Taylor never asked for a royalty for having his name on the shoe. Air Jordans have earned Michael Jordan far more money than he ever made as a player, but Converse gave Taylor a full expense account and commission. By the time he retired in the mid-1960s, Taylor had been out on the road selling for more than 40 years. He married and divorced then married again later in life, but had no children. Dean says Taylor had no regrets. Charles Hollis Taylor was born on July 24, 1901, and raised in southern Indiana. Basketball—the brand-new sport invented by James Naismith in 1891—was beginning to take the Hoosier State by storm. Taylor joined his high school team, the Columbus High School Bull Dogs, and was named captain.

The competitiveness in him is still there, though. Apart from his music career, Timmy also competes in esports tournaments representing his alma mater.Sporting Goods Industry Hall of Fame Members" (PDF). National Sporting Goods Association . Retrieved August 8, 2018. He went years without having a house or an apartment or anything. He lived out of a hotel 365 days a year. And that was happy for him. Christmas Day was just another day to him. Converse paid for Christmas. They were just glad he didn’t ask for a little extra change for his name," Dean said, laughing.

As with so many iconic designs that have gone on to be adopted by youth tribes and various countercultural groups, its charm is its reliable simplicity, its trusty classicism. Its upper is an unchanging blank canvas upon which the wearer can choose to apply any sort of meaning or mantra – in some cases this is taken literally, with people even customising the shoe’s rubber outsole with scribbles and slogans in marker pen. This openness to interpretation has lent the shoe a rare cross-generational, cross-genre appeal that has spanned from Los Angeles gang-bangers to Seattle grunge-kids, Hunter S. Thompson to the modern-day Hypebeast. As such, it has come to occupy a rare space in the world of fashion, having touched on multiple subcultures whilst managing to transcended fleeting trends. In 2017, it is notable for being the antithesis to trend-led fashion – respite from fashion’s whims in the form of footwear. Another of Taylor's promotional tools was the annual Converse Basketball Yearbook, which he developed in 1922 and was enlarged in 1929. [1] The yearbook commemorated the best players, trainers, teams and the greatest moments of the sport, as well as providing good publicity for Taylor's clinics and the Converse company's All Star basketball shoes. [4] Taylor also made his own All-American selections. [18]In 1917, while Taylor was still in high school, Converse began manufacturing one of the first basketball shoes. At least one source indicates that in 1918 Taylor wore Converse Non-Skids, the canvas and rubber shoe that was the forerunner to the Converse All Stars. [9] [10] Converse salesman [ edit ]

In addition to selling Converse All Star shoes and conducting basketball clinics, Taylor contributed to the development of the sport in other ways. In 1935 he invented a "stitchless" basketball that was easier to control. [4] Taylor also promoted basketball internationally. When basketball became an Olympic sport in 1936, he designed a white high-top model with blue and red trim for the 1936 Olympic Games. [ citation needed] The Converse All Star shoe remained the official shoe of the Olympics team from 1936 to 1968. [1] World War II military service [ edit ]After graduation, instead of heading off to college, Taylor launched his semi-pro career playing basketball with the Columbus Commercials. He’d go on to play for a handful of other teams across the Midwest, including the the Akron Firestone Non-Skids in Ohio, before finally moving to Chicago in 1922 to work as a sales representative for the Converse Rubber Shoe Co. (The company's name was eventually shortened to Converse, Inc.) Despite the cultural cache these musicians provided, for years Converse fought against any association to any genres or subculture. The company no doubt felt the relationships diluted the brand, and fought to maintain itself as a performance shoe designer, despite all the evidence to the contrary. More than 60 years after its flagship model was introduced, the sneaker was vastly outdated, a relic of a bygone time. While it had outlived its reign as a performance sneaker, the shoe found new life as a casual lifestyle sneaker, a reto favorite. By the '90s, when Nike and adidas sales dwarfed Converse, the All Star was still favorite among artists and musicians, and Converse finally began to cave, embracing its newfound cultural standing. By the shoes' 80th anniversary, Converse had sold more than 600 million pairs. He loved the game [of basketball]. He loved being a part of it. He put on clinics all over the country, helping kids learn how to play a little bit better," said Dean, who later served as the athletic director at Louisiana State University and is in the College Basketball Hall of Fame. Meanwhile, 23-year-old volleyball star Ponggay Gaston is another one who refuses to be boxed in. Playing for the blue and white, her infectious energy and willingness to do whatever it takes to win has endeared her to fans throughout her college career. We all saw how the young athlete was tasked to adjust to a variety of positions, which she had to learn to play. And she did so remarkably well.

After leaving the All-Stars, Taylor continued to publicize his shoe—and own personal brand—by hobnobbing with customers at small-town sporting goods stores and making “special appearances” at local basketball games. There, he’d be included in the starting lineup of a local team during a pivotal game. Unfortunately, the exact date Converse debuted their first collection of basketball footwear is lost to history. However, the earliest catalogue in the archive that features ‘Basket Ball’ shoes is from 1916. The first range included a series of canvas high-tops in different styles, including the ‘Surefoot’ and the ‘Big Nine’, but the early favourite was a style simply called the ‘Non-Skid’. Taylor joined Converse’s sales force in Chicago, although there are mixed accounts of what prompted him to do so. Some say that he loved the All Star shoes so much that he wanted to work for Converse. But the Basketball Hall of Fame, which lists Taylor as a member, says that in 1921, he “hobbled into the Converse Chicago sales office complaining of sore feet and persuaded executives to create a shoe especially for basketball.” The Converse All Star sneaker first came out in 1917 and did not initially bear Taylor’s name. That came about years later, well after Taylor joined Converse in 1921 and became a professional sneaker salesman. A basketball player turned salesman may sound unthinkable for today’s hoop stars, but this was years before the NBA was founded in 1949 and well before basketball stars were being paid millions of dollars to play the sport.With one notable exception, Taylor's career as a player on a semi-professional team ended in the 1920s in Chicago when he became a traveling salesman and product promoter for the Converse Rubber Shoe Company. However, during the 1926–27 season, Taylor was a player-manager of the All-Stars, the Chicago-based touring team that the Converse company sponsored to promote sales of its Converse All Star basketball shoes. [8] As the United States entered the Second World War in 1941, the vast majority of Converse’s production became focused on supporting the war effort. Only a small quantity of All Stars were available to the public during WWII. Made with ‘wartime construction techniques’ that used minimally rationed materials, they did not last long under the stress of basketball. Because of this, Converse has yet to find a single example from this period for their official archive. a b c "Converse timeline" (PDF). Converse.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-03-14 . Retrieved 2012-03-13.