Converse

In 1908 at the age of 47, Marquis Mills Converse, who was previously a manager at a footwear manufacturing firm, opened the Converse Rubber Shoe Company in Malden, Massachusetts. The company was a rubber shoe manufacturer, providing winterized rubber soled footwear for men, women, and children, until 1917 when the Converse All-Star basketball shoe was introduced. Then in 1923, a basketball player named Charles H. "Chuck" Taylor walked into Converse complaining of sore feet. Converse in return gave him a job: he worked as a salesman and ambassador, promoting the shoes around the U.S., and in 1932 Taylor’s signature was added to the All-Star patch on the classic, high-topped sneakers, the “Chuck Taylor” we know so well today.

In 1936, Converse was one of the sponsors of the Berlin Olympic Games, featuring the first white rising Chuck Taylor All Star with its red and blue stripes drawn along the sole. These new sports shoes set the moment of change because in the years that followed, the brand continued to grow in popularity. It was after World War II, the classic eye-catching  black and white Chuck Taylor All Star High Top was introduced.

Basketball was now a major professional sport, with the merger of the National Basketball League and the Basketball Association of America becoming the National Basketball Association (NBA) and Chuck Taylor All Stars were the shoe for professional, college, high school, and all serious players, and these distinctive black or white high tops were part of the look of each team.

 In 1957 the low cut All Star was introduced and became popular as a more casual alternative to the high top. By this time Converse had an 80% share of the entire American sneaker industry. Because of his tireless efforts promoting the sport, Taylor was called the “Ambassador to Basketball” and in 1968, Charles H. ‘Chuck’ Taylor was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. Unfortunately, one year later he passed away.

There’s a stark contrast between Mr Taylor and star players of the later era,  whose names are still used to sell sneakers nowadays. The Converse coach’s celebrity comes from his prowess on the court – there’s no real evidence to suggest he even played the sport professionally – but through his association with All Stars.

“One of the real gifts that Chuck Taylor had was that he was extremely affable,” says Ms Semmelhack, who characterises the relationship between Converse, Mr Taylor and the sport of basketball as symbiotic. “He wasn’t brought onto the company because of his success as a sports hero… Chuck Taylor is seeding interest in basketball. He’s going around places and expanding the popularity of the game, he’s thereby expanding interest in footwear to be worn for the game. I think that’s really where his genius lies.” (Elizabeth Semmelhack is the creative director and senior curator of the Bata Shoe Museum, and her work focuses on the intersections of fashion, economics, and gender with a particular interest in the history of footwear.)

Another turning point came 1971, when Converse launched coloured canvas for the first time as a way for collegiate teams to coordinate with their school colours, and for spectators to show their allegiance. They weren’t thinking that far ahead, but having those colours allowed the All Star to become this badge of self-expression for youth. Eventually the shoe would become associated with individualism and countercultures, paving the way for it to become the preferred choice of punks  in the 1970s, metalheads in the 1980s and the grunge scene in the 1990s.

The All Star becomes a part of culture in ways that Converse had never really originally intended. That authenticity is part of why the All Star endures, more or less in its original form: rubber sole, canvas upper and the all-important heel patch. 

It’s remarkable that somebody can continue to wear a basic design and not look like they are dressing up in their great-great-grandfather’s clothes. 

All Star Chuck Taylor is timeless.