Converse brand dates back to the early 1900s. It was then that Marquis M. Converse who had been working as a top manager at the Beacon Falls Rubber Shoe Company decided to found Converse Rubber Company in Malden, Massachusetts. Marquis was in his late 30s when he decided to set up his own business. By that time he had had 250,000 dollars of initial capital. At first Converse Rubber Company manufactured only rubber shoes with winterized sole.
A year later there were as much as 350 workers on the staff and the company manufactured 4,000 rubber shoes per day. As late as 1915 the company produced the first pair of famous Converse athletic shoes for tennis. Soon the company released All star basketball shoes. In 1921 the company took Charles H. Taylor ("Chuck" Taylor) as a salesman on the staff who was a famous basketball player. Chuck Taylor promoted the shoes in the USA. In time All star basketball shoes were renamed after Chuck Taylor and became Chuck Taylor All Star shoes. In 1923 his signature was added to All Star patch.
In 1929, Converse Rubber Company faced financial ruin and the management of the company was passed into the hands of Mitchell B. Kaufman, the president of Hodgman Rubber Company. After his death the management was assumed by Albert Wechsler who was the president of the company till 1933 when the company was sold again due to the market situation. This time the owners of Converse brand became the Stone family that ran the company for 39 years.
When the United States entered World War II, the company started to produce shoes, boots, parkas, rubber protective suits, yadda yadda for American Armed Services alone with sports shoes for civilians. In 2001, due to the loss of the market share following the surge of a great number of competitors like Adidas, Nike, Reebok, the list can go on, as well as poor management, the company declared itself a bankrupt.
The last Converse factory on the territory of the USA was closed. Now Converse shoes are manufactured in China, Indonesia, Italy, Lithuania, Vietnam, etc. In 2003, Converse Company accepted a 305,000,000 purchase offer from Nike company.
