Converse

I was reading a short article and came across the word "CONVERSE" used as a verb. My thoughts went to GI and his shoes. We have always pronounced 'Converse' (shoes) with the accent on the first syllable yet the verb 'converse' has the accent on the second syllable. I wondered whether it was supposed to be Converse shoes with the accent on the first syllable. It dawned on me that I didn't know anything about the origins of CONVERSE. I had no idea where Converse came from and why they called the shoes 'Chucks'.

A little research showed that Converse is a person and Chuck is a famous athlete. (Did YOU know that? I didn't until now. A closer look at the shoes does show that there is a signature across the ankle patch. I hadn't really noticed that before.)

If GI were here, he would smile at me and lovingly say, "Silly Mom, of course that's why they are called Chucks."

http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/articles/pages/1731/Converse.html

The origin of Converse shoes dates back to 1908 when Marquis M. Converse established the Converse Rubber Company in Malden, Massachusetts. The small company began producing shoes in 1909. In the last ninety years, the company has grown to become the largest U.S. manufacturer of footwear.

Converse made its mark on the footwear industry when it introduced the canvas All Star® basketball shoe in 1917. Through the endorsement of Basketball Hall of Famer Charles “Chuck” H. Taylor, the shoe captured a majority of the basketball shoe market. As the first athletic shoe endorser, Taylor became a salesperson for the company in 1921. He traveled the country promoting the shoes and conducting basketball clinics for coaches. His signature was added to the ankle patch of the shoe in 1923, and the shoe style became known as the Chuck Taylor® All Star®.

As one of the most popular shoes of all time, over 550 million pairs of the Chuck Taylor® All Star® have been sold. Until the 1970s, when leather supplanted canvas on the basketball court, the shoe retained between 70 and 80 percent of the basketball shoe market. The Chuck Taylor® All Star® continued to be popular as a fashion shoe, and it continues to attract devotees eighty years after its introduction. During the 1970s, Converse developed new, high-performance leather shoes and acquired new endorsers. Following in the tradition of Chuck Taylor, NBA basketball players Larry Bird, Julius “Dr. J” Erving, and Dennis Rodman have endorsed Converse basketball shoes.