The white rubber toe cap on most Converse trainers - Classic or Dud?

for cleaning, ajax cleanser and toothbrush.

Because...I'm stupid.

Yeah, so hard to clean - they seem to attract mysterious black smudges.
-- Rumpsy Pumpsy, November 15th, 2006 12:19 PM.

The only time I don't like them is when they're fresh out of the box and haven't gotten properly scuffed up.

what happens if you stick 'em in the washing machine?

Fuck washing an all star.

the wash up pretty good, grimly. wash them at 30 degrees max so the sole doesn't curl up.

I once bought a pair of Coverse trainers, but there were two or three holes in them in less than six months, with my big toe sticking out. Later on I tied a similar kind of Puma trainers, but they tore up from the back in less than two months. I'm never gonna use that type of shoes again.

Other friends of mine have had similar trouble with Converse too, I'm not sure why they have such a good reputation.

they are badly made now, since they moved their manufacturing to the far east, but they never used to be. i have several pairs i've had for years but the ones i just bought a few weeks ago are gaping at one of the side seams already.

stuff them really tightly with balls of newspaper before washing them, this stops them curling up and you can wash at 60.

i don't think they have that good a reputation. for styling, yes, but not fot being hard wearing particularly. the difference is that they used to be cheap and now they're not.

xpost

don't wash them at 60! why would you even need to in the first place? i never wash ANYTHING at 60 cos it fucks shit up.

i have been wearing the same adidas shelltoes for damn near five years :/

I'm wearing Adidas trainers I've had for five years today :) I like old school Converse but they aren't that comfy, soles are a bit thin.

jel, these are basketball shoes, not baseball shoes! baseball shoes = cleats or spikes, like soccer boots. basketball shoes need to have a flat and even sole in order to properly grip a hardwood floor.

I love everything about Adidas except the shell toe design. Why would they do that to such lovely runners?

also the reason they are "high top" is because basketball players are constantly changing direction, putting a lot of strain on their ankles (although this strain has to go somewhere - so it gets transferred to their knees)

The adidas trainers I have on today I must have had for over 10 years, because there's a picture of me wearing them (and they look kind of old in that) from just after I moved to Bristol.

The greatest pair of shoes I ever owned was a second-hand pair of Adidas Campus shoes that my brother's girlfriend gave me when she was finished with them. I wore them for about two years after she reckoned they were worn out. Now they don't make them anymore. Sadface.

you can get them on ebay if you want to go that route.

I don't think I have never owned a pair of baseball shoes. They look silly on kids who aren't playing baseball, let alone adults. Dress like grown-ups!

Sure, granpa!

you can get them on ebay if you want to go that route.

Yeah, I check for them, but they hardly ever seem to have them in my size. Or else the postage is something ridiculous like £15 from Hong Kong, and the shoes are £59. I suspect that, like most things, they're not as well made as they used to be, so I'm wary of spending a lot of money on them.

ugh. fuck the cult of chuck taylors. horrible shoes, really uncomfortable and anyone with feet bigger than a size 8 looks like krusty the clown in them.

i blame the strokes.

I don't think I have never owned a pair of baseball shoes. They look silly on kids who aren't playing baseball, let alone adults. Dress like grown-ups!

-- Alba, Friday, June 29, 2007 5:36 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

basketball u mean. i was wearing them in '89, but not since.

well lord know how fashionable the strokes are these days...

xpost

What do baseball boots look like? I think this whole world of American footwear has somehow passed me by.

Oh, thanks Tracer...yeah, I totally see that converse would be too flimsy for baseball!!

But! Google images does justify my confusion!!

http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&q=baseball+boots&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2

I have just google image searched baseball boots and they look just like the Converses people have. Then I did the same with basketball boots and they didn't. Are you sure?

x-post

What do baseball boots look like? I think this whole world of American footwear has somehow passed me by.

-- Alba, Friday, June 29, 2007 5:47 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

jel, these are basketball shoes, not baseball shoes! baseball shoes = cleats or spikes, like soccer boots. basketball shoes need to have a flat and even sole in order to properly grip a hardwood floor.

-- Tracer Hand, Friday, June 29, 2007 5:25 PM (24 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

also the reason they are "high top" is because basketball players are constantly changing direction, putting a lot of strain on their ankles (although this strain has to go somewhere - so it gets transferred to their knees)

-- Tracer Hand, Friday, June 29, 2007 5:27 PM (23 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

I think you misunderstand.

the only people who would even think of using the phrase "baseball boots" are british people, who as this thread makes clear for some reason imagine that converse all-stars are that

http://www.ruggedelegantliving.com/a/images/Converse.Chuck.Taylor.All.S.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Taylor_%28salesman%29

for contrast, try using the word "shoes" in a google image search for baseball footwear:

http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&q=baseball%20shoes

for those of you unhappy about the size of your toe cap, this has apparently been thought about before:

http://www.chucksconnection.com/clowntoe.html

haha they look shit. i actually think chucks are a pretty perfect design as is. classic.

i always wear the low ones though.

I love writing on the toe caps with ballpoint pen

wow wow wow this thread in insane

"baseball boots"
"i blame the strokes"

the "baseball boots" GIS is kind of mindblowing.. professors could use it to illustrate the concept of "garbage in, garbage out"

the strokes are pretty hot right now

http://soundbites.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/transformer_strokes.jpg

what the fuck did i start with my innocent revive?

thanks for the washing advice.

i dunno: when i was at university in 1993, every fucker was wearing these. but because of my ridiculously contrived "image" -- no, really; i can laugh about it now, but i was deadly serious -- i refused to wear anything on my feet except the pointiest of pointy cowboy boots.

now? fuck it. i love 'em. and i think i look ace. so there.

The whole "baseball boots" thing is mindboggling -- how many WRONG ends of the stick ARE there??

Ha! I scrubbed the rubber parts of my chucks last night! just regular leather/rubber sneaker cleaner. they look much nicer when they are kinda clean.

i also put 2 sets of insoles in them, because chucks have a crap footbed.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/194/470586778_d481f5f59f.jpg

^^this picture of my shoe is, for some reason, one of teh schef's "most intersting" on flickr.

these have finally become unwearable tho and now i'll feel like a tool in my shiny new ones until they are reasonably worn.

why are you guys washing your fucking shoes!

i always thought baseball boots were sorta what michael j fox wore in back to the future/what robert smith wore for most of the 1980s, ie white leather nike hi-tops with padded ankles etc.

Ally, have you SMELLED my shoes? Gaaah.

http://www.cnnsi.com/features/1999/awards/football/graham_sm.jpg

i'm sorry, why are you guys washing your fucking boots!

when football was indie

i blame the strokes

oh, i'm not washing them. i just want to know whether i can ;)

oh. well the answer is no!

they are just going to keep saying "baseball boots" aren't they

Ally, you must not be familiar with the cult of kicks.

darn tooting

i'm sorry, but sporting clean sneakers/trainers/"boots" makes you look like a pussy.

i even wash my suede ones. they come out okay.

how can yu have a chuck sans toe cap?

baseball players just call their shoes cleats. and they in no way resemble boots.

xpost ok washing suede shoes is loonier almost than the baseball boots.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_boot

I know the Strokes probably wish they'd existed long enough ago to be blameable for Chuck Taylors, but c'mon.

Chuck-haters should actually take heart that recent years have seen Vans in heavy competition as the standard cheap canvas knockaround shoe of choice. I've never really worn Chucks with any regularity, but I have multiple pairs of Vans now.

there is stuff to 'wash' suede with... but not in the machine, surely not?

Also I think I posted about this on I Make Music, but I'm still amazed/amused that FENDER has its own footwear line, consisting mostly of Chuck and Vans analogs.

So they are clearly "guitar shoes."

Vans are comfier. Downside is you look like a chef.

they're suede variations on chucks. they look okay!

My old Chucks:

http://www.memorygongs.com/shoes.jpg

Minus the white coat, checked pants, hat, and giant cleaver in hand? Yes, that's almost exactly like.

xxp

i'm sorry, but sporting clean sneakers/trainers/"boots" makes you look like a pussy.

http://ortf1.free.fr/03.Doom/Doom.jpg

Surely you are not calling MC Doom a pussy?

xpost

Vans are the shit.

I love my black Vans, and my orange Chucks

Mine are size 4, I R weeny.

srsly i'm sure chucks were completely dying out in the UK as a default indie choice until 2001 when the strokes showed up all televisioned/ramonesed-up.

i'm happy to be proved wrong on this, but.

http://www.planet-sports.de/images/products/large/l_vans_bearcat_sealbrownquarry.jpg

I have Vans like these at the moment. They look nice and feel much more lasting than Chuck Taylors.

I don't like the checkered Vans that are trendy at the moment though, they look silly to me.

Everybody needs to chill.

i'm sorry, but sporting clean sneakers/trainers/"boots" makes you look like a pussy

RONG RONG RONG

i miss my old vision streetwear :/

i mean, half my shoes are worn into the ground and beat to shit, but it's not a STYLE indicating AUTHETICITY or whatever, it's just what happens to shoes. sometimes, they get cleaned so I don't look like a motherfucking crust punk.

http://www.interpunk.com/itemimages2/46674.jpg

from "interpunk.com"

I don't know about the UK, but they've been just ... unwaveringly alt-standard in the US for a long time. It's basically a 1950/60s gym shoe style (from kinda before the advent of modern sneakers/trainers) with a long-ass half-life. I think Vans are actually cheaper now, though. (xpost eww not with laces though)

Umm I think if you arranged a big-city fight between people in dirty Chuck Taylors and people who are vigilant about having spotless sneakers, you would see a lot of indie kids cry.

G. likes to try and curry pity by telling me how when he was a young skater his mom would only by him Vans knock-offs called "Ramps". haha.

(i also cleaned my ALL WHITE NEW BALANCE -- woooo snappy)

It's kind of a shame, though, how skater style's big gift to everyone else has been inappropriately flat shoes.

Pony were American football shoes?

There was a Pony shoe shop in Acton for a while.

I don't know about the UK, but they've been just ... unwaveringly alt-standard in the US for a long time. It's basically a 1950/60s gym shoe style (from kinda before the advent of modern sneakers/trainers) with a long-ass half-life. I think Vans are actually cheaper now, though. (xpost eww not with laces though)

Umm I think if you arranged a big-city fight between people in dirty Chuck Taylors and people who are vigilant about having spotless sneakers, you would see a lot of indie kids cry.

-- nabisco, Friday, June 29, 2007 8:52 PM (15 seconds ago) Bookmark Link

they were big here in the 80s, though not just among alt.people. i think maybe charlie thinks there was a chucks resurgence with the strokes cos... the 90s were all about vans (trip hop)? and adidas (britpop)? that's my guess.

Converse One Stars were popular amongst early 90s indie kids. I should know :)

It's basically a 1950/60s gym shoe style

dude, no. Try 20's.

http://sneakers.pair.com/s/ct-book.jpg

Yeah but they didn't have much level of being standard in the 20s, did they? I'm picking out the 50s/60s as about the era where any elementary school kid would probably be wearing a shoe like this for sports / gym classes.

Converse One Stars were popular amongst early 90s indie kids. I should know :)

1928 basketball shoes:

http://www.sportsartifacts.com/adkeds.JPG

1930s basketball shoes:

http://www.sportsartifacts.com/bbhyde.JPG

More specifically, also 1928:

http://www.sportsartifacts.com/ad28converse.JPG

Basketball was a very different sport then, no?

'Big games coming-shoes o.k.?'

?

Can you imagine playing basketball while wearing Chucks? I can't. They're good for... what? Listening to the Ramones?

i think maybe charlie thinks there was a chucks resurgence with the strokes cos... the 90s were all about vans (trip hop)? and adidas (britpop)? that's my guess.

kinda sorta true i suppose, yeah - although i wore suede converse one-stars, vans, k-swiss, dkny, puma, northwave...all sorts. not had chucks since i was 15 - they always looked so...remedial to me.

nowadays, it's all about the penguins and the onitsuka tigers which i just can't let go...

Basketball shoeS

Huh: I always think of 30s / 40s as being those ribbed leathery ones that Campers seem to be imitating, like a rugby boot -- I'm sure there was plenty of canvas throughout, but something about the Chucks just puts me in mind of a mid-50s junior-high gym class. Ah well.

Big games coming-shoes o.k.?

i'm hi, jared fogel

Wiki says they were invented in 1908, and modified a bit since, but the style has not changed since the 20's.

mine have black toe caps

yeah i have an all-black pair too, for formal events

for formal events

indie funerals?

bob_stinson.jpg

man, whatever happened to keds

u guys professional basketaball players wore chucks into the 70s

srsly? why?

ok these are awesome:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-70s-Geek-Mod-Basketball-Sneakers-Shoes-New-10_W0QQitemZ290111827786QQcmdZViewItem

cause thats all there were those were basketball shoes

then clyde got his own pumas and dr j got converses then in the 80s real basketball shoes were invented

and shoes have been kinda sucky every since

shoes have been collectible items ever since.

I can't imagine wearing low tops playing basketball

http://library.thinkquest.org/05aug/00111/Images/West.png

I am still roffling at "I blame The Strokes"

Also, TS: "basketball boots" vs "coming-shoes"

srsly i'm sure chucks were completely dying out in the UK as a default indie choice until 2001 when the strokes showed up

Times when my indie friends wore Chucks: like, always (and last few years of 90s = the time when I've known more than a few, more-than-borderline indie people)
Times when my non-indie friends wore Chucks: tail end of Britpop (I don't know why since I can't place a Britpop connection at all but they were skate-cool - kids here beginning to notice Green Day etc (yeah I know you real {ex-}skaters are now foaming at the mouth, but that's about as far as it got with anyone I knew) - and Britpop was when non-indies in the UK dressed indie-ish); also 2004ish
But I mean you'd only have to look at me to know that I have never really hung out with fashionable crowd (Britpop era as close as I've got, I guess).

I had some awesome suede Converse with no toe-cap from 98-2000 which fitted just right but they don't do 'em any more and the low ones really do not fit my short wide high-arched feet so now my trainers are Vans. The canvas Chucks are sweaty and whenever I try them on I decide they look really silly (overlong, clowny toecap, a little dash of cheap school plimsoll/embarrassing dad shoe choice for awkward dad-decided day out in a boat) even though they look good on everyone else I've seen wear them.

"indie friends"

you guys, nothing has made me want to throw my Chucks away more recently than Paul McCartney wearing them in that godforsaken Apple ad.

But you know what? I don't throw them away. I never will. They will withstand any cultural gale-force wind.

I work with a guy who has some Lakers Chucks (purple & gold). They are awesome.

ive been wearing chucks since like 2nd grade and theyve totally fucked up my feet. i finally bought some replacement soles for my most recent pair (white) and its like a whole new experience. i have arches again!

i used to have a pair of corduroy chucks, they were sweet unless you were wearing corduroy pants

oh, they're terrible as functional shoes. Which is why I am amazed anyone ever actually played sports in them. They offer no support in any direction -- kind of negative support, since they trick your foot into THINKING it's wearing a shoe when it's really not.

Insoles. Insoles. Insoles. Do not leave house without the biggest arch support I can find.

yeah its amazing how much of a difference the replacement soles make

xpost

Oh man dudez don't be wearing these things often without throwing some Dr. Scholl's in there or something! It's like a $6 expenditure that raises your shoes like $30 in quality.

so they're doubled in value!

They offer no support in any direction -- kind of negative support

true dis. i played basketball (in gym class) for a whole year in low-top, canvas Vans, my ankles still haven't forgiven me.

Pff, I've played ball in high-top chucks a bunch of times, with no-name insoles up in those bitches and it was 100% dandy. A fair bit of shock when hitting the ground after jumping, but other than that, not too bad...

I just got some converse recently, chucks, after not having worn them for a long time. I did have some purcells a year ago but they got trashed when the laces got stuck in my bike and ripped off a couple lace-holes. Breaking in chucks is pretty painful, but I think I am getting into it now, again. Sizing is totally weird though. I had to get a US size 9.5. My normal shoes size is 11, and my slip-ons are even 10.5. CRAYAZYAYA!

this bit from wikipedia is kinda funny:

Chuck Taylors became very popular in early to mid 2006, and while one may attribute this growing trend to a higher awareness of such fashions as emo, the brand itself may have been growing in prominence since the mid 1990s through the Grunge movement.
The recent increases in numbers of colors may also have led to the market for Chuck Taylors growing, due to the apparent customisability of the shoe through color, use of stylised shoelaces and through the drawing on the rubberised parts.
The customisation of Chuck Taylors is highly popular with the rock scene, especially teenage girls, with many drawing/writing on the shoes, putting mismatching laces in the shoes, or wearing odd shoes (often two differently colored Chuck Taylors, or a Chuck Taylor and a different shoe).

they've only really been popular for about a year, turns out!

My favy chcuk taylors in high school were dark green ("pine") high-tops. Which are actually really hard to find now, I think.

Chuck Taylors became very popular in early to mid 2006, and while one may attribute this growing trend to a higher awareness of such fashions as emo,

hahaha ninth graders be wiki'in

superb

A fair bit of shock when hitting the ground after jumping

ah yes, forgot about the bolt of lightning from the achilles to the crown of the head if you jump more than a foot off the ground(a rare occurence, granted). good times.

Oh god screw you people, you've actually led me to make my first-ever Wikipedia edit [[SOBBING EMOTICON]]

You can guess that a Brit wrote that, too, per "customisation."

kudos, nabs

rappers have been wearing chucks for a while too

Only in Cali where we riot not rally to live and die
In L.A. we wear Chucks not Ballies (that's right)

I've just developed a pet peeve about this sort of thing, ever since I was looking at this emo book that kept pretending kids had, like, invented the past -- it kept claiming bizarre stuff from the 80s as emo (the Smiths, John Hughes) as opposed to admitting that the style just MIGHT have some continuity with shit teenagers have been doing forever.

if you run across a pair of Chucks made out of hemp: BUY THEM. Best pair of shoes I ever owned - they lasted about four times as long as regular Chucks and looked better.

Hippie.

possibly. Second-best pair of shoes were hemp Adidas shelltoes.

didn't Ice Cube play basketball in chucks in 'Today was a good day'? xxpost

My favy chcuk taylors in high school were dark green ("pine") high-tops.

MINE TOO (only I had mine in college)

I miss 1994.

I had purple chuck high tops in the early/mid-80s. </old school>

Also Nabsico, I can't believe you didn't correct "marroon"!

My first pair of Chucks (mid 80s) were turquoise because everyone else I knew had the red ones. At various times, I've owned:

Black
Turquoise
White
All-Black
Pine (<3 <3 <3)
Fuzzy Navy w/ Brown accents

what a maroon! what an ignoranimous!

i had turquoise too haha. if i paired it with my parachute pants and cutoff tee, you couldn't tell me shit.

i 'miss' being a poser

I was only correcting the "humans discovered Chuck Taylors in 2006" stuff. It took all of my willpower to not do snarly replacements like "contrary to the delusions of British teenagers, people have worn Chuck Taylors for decades and decades." If I got upset over spelling/grammar on non-Buffy Wikipedia entries I would have killed myself long ago.

i had turquoise too haha. if i paired it with my parachute pants and cutoff tee, you couldn't tell me shit.

The very first boy I ever had a huge crush on knocked me out on the first day of school with his parachute pants. *sigh*

The very first time a girl had a crush on me (that I know of) was in 7th grade, and she later admitted to me that it was my red Chucks and tight-rolled jeans that did it for her. She thought I was cool at first sight.

What did she think after she got a second sight?

this cat has something to add about chuck clones:

http://icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.com/2007/06/halp-now.jpg

(sorry Kenan. It was too easy.)

What did she think after she got a second sight?

that I was a 7th grader? I dunno.

i've owned at least one pair at all times since 8th grade. kinda started when, at metrocenter mall jackson, miss., in 86, mom refused to buy me any shoes more than $35. which i thought was ridiculously unfair and terribly cruel as all the tennis shoes i wanted (hi, converse weapons, celtics colors) were at least $45+. so i chose flourescent orange chucks. colors picked since then have been less loud: naturals, blacks, all-blacks, blues etc.

also, "tennis shoes" has kinda been the catch-all term for sneakers/trainers in my experience. except for the last few years when everybody goes around all "hey, sweet new kicks!"