Converse

Converse began in 1908, when Marquis M. Converse opened the Converse Rubber Shoe Company in Malden, Massachusetts. It started out making winterised rubber-soled footwear for men, women and children. Basketball changed things. Around ten years later a player named Charles H. Taylor picked up his first pair of All Stars, and in 1921 Chuck Taylor joined the company as America's first sponsored basketball player. His signature went on the All Star patch two years after that. The shoes then spread well beyond the court, worn by Hollywood actors and by US teenagers, and James Dean was photographed in jeans and white Chucks. Today the Chuck Taylor and One Star are the names to look for, and stockists such as Très Bien pair them with collaborations.