Converse gets back in the game, launches new basketball shoe
Converse’s history in the game is undeniable, but the company stopped making basketball shoes in 2012…until reentering the market with the All Star Pro BB on May 18.
Converse’s history is ingrained in the game of basketball. Its canvas intertwined with the evolution of the sport, from Bill Russell’s Celtics to Julius Erving’s iconic scoop, all the way to 2000’s Dwyane Wade.
But since 2012, the basketball line went on hiatus. Seven years later, Converse reenters the fray with the All Star Pro BB. To celebrate, Converse held a launch party back in April and set up a makeshift museum of sorts. Attendees walked through a century’s worth of nostalgia, with year markers hanging over display cases of chronologically corresponding iterations of sneakers.
Displays started at 1917, the first time Converse produced a shoe designed for basketball. Commercials from the 1980’s played on loop at the front of the space, while newspaper clippings, box scores and promotional posters lined the walls.
Once the museum walk-through wrapped up, Kelly Oubre Jr., the endorser of the new line, came on the screen. In a video addressed to the guests, he listed the lightness, next-level technology, comfort and style as his favorite things about the shoe.
A panel of executives followed, discussing what went into making the shoe.
“We’re back. Returning to the communities that we want to reengage and recommit to,” Brandis Russell, Converse’s vice president of footwear, said at the launch party. “Those that are helping build for the future of the game. And at the same time, helping to build the future of our brand with the product.”
The panel harped on the shoes being everything you want and nothing you don’t, combining the power of Nike innovation with iconic Converse DNA. Above all else, they wanted to find a balance between performance and the brand’s classic style, simultaneously heading into the future while honoring the past. The designers engineered it to reflect the multi-faceted, positionally-fluid modern game.
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I was able to try on a pair and they lived up to the night’s billing. Even after hearing the rhetoric, I remember being surprised at how light they were and how they formed to my foot almost immediately.
The new All Star Pro BB gets its initial, limited release in the U.S. on May 18 before going global in June and retails at $140.