Konted's Make My Day 2: My First Converse Shoes

My First Converse Shoes

Like Forrest Gump, I was sitting on a bench in front of the Shoe Museum when a group of high school students passed by. They were wearing colorful rubber shoes. And there was no mistaking that the shoes were Converse rubber shoes. That triggered something. That made my mind wander to a day in 1961 when I wore my first Classic Converse high cut basketball shoes. I was then 11 yrs old, going 12.

Banking on the assurance of classmate and teammate Bombo Joven that I would be fielded in the next scheduled game, I asked my father for a brand new pair. I had been riding the bench in the past games and this could be my 15 minutes of fame. You see, Bombo played basketball so well that our class adviser assigned him as team captain and delegated some of the coaching chores to him. At a very young age, Bombo had basketball moves comparable to that of all-time great Kenneth Duremdes. If Bombo took basketball seriously, Duremdes would have been a mere copycat. And we looked up to him as team leader. Game time came and I was wearing my first Classic Converse All Star.

The first few pairs of Converse rubber shoes were introduced to the public in 1908 by the Converse Rubber Shoe Company owned by Marquis Mills Converse. They were primarily intended as winter shoes and not as sports shoes. It was in 1915 that the company started manufacturing tennis shoes. And two years later, the classic Converse All Star basketball shoes were manufactured and made available in shoe stores. When the company engaged the services of basketball star Chuck Taylor as member of its sales staff several years after, Converse All Star made an impact on the sporting world. Taylor's signature was added later on the patch of the high cut shoes. Whereas before, only white and black shoes were manufactured, we now see different colors of Converse shoes. Today, Converse is owned by Nike. Nike bought the company in 2003 to the tune of $309 million.

The original Converse factory is in Malden, Massachusetts. Converse boasts of having sold approximately 800,000,000 pairs of Chuck Taylor All Star rubber shoes since the early 1900s. Prominent personalities who have been associated with Converse, at one time or another, were Wilt Chamberlain, Julius 'Dr. J' Erving, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. Holder of the Guinness record for the largest collection of unique Converse shoes is Joshua Mueller of Lakewood, Washington. Joshua has 680 pairs of Converse shoes.

Back to the ball game. As expected, I was not one of the starting five. The 1st and 2nd quarters ended with our team trailing by more than 10 points. I was telling myself that anytime during the second half, Bombo would ask me to substitute for another player. And I was bracing for that eventuality. As what I had been hearing the day before, I was to act as reliever to another classmate Jerry Singson, younger brother of Chavit Singson. But Jerry was playing one hell of a game, and displaying one hell of a fight. He was sizzling. Not to mention that the team was still trailing behind. The buzzer sounded and we lost by a single digit. I had no opportunity to seize the moment, to show my basketball wares, to dive for loose balls. There was no dirt, no stain on my Converse. The shoes remained immaculate white.

Now, my story does not end there. As I walked home after the game, I was uneasy. I was perplexed. What would I tell Bok, our errand boy? I was bragging that morning before leaving the house for school: "Bok, I'll drop the bombs today." But more importantly, what would I tell my father? For sure he would want to know what transpired during the game. And true enough, before twilight time, I could hear my father's car horn blaring: beep...beep beep. I ran upstairs and, through the railing of the stairway, I could see him enter the side door. He was in his usual all-white attire and holding his medical leather bag with the stethoscope dangling. I could hear his voice: "Hey, kid, come down...come here....tell me what happened. ..How many points did you score today? Did you feel comfortable with your new Converse? How was it, tell me...." I remained upstairs, slumped on the vinyl floor tiles. I refused to go down the stairs. There was nothing to tell my father. There was nothing to tell about my new Converse. Holding the Converse shoe box, I went inside the room and locked the door. I had my dinner at 10pm when my father was fast asleep. My 15 minutes of fame remained elusive.

- Konted