Timeline

1908
Marquis M. Converse opens the Converse Rubber Shoe Company for business.

1910
Converse produces 4,000 shoes daily.

1915
Converse canvas tennis shoe business climbs, doubling by 1918.

1917
Converse All Star is introduced, the first performance basketball sneaker in the Converse era.

1918
Charles H. “Chuck” Taylor, an All American high school player who would later suit up with the original Celtics, Buffalo Germans and Akron Firestones, puts on his first pair of All Star shoes

1921
Chuck Taylor joins Converse, he hires on as a salesman and endorser.

1923
Converse adds Chuck Taylor's signature to the All Star Patch.Converse customizes shoes for the first all African American basketball team, the New York Renaissance.

1930
The nation's interest for basketball increases, Converse becomes a synonym of basketball.

1933
The Stone Family aquires the Converse company.

1935
Jack Purcell, the world famous badminton champion, designs a durable performance court shoe.
Chuck invents the modern basket ball, a stitch less leather ball designed to improve the sport by a more true bounce.

1936
Basketball is played for the first time as an official Olympic sport.

1942
Converse changes its sports production and start manufacturing the A6 Flying Boot, which is used by the entire U.S Army Air group.

1949
The Basketball Association of America and the National League join to become the NBA.

1962
Converse develops a low cut version of its All Star, called “ Oxford ”.

1966
Converse starts adding color choices to the basic black and white "Chuck Taylor" All Star basketball shoe.

1968
Chuck earns a spot in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

1971
Ths Stone family sells the Converse Company to the Eltra Corporation.

1974
Converse introduces the “One Star”, a low-cut performance shoe for basketball.

1976
Julius Erving endorses Converse.

1981
Converse develops the industry's first biomechanics labs.

1984
Converse is the Official Sponsor of the 1984 Olympics Games.

1985
Converse investments paid off, when the biomechanics lab presented the first high tech cushioning systems.
The later years Converse starts to sink.

1986
Converse released "The Weapon" basketball shoe. Also manufactured in many color schemes to match the team colors of basketball teams, it has been available in both high-top and low cut varieties.

1996
Produces 5.2 million pairs of sneakers in the United States.

1997
Announces that over 550 million pairs of "Chuck Taylor" All Star sneakers produced; believed an industry record. Produces 7.5 million pairs of sneakers in the United States.

2001
Sales dropped and the company was forced to file for bankruptcy.
The factory in U.S.A closes, and therefore manufacturing in the United States is no longer possible.
April - Changes ownership from public to private hands; $117 million paid to the bankruptcy court towards their debt. July - First "Chuck Taylor" All Star sneakers made in Indonesia arrive in the USA.

2003
Nike makes an offer to buy Converse for the amount of $305 million, and it success, transforming Nike into Converse's owner.

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