Rule of Next
Converse
In his late 30s, Marquis M. Converse, who was previously a respected manager at a footwear manufacturing firm, opened the Converse Rubber Shoe Company in Malden, Massachusetts in 1908. The company was a rubber shoe manufacturer, providing winterized rubber soled footwear for men, women, and children. By 1910, Converse was producing 4,000 shoes daily, but it wasn't until 1915 that the company began manufacturing athletic shoes for tennis.
The company's main turning point came in 1917 when the Converse All-Star basketball shoe was introduced. This was a real innovation at the time, considering the sport was only 25 years old. Then in 1921, a basketball player named Charles H. "Chuck" Taylor walked into Converse complaining of sore feet. Converse gave him a job. He worked as a salesman and ambassador, promoting the shoes around the United States, and in 1923 after publishing a retrospective on the first 60 years of basketball and teaching his first basketball clinic at North Carolina State University, his signature was added to the All Star patch. He tirelessly continued this work until shortly before his death in 1969.
Converse are traditionally basketball shoes, but are now more of a stylistic alternative to most athletic shoes of today. The company is now a subsidiary of Nike.
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