Edward And His Chucks Out In The World

Converse Chuck Taylor All-Star shoes…I have a few.

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This started out as one picture of ONE pair of Chucks in a cool setting and it took on a life of its own. When I posted them on FaceBook, I was encouraged to show them to Converse. I could be like that “Where the Hell Is Matt?” guy on YouTube who dances all over the world.  Maybe I could travel the world and take pictures of different patterned Chuck Taylor All-Stars in all sorts of exotic places. The possibilities are endless! Have you SEEN how many Chucks are available? You can even make your own custom pair!!

(Converse has, as yet, never responded.)

If you scroll down to AFTER the gallery, you’ll find Wikipedia’s entry on the Chuck Taylor sneaker. (Like who Chuck Taylor was and why they’re still around after half a century.

Here’s the gallery (click an image to view enlargement):

And now…the educational portion…

HISTORY OF CHUCKS (Wikipedia)

Chuck Taylor All-Stars
The shoes were not particularly popular until basketball player Chuck Taylor adopted them as his preferred shoe. He was impressed with the design so he became the shoe’s leading salesman.

After proposing a few changes to the shoe, the shoe got its current name and Chuck Taylor’s signature on its ankle All Stars patch. One change was the switch to nonslip soles. Although classic black is the most popular, Chuck Taylor was himself known to prefer unbleached white high-tops (known in his day as simply “white”).
In the 1950s the shoes became popular within the greaser subculture and amongst many fans of rockabilly.

Consumers demanded more variety from the shoe – particularly with respect to colors in order to match basketball teams – so colored and

patterned shoelaces became popular to complement the two colors, blacks and whites, available before 1966. Afterwards, more colors and styles became available. Low-top or “Oxford”, high-top, and later knee-high, versions were produced. More materials were offered for the construction, including leather, suede, vinyl, denim, and hemp. Some versions of the shoe were offered without laces, held up instead by elastic. These new versions of the shoe were also co-designed by Chuck Taylor, just before his death in 1969.

A full biography of Chuck Taylor was published by Indiana University Press in March 2006 under the title Chuck Taylor, All Star: The True Story of the Man Behind the Most Famous Athletic Shoe in History, with a foreword by the retired college basketball coach Dean Smith.

Fans of punk rock have adopted the shoe as a fashion trend since the late 1970s and many popular punk rock bands, such as the Ramones, have supported the trend by wearing the sneakers.

All-Stars became popular again in the ’90s to fans of the world as famous grunge-punk band Nirvana emulated the band’s frontman Kurt Cobain, who had worn All-Stars for many years prior to the 90’s due to the influence of different punk rock bands he enjoyed in his youth. Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello was (and still is) also known for commonly wearing Chucks, and U2 guitarist The Edge has been seen wearing All-Stars onstage in recent years. Jackass star Johnny Knoxville is also known for his signature black hi-top All-Stars.

When Converse was bought by Nike in 2003 and operations were moved from the United States to overseas, the design saw a few alterations. The fabric for a short time was no longer 2-ply cotton canvas but 1-ply “textile” and many wearers noticed different patterns of wear. Because of these complaints the shoe was once again produced with the twin layer canvas design starting sometime in the past 5 years. This change caused about a $5 increase in the shoe across the brand from about $40 to $45 respectively.