100 years of Converse
Today the American sneaker brand celebrates its 100th anniversary. “How controversial can a pair of Converse Chucks be?” I asked myself - overlooking the minor issue that Converse has been the casual footwear brand of choice of legions of hipsters for decades, including the current crop of Gen Y ‘trashbags’. Oh, and overlooking those Asian sweatshop claims, which, according to Converse at least, are just not true.
Born not on the elitist runway, but instead, out of a humble rubber shoe manufacturer in working class Malden, Massachusetts, the Converse brand survived the Depression, recession, wars, receivership, and in 2001, even bankruptcy, to become a modern footwear icon. By 2003, the year it was acquired by Nike for US$305million, Converse claimed to have sold 750 million pairs of its classic Chuck Taylor All Star high-tops.
Along the way, the brand has been immortalised by a swag of sports stars and pop culture figures, from Charles “Chuck” Taylor to Jack Purcell, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, the child stars of the classic 50s/60s sitcoms Dennis the Menace and Leave it to Beaver, John Travolta in Grease, The Ramones and Kurt Cobain. Cobain famously died wearing a pair of black suede Converse One Stars.
This classic, unpretentious, and yes cheap, laceup canvas sneaker with vulcanized rubber sole, seems as American as apple pie.
Until you twig that Converse is neither the oldest American sneaker, nor the world’s oldest basketball shoe. Nor indeed is the laceup canvas/rubber shoe apparently even an American invention.
Here’s a quick sneaker timeline:
1843-1844
The process of vulcanizing rubber is patented in the UK by British rubber industry titan Thomas Hancock in 1843 – eight weeks before his US counterpart, Charles Goodyear is granted the US patent. Goodyear, some believe, in fact invented the process.
1868
The Liverpool Rubber Company (founded in Walton, Liverpool in 1859; acquired by Dunlop in 1925) fuses a canvas upper to a rubber sole to produce a lightweight, waterproof beach shoe. Originally dubbed a “sandshoe”, the style becomes popular with the Victorian middle classes.
1870s
Charles Goodyear experiments with canvas and rubber tennis shoes.
1876
Sandshoes are dubbed “Plimsolls” by a salesman in Liverpool - after the Bristol-born pioneer of the international shipping load line the Plimsoll Line, Samuel Plimsoll.
1900
According to Robert W. Peterson’s book Cages to Jump Shots, American professional baseball player and sporting-goods manufacturer A.G. Spalding launches the first basketball shoe: a canvas high-top with a pitted rubber sole.
1908
Marquis M. Converse establishes the Converse Rubber Shoe Company in Malden, Massachusetts. The company’s first products are rubber boots and automobile tires. In 1915, it branches out into canvas/rubber shoes.
1916
The Keds brands (originally “Peds” – but which was already trademarked) is launched by the United States Rubber Company. Keds claims this was the world’s first mass marketed sports shoe.
1917
The term “sneaker” is coined by Henry Nelson McKinney, an advertising executive at the Keds agency, N.W. Ayer & Sons.
1917
Converse launches the Converse All Star basketball shoe – originally in a natural tan colour with black colour trim.
1921
Converse hires former Akron Firestones basketball pro Charles “Chuck” Taylor to market the All Star shoe. Taylor helps introduce design changes, and from 1932 onwards, his signature is included on either side of the trademark star on the shoe’s “Patch” logo.
1924
Dunlop Rubber Factories in Melbourne commences production of sandshoes.
1939
Inspired by the herringbone sole of an American boat shoe, the Dunlop-linked Australian tennis star Adrian Quist convinces the company to launch a tennis shoe with a similar design, giving birth to the Dunlop Volley.
1935
Canadian tire and rubber company B.F. Goodrich launches the Jack Purcell sneaker style with signature blue stripe “smile” at the toe – named after the Canadian world champion badminton player. The brand receives a PR boost after some 1955 Phil Stern photographs of James Dean are published, showing Dean in the shoes. After the Jack Purcell license is acquired by Converse in 1972, Converse pays Stern licensing rights for many years in order to use one particular closeup shot of Dean’s shoes in Converse advertising.
1957
Launch of the Chuck Taylor All Star low-cut or “low-top” style.
1966
The Van Doren Rubber Company – and the Vans brand - are launched by Paul van Doren, Serge D’Elia and Gordy Lee.
1976
Vision Streetwear is launched by skater Brad Dorfman.
gallery here:
http://www.news.com.au/fashion/gallery/0,23607,5029286-5007193,00.html#