I want a pair!

Rockin' a hundred years
by Jamie O'Meara

Converse celebrate their centennial with music tributes and charity

The much loved, signature sneaker of the hipster overclass continues to be the ubiquitous black Converse Chuck Taylor All-Star high-top. Though launched in 1917 as a basketball boot, the distinctive footwear - while never making claims to comfort - became synonymous with rock'n'roll counterculture in the late '70s, being most strongly associated with first-generation New York punks The Ramones, and varying rock scenes in a fairly uninterrupted fashion ever since. More than 750 million pairs later - making it the most successful shoe ever sold - Chucks are still the go-to shoe for folks both young and, well, not quite as young.

Building on that traditional musical affinity are several new lines of Converse Chucks coinciding with the company's 100th anniversary, beginning with three different styles paying homage to The Grateful Dead. Three variations have the Grateful Dead Live (Skull and Roses) artwork, the Steal Your Face album logo and, of course, dancing bear prints. Black Sabbath get similar treatment with a trio of tribute issues, and Nirvana's Kurt Cobain, notably not a stranger to Converse himself (and probably singlehandedly responsible for their resurgent popularity in the early '90s), gets his own posthumous series. The so-called "Distressed" and "Tri-Stitch Scribbles" lines come in high-top and Cobain's preferred One Star styles, and feature just a simple discreet signature or artwork and lyrical scribbles from the dead rock star's notebooks. Wear and fray detailing is
added for that authentic "distressed" feel.