By Tom Ryan
[The author is writing a series of articles around Converse's centennial anniversary for Sporting Goods Business.]
Converse, which turns 100 this year, has certainly lived many lives.
Launching as a canvas basketball shoe back in 1908, its white tops grew to dominate the sport from the forties through the sixties. A large part of the brand's success came from the relationships Chuck Taylor and his sales team established with high school and college coaches across the country as well as their efforts to promote the sport through basketball clinics.
In the early sixties, Converse began to be used as a casual shoe after the Beach Boys started wearing black low-cut Chuck Taylor oxfords with sweatshirts and cut-off chinos. A growing acceptance of athletic shoes as street wear also drove a shift as well as management's decision to introduce colors in the late sixties and expand distribution beyond just sporting good stores in the seventies.
Around the same time, unfortunately, Converse started losing its grip on the performance side. Adidas introduced leather shoes in the late sixties and soon thereafter Nike arrived on the scene. Converse had some success with its own leather shoes supported by NBA stars such as Dr. J, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and Larry Johnson. But the brand eventually found itself as a small player in the performance footwear category in the face of frequent ownership changes, a bankruptcy as well as difficulties squaring off against Nike's and Adidas's marketing machines. Nike acquired it in 2003.
Turning to 2008, Converse is one of the top performers in Nike's stable of brands, led by newfound fashion cache of the canvas Converse All Star. Although many fans worried that Nike would bring Converse down to the mass market, Nike is earning credit for finally giving the brand some adequate financial backing. A mix of limited prints is enhancing its fashion appeal. Also helping the brand is its heritage, simplicity, still relatively inexpensive price and the fact that it's a lot different than other sneakers – such as Nike.
"It's definitely original, which is important," said David Zaken, the owner of the David Z urban shoe chain in New York City. "Everybody's owned a pair of Converse at one time. They always look cool."
"Basically, it's always been a classic silhouette that never goes out of style like the classic white T-shirt or Levi's jeans," said Jesse Villanueva, a buyer at A-Life Rivington Club, a collector sneaker store in downtown Manhattan. "It's classic America."
In performance, the brand for the 2007/2008 season is touting its largest roster of NBA endorsers in more than twenty years, led by the Miami Heat's Dwayne Wade. Converse is also being worn by college teams (Marquette and Western Kentucky) for the first time since the 2000/2001 season. While many wonder how far Nike will push Converse back into performance, Bob Liewald, who manages sporting goods for e-commerce provider, GSI Commerce, said Nike could use Converse as a sub-brand in the performance space.
"They could use it as a buffer," said Mr. Liewald. "There's always going to be someone who doesn’t want to wear Nike."
Discussion Question: What do you think is driving both Converse's longevity and its newfound success as a fashion shoe? What do you think of its chances of coming back as a strong performance shoe? If you were Nike, what would you do with Converse?