Over the last decade, Converse has dominated the market with their iconic high top “All-Star” Chuck Taylors. Michelle Boukhover explores it’s rich history through a graphic book, tracing the origins from Marquis Converse to Chuck Taylor to the Chucks we know and love today. All information taken from Wikipedia, Converse.com, or Chucks Connection. Images used are from Google. All graphics are the author’s own. Contact her by showing up at her stoop with some coffee, a couple of cats, chocolate.
“Converse is a 108 year old teenager because we’re constantly evolving”
At age 47, Marquis Mills Converse, who was previously a respected manager at a footwear manufacturing firm, opened the Converse Rubber Shoe Company 108 years ago in February 1908 in Malden, Massachusetts. The company was a rubber shoe manufacturer, providing winterized rubber soled footwear for men, women, and children. By 1910, Converse was producing shoes daily, but it was not until 1915 that the company began manufacturing athletic shoes for tennis. The company’s main turning point came in 1917 when the Converse All-Star basketball shoe was introduced. The company continued to thrive, but suffered some downs throughout their history, most notably in 2003, pushed out by other big names, when they filed for bankrupsy and were sold to Nike for 309 million dollars. Converse is now rebranding as a lifestyle sneaker, geared towards the young crowd rather than the athletic shoe it was in the past.
Charles H.“Chuck” Taylor In their first five decades, Converse All Stars became established as the premier model of basketball shoe, extensively promoted by a man named Charles ‘Chuck’ Taylor. Taylor was a skilled basketball player, clinician, and coach who made some significant design changes to the shoes after he came to work for Converse in 1921. Taylor was rewarded for his efforts in the 1930s when his name was added to the product and his signature was placed on its ankle patch. During this time, between the 1940’s and 60’s, almost all high school, college, professional teams
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The basic design
of a typical pair of hightop chucks is simple yet brilliant. You start with two rubber butter soles with a unique pattern of lines and diamonds underneath half-moon toe caps, attach two layer cans uppers and a tongue to each outer sole, add a spongy rubber and fabric insole, and then connect them all together with a white butter wrap accented with colored piping and a toe guard with more embedded diamonds and lines. Each shoe has seven, eight, or nine pairs of metal eyelets that are use to hold the flat, stretchable shoelaces, plus two on the inside for “ventilation.” The shoes are completed with double rows of stitching along the edges, below the eyelets, and up the back, and ankle support is provided by a third piece of canvas. A circular patch containing a bright blue star, the words “Converse All Star” and the signature of ‘Chuck’ Taylor glues to the inside ankle point of each shoe. Their intricate geometric pattern and shapes, durability and functionality, and sleep modern design look make your pair of chucks a perfect example of the Art Deco style that was fashionable in America & Europe at the time chucks was first designed.
GOTHAM GOTHAM SPECIMEN SHEET
designed by Tobias Frere-Jones in 2000
“masculine, geometric structure. new, and fresh” “very established, has to have a sort of credible voice to it” - Jonathan Hoefler “deliberately evokes the blocky nonsense, unselfconcious architectural lettering that dominated the streetscapes from the 1930s through the 1960’s” -Dmitri Siegal
designed by Tobias Frere-Jones in 2000