Converse Shoes

Here's a breif history of how they came to be:
Converse is an American shoe company (now owned by Nike) which has been making shoes since 1908.
Chuck Taylor All-Stars are obviously made by Converse. They were introduced in 1917 as the "All-Star". Converse was trying to produce a shoe that the basketball teams would use. They didn’t hit it big until basketball player Chuck Taylor started wearing them all the time. He loved the All-Star shoes. Chuck gave some tips to the company about altering the shoe a little, and soon the name Chuck Taylor All Stars came about. After that the shoes were expended to other types of fabric (denim, suede for example), and many different colours.

This is who they were popular with through out the years (other than in basketball):
In the 1950s the shoes became popular with ‘greasers’ (Side note: I love the Outsiders book). Since the late 1970’s, fans of punk rock have worn them, as well as followers of the grunge culture in the 90’s. Chuck Taylor All-Stars are pretty much a cult classic these days.