Reinventing tradition: Converse Chuck Taylor 2.0

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, or just aren’t a fan of the Converse Chuck Taylor sneakers, you would have heard that Converse just updated the CTs.

What’s the big deal?

Adidas, Nike, Asics, Saucony, Puma, and other brands update their line-ups practically every year, if not twice a year.

Converse took almost a full century (98 years to be exact) to update the Chuck Taylors.

To be fair, the Chuck Taylors were a bloody good pair of shoes. They were lightweight, comfortable, and lasted reasonably long enough to see one through puberty. And they came in so many colors and patterns, so unless you hated the basic design, there was always something out there for you.

Basically, Converse just added a Lunarlon insole from Nike, added elastic straps to anchor the tongue of the shoe to prevent it from slipping left or right (great for OCD folks like me who like the tongue “aligned centre”, added some microfiber to the underside of the tongue to make it more breatheable and comfortable.

Not very much then. But damn, those colors.

You get to pick from four colors.

Yep. FOUR.

Blue, white, black, and red.

To be fair, you get to pick from EIGHT, since they come in both hi and low top versions.

So, are they any good, you ask.

Yes, they are.

The insole claims improved arch support, but even with my flat feet, I didn’t notice them. It also claims improved cushioning, but don’t expect running shoe levels of cushioning. But they are comfortable enough to spend a whole day walking in them.

The improvements in the tongue are really more cosmetic, since the ones on the original ones weren’t actually broken. But hey, it’s centered.

Thats it, really. The changes are more evolutionary than revolutionary.

Are they worth getting then?

OH HELL YES.

So much so that I bought one in each color in the low cut, and picked up blue and white pairs in hi tops.

There’s something about the Chuck Taylors that make them iconic.

Timeless.

They go great with anything (yeah, even slacks, if you know how to pull them off), they go anywhere, and you won’t go broke over them.

Don’t wait. Don’t ask. Just get them