Loading ...The Converse All-Star was introduced in 1917. A basketball star named Chuck Taylor popularized the style, and in 1923 the company added his signature to the logo on the shoe, and the fashion sneaker juggernaut known to most as “Chucks” was born. For the last 90 years, these iconic shoes have become part of the uniform for a wide variety of groups and subcultures, including basketball and weightlifting jocks, 50’s greasers, 70’s punk rockers, and 90’s grunge rockers.
Unfortunately, Converse was mismanaged into bankruptcy in 2001, allowing Nike to buy the company for a pittance and immediately thereafter ship manufacturing of these American staples overseas (largely to Southeast Asia.) I wish I could say this was reason enough to stop buying their products, but that’s the bed of capitalism we have made and upon which we lay. After Nike starting churning them out in no-better-than-sweatshops, the quality of the shoe decreased, likely due to different raw material sources and poorer quality control. Ask anyone who bought a pair in 1994 versus 2004 and they will tell you that newer Chucks fall apart faster than Tim Sylvia in a boxing ring.
That being said, there is no shoe on the market that has been copied more times by more competitors than the ubiquitous Chucks, yet all have failed to eclipse the popularity and versatility of the original. You’ll be hard pressed to find a rubber and canvas shoe that is available in so many colors or that can be paired with so many different looks. At only $45 a pair, you had might as well buy the original. You can wear them in literally any casual environment and with nearly any outfit. Shorts, jeans, khakis, even suits are in play.
Some would say that Chucks are too young of a style for a man to pull off if he’s over the age of 30. I say that those people are boring and full of shit. If wearing a solid color, plain canvas sneaker is all it takes to transform your look from trendy to teenager, you’re doing it wrong in the first place.
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45$?! I got a pair in the six grade for like twenty bucks. Nike is bullshit….
This helps explain why these oft-touted shoes that I finally got six months ago are already falling apart.
Fucking Nike.