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Chuck Taylor All-Stars

Miscellaneous All-Stars

Chuck Taylor All-Stars, also referred to as "Chucks,"^[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. They were not particularly popular until basketball player Chuck Taylor adopted them as his preferred shoe. He was so impressed with the design that 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.

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 Foreword by Dean Smith.

When Converse was bought by Nike 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 90's grunge culture, especially in the early nineties days of G-funk. There has been a recent re-adoption of them in modern Punk Rock and emo fashion. In the British sci-fi television show Doctor Who, Chuck Taylors are the signature footwear of the Tenth Doctor (played by actor David Tennant). Also Harry Potter played by actor Daniel Radcliffe wears Converse All-Stars as well as Rocky Balboa (played by Sylvester Stalone)

Despite the major setbacks for Converse in recent times, 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 have been sold worldwide. 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 to the mainstream teenager. Some are so enthusiastic about the sneakers that they have a vast, ever-growing collection. They are also quite influential in pop-culture; Converse Chuck Taylor All-Stars have been popular for decades in the American punk and indie rock scenes, and Hollywood has popularized Chucks in countless motion pictures, including Dennis the Menace (U.S.) where Dennis Mitchell wears black high-top Chucks, and Because of Winn Dixie, where Opal wears black oxford Converses. One of the possible reasons that motion pictures starring children make the child actor wear Converse shoes is because they are known to be the "classic shoe", the "original trend." The video game character Terry Bogard, from King of Fighters wears Chuck Taylors.

Since the turn of the century, particularly since 2005, Converse have become increasingly popular, with a growing market. Originally seen as being worn by those in to a rock music scene, the market is growing to various, younger scenes, whether it be based on a sub-culture (rock still being popular, especially with the growing emo scene) the Chuck Taylors are becoming more popular with hip hop scenes, pop music scene and fashion in general. Many Chuck Taylor owners are those who have owned the shoes in the past, and most own more than one pair, as recently many more colors are now produced than before. One other place in which the high-top version of the shoe is quite popular, is in the sport of weightlifting, specifically powerlifting, where the flat soles of the shoe make for a better base than normal styles of sneakers whose heel is usually thicker than the toe of the shoe. Many powerlifters state the lack of elevation in the heel provides better support during squats and Deadlifts.

Beaten up, written-on All Stars popular in rock scenes

Chuck Taylors saw another upswing in popularity in the early 1990s. Some may attribute this growing trend to a higher awareness of such fashions as grunge -- an outgrowth of some 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.

The recent increases in numbers of colors may also have led to the market for Chuck Taylors growing, due to the apparent customisability of the shoe through color, use of stylised shoelaces, and through drawing or writing on the rubberised parts. The customisation of Chuck Taylors is highly popular with the rock scene, especially 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, or a Chuck Taylor and a different shoe) -- 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. In addition to writing on the shoes, young girls also interlaced ordinary jingle bells onto the laces, making jingling sounds whenever they walked down the corridors of their local junior high schools.^{[citation needed]}

Converse All-Stars were heavily featured in the film Sin City.

1. ^ Converse.com. Retrieved on 2007-11-11.

• Converse website

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