after taking over Brookfield Saucony re-released PF Flyers. Take a trip back with Braun Bilt above!