Converse

Converse is the American footwear and apparel brand founded in Malden, Massachusetts, in 1908 as the Converse Rubber Company by Marquis Mills Converse. It began with rubber galoshes, moved into canvas, and in 1917 made one of the first shoes designed for basketball, the Non-Skid, renamed All Star two years later; in 1934 Chuck Taylor’s signature made it the first signature basketball shoe.

Owned by Nike since 2003 and based in Boston, Converse is a cultural object as much as a sporting one, with the Chuck 70, Jack Purcell and One Star as its archetypes and collaborations across fashion, music and art. In Nike’s Sport Offense strategy its design and product teams now sit in one creation engine with Nike and Jordan Brand, sharing technologies while the brand keeps its vocabulary of canvas, rubber and vulcanised construction.