I've heard some news that made my stomach twist - granted, it was pretty trivial news, but all the same it's about something dear to my heart (hence the stomach-twisting). Driving home from work (listening to NPR), the story breaks - Nike, America's own shoe-making monolith, has purchased Converse for about 300 million dollars.
Yeah, business is business, but now I've got to deal with a brand new owner of the world's greatest shoe. Converse is the maker of world's greatest shoe, you ask? Oh hell yeah, and you know the next phrase out my mouth is going to be this:
"Chuck Taylor All-Stars."
So now I'm going to lament this heinous news by writing a tribute to the dark horse of the shoe world. We hail thee, Chuck - first ever sponsor of an athletic shoe.
Arguably the only thing Converse has manufactured since 1980 that was worth buying, "Chucks" have long been a hallmark of people with suspect fashion sense. They're clunky, rubbery, and certainly don't look very sleek compared to today's sneakers (even back before your average pair of sneakers looked like part of a jet aircraft). The shoes themselves are nothing to write home about* - we're talking about canvas and rubber, basically kind of thrown together to create what may have officially been the world's first basketball shoe. Not that you'd really want to do anything athletic in them - they offer little in the way of arch support and virtually nothing to prevent an ankle sprain or twist.
 The great thing about "Chucks" is that they never really pretended to be something they're not. There was no mystery about them - they were utilitarian in nature, not very waterproof, and the soles wore down. On the flip side, you paid roughly $30 at most for something that was a known quantity. Now take Nike shoes into consideration - you buy something that's amazingly over-hyped, over-sponsored, and criminally over-priced. I stopped buying Nike shoes a long time ago, after I realized they that actually seemed to completely disintegrate after about 6 months, almost like there was some self-destruct mechanism in them. And you paid what - $70, $80 for those? A pair of Chuck Taylors usually lasts me from spring 'till fall before I wear the heels out to an unwearable point - and I invested less than half the money.
The best selling point of Chuck Taylor All-Stars isn't the durability or comfort, of course - it's style and charm. They've got personality. If you break it down, the "Chucks" brand pretty much equates to being the Volkswagen Beetle of the shoe world. A Beetle is kind of cheap and not very pretty, but really accessible, highly distinctive, and at the end of the day, it will get you to where you're going. Chuck Taylors carry that same kind of distinction to the world of footwear. They have a "look," to be certain. The "look" means different things for different people, and in recent years, they've come to be associated with some specific personality types. For example, "geeky" folks, people who have a fondness for things from the 1980s (I'm there on both of those counts), and skateboarders (I’m still a wannabe) can be seen sporting them. They've become popular with younger bands these days too, the type that could have easily evolved out of garage rock. Some counter-culture types buy them on purpose because they're NOT the fancy establishment-representing Nike or Reebok shoes that seem to denote status. The shoes can seem almost hopelessly backyard suburbanite, in many ways. I've noticed that when I wear my black high-tops, they almost always draw comments from people I'm around - comments that have a faint air of fondness and even some nostalgia.
Before selling out to Nike, the recent resurgence of "Chucks" was one of the only things keeping Converse afloat. Happily, this lead to a fun evolution in the Chuck Taylor style - a huge variety of canvas colors and prints came into being. The two basic colors (the standard black and the occasional off-white) began to be joined by damn near any color you could ask for. Custom prints, like black canvas with flames running the length of the shoe began to appear, along with red, white and blue American flag Chuck Taylors. Recently, they've even started producing limited edition prints like leopard, and have added a low-heeled "mule" style of the shoe to the traditional "lo" and "high" tops. Momentum was gaining…
A multi-billion dollar corporation now owns the property, and there's fear involved. Sure, since Nike purchased Converse seemingly because of the Chuck Taylor All-Star line alone, we know that the shoes will be out there. The fear that likely now floats in the minds of loyal wearers of "Chucks" everywhere is that Nike will somehow change the equation. The tools being wielded by a giant corporate hand could possibly ruin a shoe that is specifically known for NOT being a mass-marketed symbol. There's no way I'm going to wear them if they get changed or over-priced, and that's going to hurt me badly… then what would I use to attract women to me? <sigh>
* Sure the shoes aren't anything to write home about, but they are obviously something to write a column about. Well, you READ it, didn't you?
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