CONVERSE.
BY Pattharawat
History of Converse.
Converse began in 1908 as a rubber shoe company specialising in galoshes. Soon after, we started using our rubber to make sneakers. In 1920, we renamed our canvas basketball sneaker the “All Star.” The name stuck. What didn’t stick was their intention. We made them to sink jump shots on the court. You, however, saw them as something more… and started wearing our sneakers to do whatever you wanted. You played music, made art, skated the streets and kicked back. You wore them as fashion. You wore them to work. You customised them with your personal style. You did everything to them, and in them. You saw our sneakers’ unlimited potential.
ALL CONVERSE. All Stars
One Stars.
It’s curious to think that suede on a shoe was once considered a bold move. Those basics that we take for granted weren’t basic when they debuted; they had a purpose before being retired. But some shoes just couldn’t stay away. By 1969, the canvas and rubber of Converse’s All Star formula had begun to look a little archaic. After all, the All Star is 98 years old this year; a model that evolved from a non-skid creation that was made for multiple court sports before settling with the then-young game of basketball, which was just 26 years old when the Converse Rubber Shoe Co. introduced the model in 1917. For its earliest form, this hi-top design (not the first basketball shoe — Spalding pioneered it, and pioneered several other designs too, including basketball caps at the turn of the 20th century) didn’t bear the star logo. Instead, a ‘C’ on the circular patch was applied that would disappear in favour of something more recognisable. The familiar star was added around 1921, reportedly at player-salesman Chuck Taylor’s request. That Taylor deal could be considered one of the industry’s original collaborations.
Jack Purcell.
The Winner 1970.
The Winner - The Chucks
eventually entered mainstream use as a multi-purpose shoe during the Second World War. The shoe was used by American soldiers in their training and as well as in their basketball clinics, coached by Chuck Taylor himself (then serving as an Air Force Captain). After the war, Converse introduced the black and white All Star by changing the sole and the toe guard’s color to white, giving birth to what we know today as the classic Chuck Taylor.
Converse is the U.S. Olympic basketball team.
Economy of Converse. As its parent company commands, Converse is just doing it. The 105-year-old brand has grown at breakneck pace since Nike rescued the company in 2003, two years after it filed for bankruptcy. Since its cultural heyday in the ’80s, the hip sneaker has experienced a rebirth. On Thursday, Converse posted an 18% increase in revenue over the past three months, a shining star on an overall impressive balance sheet for Nike. From now on Converse will report its earnings separately, heralding the brand’s standalone success.
How was Converse able to turn around? It transformed a basic canvas sneaker into a designer’s canvas. From black leather-studded sneakers by John Varvatos to woolly bright hightops by Hudson Bay, there are endless options across the fashion spectrum. The original Converse All Star, created for basketball players, was the ultimate sports sneaker in the 1970s. In the ’80s, Converse became the quintessential casual footwear before the sneakers were made famous by musicians like Kurt Cobain in the early ’90s. The Converse website describes this transition best: “We started on the court and got adopted on the street.” Converse leveraged this change at the right moment by dropping its original all-American message in favor of an image that would appeal to millennials: individuality and independence. Their 2008 “Connectivity Campaign” played up the brand’s counter-cultural appeal, featuring images of rebellious icons of past decades, such as Brit-bad boy Sid Vicious, and American idols Janis Joplin, James Dean and Billie Joe Armstrong. The campaign extended globally into 75 countries, each customized with area-specific celebrities, and helped the brand post a 29% increase in year-over-year revenue.