Oct 8 (Reuters) - Brown Shoe Co cut its third-quarter outlook as sales at its Famous Footwear unit fall after cash-strapped U.S. shoppers tightened their wallets amid credit woes and inflationary pressures.

www.BrownsShoes.com

The seller of shoe brands such as Naturalizer, LifeStride and Via Spiga expects third-quarter earnings of 17 cents to 20 cents a share, including costs of 22 cents a share tied to moving its Madison, Wisconsin office to St. Louis.

The company had earlier forecast earnings of 31 cents to 41 cents a share on a similar basis.

For the quarter, Brown Shoe expects net sales of about $633 million to $638 million, down from its prior outlook of $650 million to $660 million.

Analysts were expecting earnings of 33 cents a share, excluding items, on revenue of $651 million, according to Reuters Estimates.

Apparel and shoe companies have been suffering as consumers curtail spending and concentrate on essentials such as food to combat rising prices, falling home values and tighter lending conditions.

Brown Shoe saw sales at its Famous Footwear stores open for at least a year fall 7.3 percent in the five-week period ended Oct 4. It expects same-store sales at the unit to fall 4.5 percent to 5.5 percent in the third quarter.

Shares of the company closed at $12.82 Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange. (Reporting by Dhanya Skariachan in Bangalore; Editing by Pratish Narayanan)