The Shoe That Never Goes Out of Style

With fashion trends always changing, the one shoe brand that always seems to stay on classic is Converse. A great pair of jeans and your favorite Converse is a look that has stuck no matter what generation you’re from. In the early 19th century, Marquis Mills Converse first opened the Converse Rubber Shoe Co. — the place where the first pair of Converse was born.  

Chuck Taylor later became the face of the company by wearing their sneakers at his high school basketball games. After he added his signature to the shoes, people started referring to the sneakers simply as “Chucks.”  

Although they’ve been around for a while, Converse has continuously pushed their boundaries. At one point during World War II, Converse began making boots for soldiers in combat. The shift wasn’t too successful, so they decided to bring it back to what the people wanted: sneakers.  

The sneakers were originally meant for sports like running, football and basketball. But, when rock n’ roll icons like Elvis and James Dean were seen in their Jack Purcell Converse kicks in the 1950s, the shoes took on a whole new meaning. They became the signature shoe for the baby boomer generation. The first low top sneaker was released in the 1960’s, and we haven’t looked back since.  

By the 80’s and 90’s, Converse had remained one of the most popular and fashionable shoes to wear. With Kurt Cobain as the poster boy for grunge, it gave the shoes a “cool factor” that helped to change the company’s’ image for the better. They decided to expand their designs to hundreds of different prints, patterns, colors, and models for each age group.  

Converse had evolved in many ways since the early 1900’s, ultimately to become the well-known and familiar brand that we know and love today. Despite the competition from other shoe brands like Nike throughout the years, Converse has continued to stay in the game (just maybe not as much in the sports game).  

If you walk around campus on any given day, I guarantee you’ll lose count of how many pairs of Chucks you see. With vintage style making a comeback in the fashion world, it makes you realize how amazing it is that, despite the generational differences; kids, teens and adults have all rocked a pair of Chucks in their lifetime, and still can today.