Perry Ellis International entered into licensing agreements with ACI International, Inc. for four of its brands in footwear last week. ACI will take over design, manufacture and distribution duties for the Perry Ellis and Perry Ellis Portfolio brands as well as for the Original Penguin and Munsingwear brands. ACI’s new footwear ventures will each launch at retail in the spring of 2008. Distribution for the Original Penguin line will focus on specialty footwear stores and department stores, with the company mentioning Nordstrom’s, Barney’s and Urban Outfitters as key retailers.

Heading up the new footwear projects, ACI International tapped Kirk Weisenburger to head the Perry Ellis footwear division. Weisenburger has been VP of sales for ACI for the last three years. To run the Original Penguin push, ACI named Dave Frazier, former VP of sales and marketing for Lacoste Footwear in the U.S., as president of the Original Penguin footwear division.