Chuck Taylor is a name associated with basketball sneakers that are still a pop culture and fashion icon. The shoe brand is now owned by Nike, which is not a surprise; however, the shoe was conceived in 1917, over 100 years ago, and the exact Chuck Taylor All-Stars debuted in 1922. That is a pretty good lifespan for shoes made before computer engineering and synthetic fabrics.
The shoes are as nostalgic as nostalgic can get as they were worn by Olympic athletes in the 1930s through the late 1960s. The shoe was the official athletic trainer for the U.S. in World War II, was extremely popular in the 1950s with all types of basketball players, and by the 1960s had around 75% of the basketball shoe market. The company had some struggles in the 1970s but rebounded in the 1980s and 1990s. Converse sold over 600 million pairs of All Stars by the year 2000. Nike bought Converse in 2003 for $305 million. The shoe was promoted and sold by its namesake, Chuck Taylor.
Taylor worked as a semi-professional basketball player in 1919 and eventually became a player-manager in the mid-1920s for the Converse All-Stars basketball team. Taylor was hired as a salesman in 1921 for the Converse Shoe Company and made suggestions to improve their basketball shoe. His suggestions involved having a shoe that was more flexible and provided better support. Converse took his notes and the shoe was restyled into its current form. The All-Star logo was added and thus became the Chuck Taylor All-Stars. He began promoting the shoe across the US by having basketball clinics, special appearances and striking deals with local sporting goods establishments. For the 1936 Olympics, Taylor designed a white high-top model with blue and red trim, which was used at the Olympic Games.
Taylor lent his coaching skills to the U.S. military during World War II for the Wright Field Air-Tecs basketball team. He also was a physical fitness instructor of the U.S. military and, post-war, went back to selling Converse. He was initially commissioned in the U.S. Navy and transferred to the US Army. He was considered too old for combat and went into coaching at Wright Patterson Air Force Base; at the time it was an Army Air Forces installation. Taylor moved to L.A. post-war and traveled to military bases in South America on behalf of the State Department. He was inducted into the Sporting Goods Hall of Fame in 1958.
Taylor lived in hotels for years as a traveling Converse salesman and had a trunk full of All Stars with him at all times. His personal address was listed as the Converse headquarters and he kept a locker at the company’s warehouse for storage. Unfortunately, Taylor did not receive commissions on his sales, only a salary. Joe Dean, a colleague, is quoted as saying, “It was impossible not to like him, and he knew everybody. If you were a coach and you wanted to find a job, you called Chuck Taylor. Athletic directors talked to him all the time when they were looking for a coach.” Taylor continued to work for Converse and sell All-Stars in semi-retirement in the 1960s. He retired from the company in 1968 and passed away shortly thereafter in 1969. He worked constantly on the design and sales of the shoe for four decades.
The shoe has lived a long and prosperous athletic and pop culture life. It has been featured in special editions for such rock bands as Pink Floyd, AC/DC, Metallica, Ozzy Osbourne, Jimi Hendrix, Black Sabbath and for comics such as DC, video games like Super Mario, for Dr. Suess and Dungeons & Dragons. US Presidents have worn them, including President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. The shoe has been featured in numerous film and television projects such as Rocky, Animal House, Leave It to Beaver, Hoosiers, Back to the Future, Grease, Dennis the Menace, M*A*S*H, Happy Days, The A-Team, The Big Bang Theory and Doctor Who. Elvis, Tom Hanks, and Jerry Lewis wore All Stars, and Andy Warhol featured them in his artwork.
The projects and shows the shoe has been featured in have made billions of dollars and have been seen by billions of people worldwide. All in all, a great legacy to leave behind for a man who came from the ground up and served the US military during its time of intense need in World War II.
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This article originally appeared on We Are the Mighty.
Featured image: Courtesy of Diana Eddleman Lenzi via WBUR
