Chuck Taylor All-Stars
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Chuck Taylor All-Stars, or Converse All-Stars, also referred to as "Chuck's" or Cons[1] ' 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.
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[edit] 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 of the many changes 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.
[edit] 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. It remains unclear on how Converse went bankrupt selling these shoes, which haven't lost popularity for half a century, but instead gained an ever increasing demand. They no longer seem to be worn by their original target market of basketball players (at least not in the professional sphere) who have moved on to more modern shoes, but instead they are now marketed toward the mainstream teenager. Some are so enthusiastic about the sneakers that they have a vast, ever-growing collection. Today the shoes are very popular with kids, tweens, teens, college students and young adults. One thing about these shoes that makes it unique is both boys and girls and men and women can wear the same shoes and be stylish.
One other place in which the shoe is quite popular is in the sport of powerlifting, where the flat soles of the shoe make for a more stable base than normal styles of sneakers whose heel is usually thicker than the toe of the shoe, and which often have cushioning that absorbs and therefore wastes some of the force exerted to move the weight. Many powerlifters state the lack of elevation in the heel provides better support during squats and deadlifts. Moreover, the lack of elevation reduces the range of motion during the deadlift, often allowing more weight to be lifted by shortening the distance the barbell must be moved.[citation needed]
[edit] 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.
[edit] References
- ^ "Converse.com". http://www.converse.com/. Retrieved on 2007-11-11.
[edit] External links
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