Aleem Ahmed, 29, was wearing black low-tops. Maybe he has a skateboarding background? If you were a cook, you knew the name Betty Crocker. There was no such person as Betty Crocker. But there really was such a person as Chuck Taylor. His brand grew with the shoe even as his persona, the real persona, was lost. Charles Taylor was born in , just ten years after Dr. James Naismith is credited with inventing the game of basketball.
He graduated in and eventually landed in Akron, Ohio where he played for the Firestone Non-Skids, a semi-pro team owned by the tire manufacturer. But in , he accepted a job as a salesman at Converse, and basketball was a critical part of his position. Joe Dean worked for Converse for nearly 30 years, ending his tenure as a vice president. When Dean was hired in , Taylor was already a giant at the company and in the world of basketball. He loved being a part of it. He put on clinics all over the country, helping kids learn how to play a little bit better," said Dean, who later served as the athletic director at Louisiana State University and is in the College Basketball Hall of Fame.
And if you wanted to hire a coach, you went through him. In recent years, more than , Chuck Taylor All Stars are sold every single day.
The sneaker of choice for everyone from rock gods and reluctant screen legends to anarchists and punks at heart. Written by Jennifer Fernandez. Illustrations by Hallie Heald. Head to our Instagram for some rad behind-the-scenes and styling tips. Follow on Instagram. More of the good stuff—a celebration of the people who inspire us and the classic kicks in their closets. You most likely have a pair or two currently on rotation, but how well do you know the All Star story?
Read on for a brief history of one of the most famous shoes in footwear history. It initially specialised in winterised rubber-soled footwear but as the American appetite for basketball — a relatively new sport at the time — increased, it wasn't long before Converse began its fateful foray into basketball shoes.
The high-top silhouette was composed of a rubber sole and canvas upper, with a cushioned insole, arch and heel support as well as its now-iconic diamond tread pattern, designed for increased traction. It wasn't until a few years later that the All Star became the Chuck Taylor All Star, when a basketball player by the name of Chuck Taylor joined Converse as a salesman. Having experienced first-hand the issues with basketball footwear at the time, Taylor was brimming with ideas for how to improve them.
Within a year of his arrival at the company, Converse had taken his advice on board and restyled the shoe to enhance its flexibility and ankle support. And so, in , the world's first celebrity-endorsed athletic shoe — the Converse Chuck Taylor All Star — was born. In the following years, Taylor travelled around the US promoting the shoe and leading basketball clinics to increase participation in the sport.
By the s, the Chuck Taylor All Star had become cemented as a firm favourite amongst professional and college basketball players.
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