Converse Sneakers

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Chuck Taylor All-Stars, or Converse All-Stars, also referred to as "Chuck's" or Cons ' are canvas and rubber shoes produced by Converse. They were first produced in 1917 as the "All-Star," Converse's attempt to capture the basketball shoe market.

History

The shoes were not particularly popular until basketball player Chuck Taylor adopted them as his preferred shoe. He was impressed with the design so he became the shoe's leading salesman. After proposing a few changes to the shoe, the shoe got its current name and Chuck Taylor's signature on its ankle patch. One change was the switch to nonslip soles. Although classic black is the most popular, Chuck Taylor was himself known to prefer unbleached white high-tops (known in his day as simply "white").

Consumers demanded more variety from the shoe - particularly with respect to colors in order to match basketball teams - so colored and patterned shoelaces became popular to complement the two colors, black and white, available before 1966. Afterwards, more colors and styles became available. Low-top or "Oxford", high-top, and later knee-high, versions were produced. More materials were offered for the construction, including leather, suede, vinyl, denim, and hemp. Some versions of the shoe were offered without laces, held up instead by elastic. These new versions of the shoe were also co-designed by Chuck Taylor, just before his death in 1969.

A full biography of Chuck Taylor was published by Indiana University Press in March 2006 under the title Chuck Taylor, All Star: The True Story of the Man Behind the Most Famous Athletic Shoe in History, with a foreword by the retired college basketball coach Dean Smith.

When Converse was bought by Nike in 2003 and operations were moved from the United States to overseas, the design saw a few alterations. The fabric is no longer 2-ply cotton canvas but 1-ply "textile" and many wearers have noticed different patterns of wear.

The shoes are available in several core colors, seasonal colors, and a variety of print styles. In the 1950s the shoes became popular within the greaser subculture and amongst many fans of rockabilly. Fans of punk rock have adopted the shoe as a fashion trend since the late 1970s and many popular punk rock bands, such as the Ramones, have supported the trend by wearing the sneakers. All-Stars became popular again in the '90s as fans of the world famous grunge-punk band Nirvana emulated the band's frontman Kurt Cobain, who had worn All-Stars for many years prior to the 90's due to the influence of different punk rock bands he enjoyed in his youth.

Popularity

The Converse Chuck Taylor All-Star is the most successful shoe in history, and has enjoyed recent popularity thanks to a resurgence of old school trends. By the turn of the 21st century, over 750 million pairs had been sold worldwide.

Today the shoes are very popular with kids, tweens, teens, college students and young adults (20's-30's), both male and female. A unique feature of the shoes is that they are unisex.

The Guinness Book of World Records states that as of March 3rd, 2007, the world's largest collection of Converse Shoes is held by Joshua Mueller of Lakewood, WA (USA) consisting of 680 unique pairs. Converse All-Stars make up the bulk of the collection.

In popular culture

The tenth Doctor of the British Sci-Fi TV show "Doctor Who", played by David Tennant, wears Converse All Star high tops. The Doctor owns 3 pairs: a White pair, a Red pair and a Black pair. The Black ones he wears with his Tux. *
The Spirit played by Gabriel Macht wears Black-Monochrome Converse All Star high tops in canvas with upper and rubber sole.
In the Xbox 360 video game Perfect Dark Zero, Joanna Dark wears a 2020 concept model of the Black Leather Converse All Star high tops. *
Andrew McCarthy's character Larry Wilson wears a pair of red All Star high tops in the 1989 film "Weekend at Bernie's"
Chuck Bartowski on the TV series "Chuck" wears Chuck Taylors in every episode.
Harry Potter, portrayed by Daniel Radcliffe, wears black low cut Converse "Chuck Taylor" All Stars in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Also fellow student Luna Lovegood (Evanna Lynch) wears plaid high tops.
A young Brad Pitt wore white All Stars in the movie Across the Tracks.
John Travolta in Grease wore black Chucks.
On the big screen, even Stuart Little gets into the act by wearing red Chucks. *
Heavy Metal band Pantera were famous for that all four members of the band wore black high top All-Stars.
In High School Musical 3, Zac Efron in his lead role as Troy Bolton wears black high tops in almost every scene in the film, including things like his graduation, his prom scene with Gabriella, the spring musical, all the major dance numbers, and on campus.
In the popular T.V show "Mythbusters" one of the main presenters, Jamie Hyneman, can often be seen wearing red chucks.
In the television series M*A*S*H the character B.J. Hunnicutt is often seen wearing black high tops instead of his Army issued boots.
In The 2004 film I, Robot, Will Smith wears a pair of blue Converse Chuck Taylors.
In the film Back to the Future, Marty McFly wears black high tops when in the 1950s.
In the video game Half-Life 2, Father Grigori wears black high tops.
In the video game Left 4 Dead, Zoey wears dark brown high tops.

Chuck Taylors and fashion

Chuck Taylors saw of the same rock-oriented youth cultures that have kept an affinity for the shoes since (at least) the late '70s/early '80s punk and new wave eras.

In 2004, a wildly successful collaboration with designer John Varvatos gave rise to reinterpreted version of the classic Chuck Taylor All Star and Jack Purcell sneakers, including the creation of the John Varvatos Laceless Chuck Taylor.

The recent increases in numbers of colors may also have led to the market for Chuck Taylors growing, due to various owner- or factory-based customizations of the shoe through color, use of stylized shoelaces, and through drawing or writing on the rubberized parts. The customization of Chuck Taylors is highly popular with the rock scene, especially, but not limited to, teenage girls, with many drawing/writing on the shoes, putting mismatching laces in the shoes, or wearing odd shoes (often two differently colored Chuck Taylors) - all styles fairly common among wearers of the shoes over the past three decades. However, the original trend of wearing the low-rise shoes (in white) and writing on the rubberized part can be traced back to early as 1972, with the height of the fashion amongst junior high school girls being between 1973-1975. They are also used for everyday. Due to the texture and unique designs, Converse are favored globally.