Converse all star history wikipedia
Chuck Taylor (salesman)
American basketball player and sport shoe salesman (1901–1969)
Charles Hollis Taylor (June 24, 1901 – June 23, 1969) was an American basketball player and basketball shoe salesman/marketer who was associated with Chuck Taylor All-Stars, which he helped to improve and promote.
Early life and education
Charles H. "Chuck" Taylor was born in rural Brown County, Indiana, on June 24, 1901. Taylor, a graduate of Columbus High School in Columbus, Indiana, in 1919, played guard position on the school's basketball team. He became captain of the varsity team while a high school sophomore, and was also a two-time all-state team selection.
Career
Taylor began his career as a semi-professional basketball player in 1919 and as the player-manager for the Converse All-Stars basketball team in the mid-1920s, but he became widely known as a salesman and promoter of Converse All Star basketball shoes. Taylor traveled the country providing local basketball clinics, making special appearances, and meeting with customers in local sporting goods stores to promote the company's basketball shoes. During World War II he coached the Wright Field Air-Tecs basketball team during the 1944–45 season and served as a physical fitness instructor for the U.S. military before resuming his career as a traveling salesman for Converse. Taylor retired from work in 1968. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1969.
Early years
In 1917, while Taylor was still in high school, Converse began manufacturing one of the first basketball shoes. At least one source indicates that in 1918 Taylor wore Converse Non-Skids, the canvas and rubber shoe that was the forerunner to the Converse All Stars.
Taylor made his debut as a semi-professional basketball player on March 19, 1919, playing for the Columbus Commercials when he was seventeen years old. (Taylor played as
Converse (brand)
American lifestyle brand owned by Nike, Inc.
Converse () is an American lifestyle brand that markets, distributes, and licenses footwear, apparel, and accessories. Founded by Marquis Mills Converse in 1908 as the Converse Rubber Shoe Company in Malden, Massachusetts, it has been acquired by several companies before becoming a subsidiary of Nike, Inc. in 2003.
Converse initially produced winterized rubber-soled shoes and boots. During World War II, it shifted manufacturing to make footwear for the military. Initially, it was one of the few producers of athletic shoes and dominated the U.S. market, but lost its position in the 1970s as competitors introduced their styles.
Converse's portfolio includes products under the Chuck Taylor All-Stars, Cons, Jack Purcell, One Star, and Star Chevron trademarks. It frequently collaborates on special-edition product releases with other brands such as John Varvatos. The growth of Converse as a casual fashion accessory contributed to $2.4 billion in revenue in 2023.
History
1908–1940: Early years
Forty-seven-year-old Marquis Mills Converse, a manager at a footwear manufacturing firm, opened the Converse Rubber Shoe Company in February 1908, in Malden, Massachusetts. The company was a rubber shoe manufacturer, and its early inventory included winterized rubber-soled footwear, galoshes, tennis shoes, and some non-footwear items like automobile tires. In summer of 1916, the Converse basketball line was established; by 1917 the Converse All-Star basketball shoe was introduced and quickly became successful during World War I and the Spanish flu.
In 1922, basketball player Charles H. "Chuck" Taylor walked into Converse complaining of sore feet, and Converse gave him a job as a salesman and ambassador. He promoted the shoes around the U.S., and in 1932 Taylor's signature was added to the All-Star patch on the h
Sneakers
Sport and casual shoes
For other uses, see Sneaker (disambiguation).
Sneakers (US) or trainers (UK), also known by a wide variety of other names, are shoes primarily designed for sports or other forms of physical exercise but are also widely used for everyday casual wear.
They were popularized by companies such as Converse, Nike and Spalding in the mid 20th century. Like other parts of the global clothing industry, shoe manufacturing is heavily concentrated in Asia with nine in ten shoes produced there.
Names
Sneakers have gone by a variety of names, depending on geography and changing over the decades. The broader category inclusive of sneakers is athletic shoes. The term 'athletic shoes' is typically used for shoes utilized for jogging or road running and indoor sports such as basketball, but tends to exclude shoes for sports played on grass such as association football and rugby football, which are generally known in North America as "cleats" and in British English as "boots" or "studs".
The word "sneaker" is often attributed to American Henry Nelson McKinney, who was an advertising agent for N. W. Ayer & Son. In 1917, he used the term because the rubber sole made the shoe's wearer stealthy. The word was already in use at least as early as 1887, when the Boston Journal made reference to "sneakers" as "the name boys give to tennis shoes." The name "sneakers" originally referred to how quiet the rubber soles were on the ground, in contrast to noisy standard hard leather sole dress shoes. Someone wearing sneakers could "sneak up", while someone wearing standards could not. Earlier, the name "sneaks" had been used by prison inmates to refer to warders (guards) because of the rubber-soled shoes they wore. The term "sneakers" is most commonly used in Northeastern United States, Central and South Florida, Australia, New Zealand, and parts of Canada. Converse may refer to: Topics referred to by the same termConverse
Mathematics and logic
Places in the United States
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