ABSTRACT In all sorts of colors and worn by generations, the remains a timeless classic. But what granted it that title? We will explore the many ups and downs associated with the converse shoe history and understand why it is still so popular and adored by so many even after a decade since its first unveiling. DIANA ARECHIGA

Art 3410, (Modern to Contemporary History of FFM)

Instructor: Carole Frances Lung

March 13, 2018 THE HISTORY OF A TIMELESS CLASSIC:

The Converse Shoe

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The History of a Timeless Classic: The Converse Shoe

The converse All Star shoe bares many names, “Chucks”, “Converse”, “Taylors”, “Chuck

Taylor All Stars”, or “Converse All Stars”, also referred to as “Converses” or “Cons”, the list goes on. This extremely popular shoe has existed and has very seldom changed for about a decade now.

Adored through generations we will travel to the timeless history of the Converse shoe, looking at the design, the performance, the athletic beginning and the reason it gained so much popularity, first as an athletic shoe and later as a fashion statement. Many events and personal attributes have been responsible for granting this simple designed shoe a “classic”, “timeless” label. The converse shoe although it has been around for many years hasn’t changed its design very much, it is still a simple classic canvas shoe with a rubber bottom and point. What has changed is the target potential clients.

In the early 1900s there really wasn’t as many options for athletic wear as there is today.

The converse shoe initially started as a shoe, although it really wasn’t designed to be one. Basketball was a new sport, therefore the shoe was mainly intended as a physical education shoe, to be used in schools and gyms around the country. The fact is however, that’s its popular beginnings is credited to the sport of basketball. What many don’t know is that they were not the first athletic basketball shoe to appear on the wooden floor. In fact, the first athletic shoe was not even used for Basketball. Instead it was actually developed in England, where people were beginning to really take an interest in exercise. “first rubber-soled , called sandshoes or plimsolls, were made in England by the New Liverpool Rubber Company in 1876 (and were worn for croquet) and in the United States in 1892 by Humphrey O’Sullivan, based on technology perfected by Charles Goodyear. The U.S. Rubber Company, formed that same year, was the first Arechiga 2 company to sell shoes with rubber soles and heels under a number of brands, which in 1916 were consolidated under one name: Keds.”1. As the very popular book, “Chuck Taylor, All Star : The

True Story of the Man Behind the Most Famous Athletic Shoe in History” written by Abraham

Aamidor states, “the Keds were the first “tennis shoe” in America and later Convers adopted the design and made their own version of a similar model with a high top lase up design2. These new shoes were later called because it allowed the wearer to sneak up on someone else (rubber soles made little to no sound in comparison to the wooden soled boots all were used to wearing at that time). There were other reasons sneakers gained popularity. One obvious reason was that they were much more comfortable and had a planned left foot and right foot design, which was unlike the boots of the time that mainly had the same boxy left or right enterprise3. But by 1917 sport had become a common way of life and was being projected in the YMCAs and the public schools

In America. The new “Gym” shoe or “tennis Shoe” gained quick popularity because of its lightweight and easy traction.

The converse All Star shoe was developed by Marquis Mills Converse, who started his business in 1908, and began to gain popularity. Orders came in for this simple designed canvas and rubber shoe and Converse Inc. was started. The shoe had a canvas top with a rubber sole but really didn’t get the ankle patch until the 1930s, therefore there wasn’t very much difference between the converse shoe to other trainer shoes of the time. What was different however was the lace up high top that was designed to hold the ankle better and allow easier movement. But, there

1 DeMello, Margo. Feet and Footwear : A Cultural Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2009. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/csla/detail.action?docID=2060401. Created from csla on 2018-03-08 18:41:23. pg 20.

2 Aamidor, Abraham. Chuck Taylor, All Star : The True Story of the Man Behind the Most Famous Athletic Shoe in History, Indiana University Press, 2006. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/csla/detail.action?docID=281563. Created from csla on 2018-03-05 17:22:03. Pg. 144. 3 DeMello, Margo. Feet and Footwear : A Cultural Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2009. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/csla/detail.action?docID=2060401. Created from csla on 2018-03-08 18:41:23 Pg 21. Arechiga 3 were competitors, the Goodyear company had also developed a popular basketball shoe at that time and was a great competitor to the Convers enterprise (More modern competitors like; Nike,

Reebok, and Adidas didn’t make their way until much later in the 1960s). The Goodyear company had developed a shoe named the “Wingfoot” and even had a team named the “Akron Goodyear

Wingfoot”2 who played wearing the shoes. Many manufacturing companies would have basketball teams that would wear the shoes the companies made. Therefore, it is no surprise that the converse company also had a Basketball team to help with the promoting of the shoe. The Team was called the “Converse All Stars”4, it was very common for a shoe company to endorse their own basketball team to help spread recognition and popularity of their product.

It’s a bit comical to think that there was a time when hearing the name “All Stats” one thought about a basketball team and not a Converse Shoe. But why “Chuck Taylors”? the answer is because of a man named Charles H. Taylor who was actually playing for the “Akron Firestones” at the time. When he heard of a former basketball teammate saying that the converse company was offering 50 dollars a month to go around and promote the shoe he decided to leave his basketball career on hold and become a sales man for the popular converse brand.5 There really is not much evidence to support the idea that Chuck Taylor played for the Converse Team at this time but many speculate that he did. However, there is much evidence to support that he was a salesman to the company converse for many, many years and that he devoted his life both to the shoe itself and to the game of Basketball. Traveling around the country to visit different coaches gave Chuck Taylor much popularity and he became one of the converse company’s best salesman. This was really the

4 Aamidor, Abraham. Chuck Taylor, All Star : The True Story of the Man Behind the Most Famous Athletic Shoe in History, Indiana University Press, 2006. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/csla/detail.action?docID=281563. Created from csla on 2018-03-05 17:22:03. Pg 145. 5 Aamidor, Abraham. Chuck Taylor, All Star : The True Story of the Man Behind the Most Famous Athletic Shoe in History, Indiana University Press, 2006. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/csla/detail.action?docID=281563. Created from csla on 2018-03-05 17:22:03. Pg 46. Arechiga 4 way many companies would promote and advertise their products at this time. They had footmen that would travel the country and live out of a suitcase. They were hired to visit sports stores, coaches, and players, so they could purchase the shoe. Once it was selected and they had been sized the order would be taken in and the shoe was customized in the factory. One could not just walk in to a store and buy a pair of Converse All Stars, instead they had to be pre ordered and them made to fit, a bit tedious if one really needed a new pair of training shoes quickly.

The popular ankle patch found on the “All Star” shoe is also credited to Chuck Taylor. In

1932 the star and signature “Chuck Taylor was added to the design of the shoe and it is said that it was Taylor himself who gave out the idea. After this virtually everyone was calling the shoes

“Chuck Taylors” or “Chucks” in the 1930s. Therefore Chuck Taylor really is given credit as the first Celebrity endorser of an athletic sneaker. Although the Converse shoe was originally owned and operated by Marquis Converse it really didn’t stay with him for too long, it is reported that in

1928 he lost the company because he tried launching a new product, the “Converse Cord” a tire company, but because it was the time of the great depression and the making of the tire was to costly to make, it went under, and the shoe company went bankrupt.6 The company later was bought by Mitchell B. Kaufman, president and owner of the Hodgman Rubber Co. in Framingham,

Massachusetts. But in 1933 the company was again sold to the Stone Family. Joseph, Harry K., and Dewey D. Stone owned the company throughout the converse peak in the 1960s, where 90 percent of the college population walked around wearing Converse shoes. The Stone family would own the Converse brand well up into the 1970s.

6 Aamidor, Abraham. Chuck Taylor, All Star : The True Story of the Man Behind the Most Famous Athletic Shoe in History, Indiana University Press, 2006. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/csla/detail.action?docID=281563. Created from csla on 2018-03-05 17:22:03. Pg. 146 Arechiga 5

Part of the reason the Stone family was so successful in regards to the Converse shoe

Company was the Advertising tactics. There is no surprise that if a company is successful at advertising their products, one is sure to see results in the sales as well. One very great example of the families advertising strategies was the Converse shoe yearbook. What an awesome idea to promote the shoe! The yearbook was started in 1929 and continued all the way to the 1980s. that’s

49 years! The reason this was successful was because the company would go around the country taking pictures of different basketball High School teams wearing the Converse shoe and would later print the results in the yearbook. So many schools would wait and get so excited to see the results. All they needed to do to be in the yearbook was promote the shoe by making sure 90 percent of the athletes were wearing the shoe.7 This made sure to bring loyalty to the company and even the employees. As Aamidor states in his research, “Former Converse executives speak well of Stephen Stone. “You couldn’t have had nicer people than the Stone family,” said former

Piston and Hall of Famer , who began in the sales and promotion division of

Converse with Chuck Taylor in 1959. “You didn’t get paid a lot but they always took care of you.”” (Aamidor, 2006).

Another great ambassador to the shoe was a Canadian badminton player named, Jack

Purcell, who brought up the Converse shoe titled “Jacks” which was a low top version of the “All

Star” sneaker. It was so successful that that version is still used and sold well today. 8 Another great contribution the Converse company created was the part they took in World War II. Because there was such a demand on shoes for the soldiers. Converse decided to make military boots and

7 Aamidor, Abraham. (Aamidor, 2006)University Press, 2006. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/csla/detail.action?docID=281563. Created from csla on 2018-03-05 17:22:03. Pg.147 8 DeMello, Margo. Feet and Footwear : A Cultural Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2009. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/csla/detail.action?docID=2060401. Created from csla on 2018-03-08 18:41:23. Pg. 81 Arechiga 6 even sent out “All Star” shoes for trainings. This gave much success to the company and with it they were able to expand. (De Mello, 2009)

However it was not always all smooth sailing for the Converse shoe brand however. In the

1936 Olympics the company introduced the very first change in color of the “All Star” basketball shoe. The new white design was a success and stuck around along with the classic black converse with white sole. But because they were so slow in changing their design by the time it was the

1968 Olympics, new competitive companies emerged from Germany with better performance shoes made of leather and not Canvas. These new brands (Adidas, and Puma) left the converse in the dust when comparing the performance and built of model. Luckily the shoe was still selling well to the general public.

One of the people that would drop the brand for example is a popular hall of fame Coach for UCLA and long devotee to the convers brand until 1970. It was a big change and deal to do this since he is well known for teaching well shoe tying adequate when wearing the converse shoe. As one of his former players () stated in an interview honoring his former coach said, “Doing this properly, was the initial lesson for “everything we would need to know for the rest of our lives.”9 Making sure to tie the shoelaces right so they wouldn’t come undone was a big part of getting ready for the game, undone show laces would make the game time stop and that wouldn’t be good for anyone. The laces of the Converse shoe really have not changed at all. There are many kinds of laces now for athletic shoe. There are stretchy kinds of laces that are made more of synthetic fiber and those tend to be more prone for coming undone.

The converse laces however are made of a more natural fiber and tend to hold better, especially if

9 http://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/wooden-shoes-and-socks-84177 Arechiga 7 one does a double knot. Laces are a 20th century invention and wasn’t very common before then.

The earliest mas produced shoes actually had buckles or buttons to tie them together. The small plastic or metal sheath on the end of shoelaces that keeps the twine from unraveling is called an aglet (or aiglet).10 In the Book, “The art of Shoe Making” by W. Brown, it states, “Shoelaces can be tied in an almost infinite number of ways. The most common bow, however, is a variant on two half knots tied one on top of the other. The second half-knot is looped in order to allow for quick untying.” According to this resource, “Mathematically, there is almost 2 trillion ways to lace a shoe with six pairs of eyelets. The most common method, termed "Criss Cross Lacing", is also one of the strongest and most efficient, especially compared to other more decorative methods that are generally more difficult to tighten or loosen” (Brown, 2006). To John Wooden Understanding effective shoe tying was very important because it prevented interruptions to the game of basketball.

Pair of Converse basketball sneakers from the 1940s. Copyright 2010 Beta Museum, Toronto.

10 Brown, W. (2006). Art of shoe making. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com Created from csla on 2018-03-10 10:22:10. Arechiga 8

Eventually however, even though the success of the Converse Shoe was very effective as a basketball shoe, the reality was that the canvas top was not very well designed to take on all the back and forth movement of the player, and the shoes would quickly give out.

There was a Fitness craze that occurred in the 1970s and 80s and many people began to seek out well made athletic shoes. New brands emerged and a big competitor by the name of “Blue

Ribbon Sports” came out and converse was now seeing a decline on sales in the athletic department. Later “blue ribbon Sports” would change its name to “Nike” in the year 1978. 11

Because of the new competitors and their new idea that Higher price meant better performance in regards to athletic shoes Converse had to find a new form of advertising. Although Celebrity endorsements had been around in the 1920s because of Chuck Taylor, it didn’t really become the primary way of promoting the shoe until the 1980s. “Blue ribbon/ Nike” Became the best selling running shoe in America in 1974 and they also were the first to start making the shoe over seas in places like Asia where it was cheaper to produce. According to the Article , “ Shoes and shoemaking” by E. Semmelhack, “This trend toward Asian manufacture was echoed throughout the footwear industry as the century progressed. For example, U.S. imports of nonrubber footwear increased from 265 million pairs in 1974 to 370 million pairs by 1976. The threat to the domestic shoemaking industry was the focus of many international trade negotiations that sought to reduce imports. However, the tide of imports could not be stemmed. By the mid-1980s, U.S. Shoe companies had shifted their focus to brand development, marketing, and sales, leaving offshore suppliers to manufacture the actual footwear.” Because the focus was no longer the art of making

11 Semmelhack, E. (2010). Shoes and Shoemaking. In P.G. (E., 2010) Tortora (Ed.). Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion: The United States and Canada (pp. 128–134). Oxford: Bloomsbury Academic. Retrieved March 12 2018, from http://dx.doi.org/10.2752/BEWDF/EDch3019 Arechiga 9 the shoe, companies had more time to focus on the actual design of the shoes and come up with different advertisement techniques to increase their sales and audiences.

Because the Converse shoe was a basketball shoe initially they did try to recapture their audiences by crating a new basketball design shoe that was “More effective” to the needs of the game and players, they also recruited a new Celebrity Basketball Player to promote the shoe.

Celebrity endorsements became one of the most effective ways to promote shoes and gained much popularity. Using Advertisements in TV commercials became more effective, walking door to door to visit different high schools and coaches had become something of the past. And so ended the tradition of the converse “yearbook” in 1983. In 1979 the converse CO. had again been sold to am Allied Corporation and then to Senior managers at converse in 1982 for $100 million dollars the converse company was renamed to “Converse Inc.” (Aamidor, 2006). In the 1980s the new convers Inc. decided to sign different deals with celebrities like, “ (1979), Julius

Erving (1975), and . These expensive endorsements proved to be a success and the converse Enterprise was signed as the “the official athletic shoes of the Olympics in

1984.” (They did however pay for those rights which was a nice 1 million dollars).

The company was doing well and really tried in many retrospect’s to keep above the competing brands of the time. But they were no match to Nikes new signed Celebrity “Michael

Jordan who came out in 1986 with the “Air Jordan’s”. There was much rivalry with both brands.

On one side there was “” and on the other “Magic Johnson” and even though converse did have its most successful TV ad known as “Grandmama” , where it displayed a 6- foot-7, 250 pound Charlotte Hornets Forward “Larry Johnson” Dressed as “Grandmama” playing basketball. And Tried to display their new line of basketball shoes called the “Run ‘n’ Slam”, eventually the campaign was unsuccessful and the sales for the shoe did not last. (Aamidor, 2006). Arechiga 10

It also wasn’t helpful that in 1992, Magic Johnson came out stating that, “Converse as a company is stuck in the ’60s and ’70s,” Magic told a group of reporters as the U.S. Olympic basketball team practiced in 1992. “I’ve been trying to get out for years.”12

Not all was lost for the Converse brand however, Luckily Basketball players were not the only ones that would purchase the shoe. In fact Converse Inc. made better sales with youth that were watching bands like the “Ramones” or people like Kurt Cobain from Nirvana (he had quite a devotion to the One Star converse and its said to have been wearing a pair on the day of his death). According to the article, “Teens” by Tully, Shawn, Schonfeld, Erick, Fortune. It is stated that “teens made up 3 Billion in Sneaker sales in 1992 alone. 13 Because of television and other forms of media, fast spreading advertisements made it so easy to see ones’ idols, and teens especially would purchase and make the effort to follow their idols trends and styles as much as

12 , Abraham. Chuck Taylor, All Star : The True Story of the Man Behind the Most Famous Athletic Shoe in History, Indiana University Press, 2006. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/csla/detail.action?docID=281563. Created from csla on 2018-03-05 17:22:03. PG. 152

Tully, S., & Schonfeld, E. (1994). TEENS. Fortune, 129(10), 90-96.13 Arechiga 11 possible. This sprung up sales for converse tremendously. Because of views of the shoe during iconic movies like, “Back to the future”, “The Sandlot”, “Grease”, and the “West Side Story”. The sales of the shoes sprung up not with athletes, but with the general public who wanted a lay back appeal (the shoe has even made recent debut in modern movies like I, Robot and others). “Nothing is molding common tastes around the world more than sports and music. Teen music sets the tempo in clothing, and kids who listen to the same bands cultivate a common look.” (Tully, 1994) Since the 1960 Convers has began to promote the shoe to the common public, since then they changed, not so much the design but the material, adding suede, leather, and different colors.

The converse All star Brand has been a part of almost every form of subculture one can think up. The “Greasers” in the , the “punks” in the 1970s, and the “grunge” in the 1980s.

(De Mello, 2009). It is mind boggling that this originally a “Basketball” shoe has been an unchanged classic for about a decade now. Its long story has many ups and downs in success. It has gone through many different owners but yet the classic design has stayed the same. In 2002 Arechiga 12 the company was sold to Nike and the shoe is no longer being produced in the states which might take away from the proud “All American” ideal. However, there is much more to this shoe than where it is produced or the design. Part of its popularity goes back to the families that purchase the shoe. There is a bit of magic in the thought that the same black and white classic high top with the star in the ankle that my mother wore in her youth, is the same I wear, and perhaps still unchanged my daughter will wear as well. There has been talk about changes and many pediatrist completely hate the shoe because of its lack of performance. But the reason people challenge the idea of changing the classic shoe to a more modern, flexible, better comfort idea, goes back to that same thought. The shoe holds a timeless memory. One that goes back a hundred years. And those personal connections is what holds the shoe an untouched classic, and forever lasting model.

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Bibliography Aamidor, A. (2006). Chuck Taylor, All Star : The True Story of the Man Behind the Most Famous Athletic Shoe in History, Indiana . University press.

Brown, W. (2006). Art of shoe making .

De Mello, M. (2009). Feet and footwear: a cultural encyclopedia. .

E., S. (2010). Shoes and Shoe making. in P. G. Tortora (Ed) Berg Encyclopedia of world dress and Fashion: The United States and Canada (pp. 128-134). Oxford: Bloomsbury Academic. .

Luna, T. (2015). The Rise of Sneaker Culture; Trends- Collections: Now and then trends . Peoples daily online .

Tully. (1994). Teens . The most global market of all.

http://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/wooden-shoes-and-socks-84177