“Chuck Taylor Converse All Star: The Man Who Made the Shoe” told by David Matlack

Charles Hollis “Chuck” Taylor was born in Brown County, Indiana in 1901 and went on to become a professional basketball player, long before the NBA was formed. When the game ended for him, he started working for Converse in 1921 as a sneaker salesman and marketer. Taylor also played and coached the company’s industrial basketball team, the “Converse All-Stars,” which was also the name of a style of sneakers he eventually helped redesign. The company thought so much of his contributions, it added his name to the ankle patch in 1932. Nearly a century later, it remains the best-selling basketball shoe of all time.

Sharing Hoosier History Through Stories Series
In collaboration with the Indiana Historical Society