“Championing The Individuals”: An Interview With Jeremy Catalino, Sr. Writer at Converse

Converse Chuck Taylor All Stars are instantly recognizable. Iconic. The simple canvas shoe has been long-worn, customized, and reimagined in so many ways — by rock stars, angsty teens, computer geeks, and everyone in between.

By nature, the shoes look better once they’re beaten up and take on a story unique to their owner. They’re leather jackets, journals, and your favorite old sweater. And in their new campaign, they’re celebrated art.

That’s what “Made By You” is all about: a celebration of self-expression and the individual experiences shown through every beat-up pair of Chucks.

Converse is now showcasing a series of All Star portraits from well-known wearers, including Patti Smith, Futura, and Andy Warhol.

You can find them everywhere — online, plastered to subway walls, and in galleries across the globe, including Shanghai, London and New York. Visitors to the New York gallery can even slide on a pair of Google Cardboard glasses to experience the celebrity Chucks in virtual reality.

To learn more, I spoke with Jeremy Catalino, the in-house Sr. Writer at Converse. With the same rebellious voice that Converse conveys, Catalino told me about the campaign and the strategy behind it.

“We sell these sneakers to people brand new and unblemished in the box,” he said. “From there, each pair becomes a chronicle of their owner’s creative journey. They get marked up, torn and stained…or they might get customized by getting painted, studded, and adorned with pins or neon green glittery laces. Each pair becomes a unique representation of the person who has lived in them.”

And if this wasn’t clear enough through the ads and installations, Converse is also encouraging social media followers to share their own beaten-up Chuck Taylor photos — taking the “Made By You” spirit to a whole new level of customization and art-sharing.

The brand has even been inviting users to participate in professional sneaker photo shoots, posting the artsy portraits on their own social pages.

They’re harnessing user-generated content to keep up with marketing trends and accompany their theme of customization, and they’re doing it with clear strategy. According to Catalino, “User-generated campaigns will undoubtedly continue to grow. Social media makes it too easy.”

“But it’s a slippery slope,” he continued. “Like Justin Timberlake as Sean Parker in The Social Network proclaimed, ‘Ads aren’t cool.’ People are way too savvy these days to know when they are blatantly being sold on something, and it’s a big turn-off.”

“If brands want users to generate [content], it has to be savvy, relatable and fun. Captain Morgan and Old Spice, for instance, have been very successful with this in the recent past. They’re not just selling a product, but a zest for living life. That’s where the true user-generated campaigns get rolling. The trick is starting it organically and authentically, so the user is advertising for the brand without knowing it — or knows it, but doesn’t care because they’re having so much fun.”

Before this campaign, Converse was already the second most followed brand on Twitter, and that definitely says something about the way the brand interacts with fans. When I asked Catalino why, his answer was simple:

“Chuck Taylor All Stars are blue jeans and the little black dress. They are The Wizard of Oz and apple pie. They’re timeless. Never out of vogue. They look cool. They go great with everything….We are lucky that these sneakers have grown this reputation organically.”

And he’s right.

When Converse advertises, they don’t really advertise; they remind consumers of their basic truth — their manic mantra. According to Jeremy Catalino, “[w]hat Converse does so well is not try and convince people to buy their sneakers. People are too smart to know when they’re being sold on something. That’s unattractive. Instead, we are constantly celebrating the Converse spirit.”

So by celebrating each unique pair of lived-in sneakers, the Converse spirit of individuality gleams boldly.

“We don’t want to be told who to be, we just want to be us. Who can’t relate with that? That’s what the ‘Made By You’ campaign is all about. It’s about championing the individuals.”