Never chuck em away

Never chuck em away, originally uploaded by ....Tim.

Chuck Taylor All-Stars, or Converse All-Stars, also referred to as "Chucks" or "Cons" are canvas and rubber shoes produced by Converse. They were first produced in 1917 as the "All-Star," Converse's attempt to capture the basketball shoe market.

Chuck Taylor All-Stars

The shoes were not particularly popular until basketball player Chuck Taylor adopted them as his preferred shoe. He was impressed with the design so he became the shoe's leading salesman.

After proposing a few changes to the shoe, the shoe got its current name and Chuck Taylor's signature on its ankle All Stars patch. One change was the switch to nonslip soles. Although classic black is the most popular, Chuck Taylor was himself known to prefer unbleached white high-tops (known in his day as simply "white").

Consumers demanded more variety from the shoe – particularly with respect to colors in order to match basketball teams – so colored and patterned shoelaces became popular to complement the two colors, blacks and whites, available before 1966. Afterwards, more colors and styles became available. Low-top or "Oxford", high-top, and later knee-high, versions were produced. More materials were offered for the construction, including leather, suede, vinyl, denim, and hemp. Some versions of the shoe were offered without laces, held up instead by elastic. These new versions of the shoe were also co-designed by Chuck Taylor, just before his death in 1969.

A full biography of Chuck Taylor was published by Indiana University Press in March 2006 under the title Chuck Taylor, All Star: The True Story of the Man Behind the Most Famous Athletic Shoe in History, with a foreword by the retired college basketball coach Dean Smith.

Fans of punk rock have adopted the shoe as a fashion trend since the late 1970s and many popular punk rock bands, such as the Ramones, have supported the trend by wearing the sneakers.

All-Stars were worn by the entire athletics team in the movie Grease.

All-Stars became popular again in the '90s to fans of the world as famous grunge-punk band Nirvana emulated the band's frontman Kurt Cobain, who had worn All-Stars for many years prior to the '90s due to the influence of different punk rock bands he enjoyed in his youth. Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello was (and still is) also known for commonly wearing Chucks, and U2 guitarist The Edge has been seen wearing All-Stars onstage in recent years. Jackass star Johnny Knoxville is also known for his signature black hi-top All-Stars.