A hundred years old and eyeing women for rejuvenation.

That’s Chicago-based Sara Lee Corp.’s Kiwi brand, which is checking out women’s shoes and feet in an effort to put more pep into its step.

The brand, which is 100 years old, aims to get more women polishing their shoes, with new products, including Colour Gloss — a single-use polish-applicator combo — and Quick ‘n Clean shoe wipes. The products are being launched in the United Kingdom, where the brand is based.

The rationale for the move?

Come on.

Women? Shoes?

“Women seem to be true shoe lovers, owning at least twice as many pairs of shoes as men,” Vincent Janssen, CEO of Sara Lee’s Household & Body Care unit told a group of analysts Monday Women’s footwear accounted for the largest share, 43 percent, of the $40 billion U.S. market in 2004, while men’s footwear made up another 22.8 percent, according to a March report by Marketresearch.com. (Athletic footwear accounted for 24.7 percent.)

Kiwi is Sara Lee’s most global brand, with sales of $280 million in 200 countries. The top-selling shoe care brand in the world, it pushes five round tins of polish every second. But relying on traditional shoe-polishing products is becoming less effective for sales in a flat market, Janssen said. People are dressing more casually for work, which has slowed some shoe shine-related business.  Other new products for women being launched in the U.K. focus more on clean, comfy, fresh-smelling feet. Shapely pairs of women’s legs are featured on the packaging for the new Smiling Feet shoe gel pads, Foot Silk spray and Fresh’ins deodorizer inserts in the U.K.

The line marks Kiwi’s first step into the growing foot care market.

In the United States, the shoe inserts will be marketed to women, while the stateside version of the new Colour Gloss will feature gender neutral — ugh, black — packaging. The products will hit shelves here beginning next year.