Converse All-Stars
Converse all-stars started life over 90 years ago to try to corner the market for basketball court shoes. It took a while however and it was not until the 1950’s when basketball legend Chuck Taylor adopted them as his shoe of choice that the Converse All-star legend began in earnest, albeit with a few of Chuck’s tweaks here and there.
From that point on a pair of cons became a pair of Chucks and they have gone on to serve the court and the casual market for decades and still remain popular with kids, teens, young adults and Jonny Knoxville. Popular throughout both the music and Mythbusting industries they have been famously sported by The Edge, Rage against the Machine and Kurt Cobain and Jamie Heynemann and any shoe which is up to Tardis time travel cannot be too bad for the feet.
In the field of sport whilst the All-star is still an excellent choice, they have yielded to the design and technology of the sports shoe giants and have not entered into competition in the high tech performance market. Whilst still great basketball shoes, the likes of Reebok, Adidas and Nike have taken up the mantel, with the latter buying out Converse in 2003.
However far from being dead and gone the All-stars and Converse have seen a new lease of life under the guise of fashionable street wear. Available in leather, suede, vinyl, hemp, and denim with the traditional high tops and low tops they provide a blank canvas for design. This was taken on by fashion designer John Varvatos, of Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren fame, who created a range which took off with meteoric speed and have shown no sign of stopping.
The All-star has long been the shoe of choice for expression; however his designs have taken this to a whole new level and have wowed a generation. Whilst you can still customise your shoes with a marker pen on the white rubber trim or on the 2-ply cotton fabric uppers, stylish designs offer a readymade unique choice. You can still wear mismatched laces however if you want to leave the design to the experts you can choose from tartan, plaid, pop art, paint splatter, two tone or single colour classics. The burnished leather finishes are some of the most stylish, aging the shoes perfectly and giving an instant style.
However the sporting classic has not been relegated to the annals of history and the Converse sporting legend lives on. 1929 and 1930 Canadian Badminton champion Jack Purcell’s range is still made and used on court. The boat shoe and plimsoll range still offer a great flat shoe for indoor sports, and chic footwear on the street. The wide low profile sole offers great comfort, and grip in the dry and the wet, and is non-marking for indoor use.
In Skateboarding the shoe is still highly regarded for the excellent grip to keep the board glued to the feet, whilst providing the excellent feel necessary for perfect flips and grinds.
For style and customisation with a conscience, the (Converse) Red™ brand is committed to the Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. 5%-10% of the wholesale price of this range is donated to this charity when you buy.
So whether you need to teach a Dalek a lesson, prove that white men can’t jump, rock the world, bust some myths, bust some moves, or simply bust some stuff with high explosives the All-star is there to help you along the way.