PUDDLEWACKY

Daily A~Musing #16: 

Chuck Taylor All-Stars Sneakers

Seriously...what item of footwear could POSSIBLY be more iconic than Chucks???  What other single shoe has spanned such an extensive time period, been touted, revived and re-revived in as many cultural and subbacultchural fashion statements?  (Subbacultcha:  If you've never heard that phrase and you're correcting my grammar, take a pill and look it up.  If you know what it's from, I adore you and we should hang out with our Sony Walkman cassette players sometime.)

I confess (lean in closer, dearies, cuz I'm only admitting this ONCE) I sported my first pair of Chucks my Freshman year of high school and they were *GULP* pink.  (For those of you who know me personally, you comprehend my deeply held abhorrence for this color.  Although, I AM mellowing out a bit in my old age and can tolerate it in small doses here and there.)

I then graduated to the classic black canvas high top Chucks which apparently remain, to this day, the most popular of all the many, many Chuck styles.  Lately, I have strayed from the sacred path to don Chuck imposters, but I can't be held accountable for this as both pairs were silver and shiny and I'm not physically capable of resisting anything shiny.  I now covet about 20 different styles of Chucks and hope to someday create my own design, which apparently one can do on the Converse Website.

http://www.converse.com/

Some Nifty Chuck Stuph:

*"Chuck" is actually Charles Hollis Taylor who really was a basketball player for the Globe Trotters waaaay, waaaay back in the day. (He was also a shoe salesman and a high school principal.)

*Chuck designed the shoe to be more flexible for sports and the ankle patch to protect the ankle in sports scufflings.  (I always thought it was just there to have a place to put the logo.) 

*Chuck also invented the stitchless basketball.

*Chuck's fave flavor of All Stars was the plain white canvas high tops.

*Converse All Stars were the official sneaker of the 1948 Olympics and of the U.S. military during WWII. (All GI's got issued their own pair of Chucks...pretty sweet.)

A Few Famous Chuck-Wearers

*James Dean

*John Travolta

*Johnny Depp

*Joey Ramone

*Kurt Cobain

*Stephen King

BUT...

You know what I wanna see most??

"Chics in Chucks"

Email me a pic of yourself, your friends, your two-year-olds, your nanas, your mamas, your teens, your cranky neighbors, whoever you know with estrogen, wearing Chucks, no later than April 30, 2010. 

We'll celebrate MayDay together with a lovely Chics in Chucks Fest.  I'll post whatever pics I've been sent on here for kicks and giggles and will award the coolest pic with fun shoelaces for their Chucks

Gimme those pix!!!

maevon.pegeen@live.com 

You can also check out other Chics in Chucks at this website:
http://www.chicksinchucks.com/