He started a fashion trend that has endured nearly a century. Stand aside Manolo Blahnik (for whom trainers were a pet hate): since their creation in 1917, more than one billion pairs of Chuck Taylor All Star Converse sneakers have been sold.
The familiar black-and-white runner with its cotton canvas upper and rubber sole has been laced up by skaters and surfers, hipsters and musicians, artists and international style icons. Even grannies and new mums are converts these days: the Facebook page has 37 million followers.
The youthful cool of battered white Converse has been appropriated by a wider devoted following as athletic footwear has become a staple not just on the street but on runways and red carpets. Brands such as Chanel and Balenciaga now regularly issue new variants at elevated couture prices. A fifth of footwear sales on Asos last February were trainers.
As part of a worldwide campaign called Made by You, which celebrates wearers of the sneaker, 10 young Irish artists were given the opportunity to make their own mark on a pair of Chuck Taylors, using them as a blank canvas to express their creativity. The group included comic book illustrators and tattoo and street artists. The exhibition of their customised sneakers is now touring shops in Ireland for the next three months.
“We gave them a brief, which was that there was no brief; they could do what they liked,” says James Byrne of JACC Sports, who organised the project and who is a graphic designer himself. “They are already getting requests from others who want them to do something similar on their footwear. It’s another canvas for creativity and, you never know, the sneakers may end up in the People’s Art on Stephen’s Green yet,” he says with a smile.
Here are some of the artists involved and what they have chosen to do:
Miriam Smithers
The Lucan-based artist was group merchandising manager with A-Wear for eight years. She normally works with a palette knife and oils, but for this project she used a brush with acrylics. Her theme was “Life is a Beautiful Chaos”. Her image depicts people sheltering under umbrellas.
Eoin O’Connor
The artist, who lives in Aughrim, Co Wicklow, and has a gallery in Kinsale, is known for his colourful paintings of the Irish landscape, farms and Friesians. Transferring his recognisable style to another medium was difficult, he says, but painting a pig for the Jack and Jill foundation gave him some experience. He used previous paintings to create the imagery for the runners, working out the dimensions on a computer.
Will Sliney
Sliney is a graduate of Cork Institute of Technology. His big break was working on Star Wars four years ago and he now works full time on Spider-Man comics for Marvel in New York. For the Converse project he worked out the design in pink neon on a computer, using a special monitor with an inbuilt graphic tablet, which allowed him to draw with a pen directly on the screen. "It was the only way I could do what I wanted. I didn't draw on the shoe itself.
Butterflies and cabs
Emma Campbell, a Kildare-based artist who is known for her explosive use of colour, stippled her Chuck Taylors with tiny butterflies.
Orla Walsh painted hers in her trademark yellow taxi cab style.
Rob Horan, a tattooist in Galway, used his gun and ink to create very detailed and picturesque black and white sneakers.
Barry Jazz Finnegan, from Dundalk, whose hyper-realistic portraits include one of Brian O'Driscoll, used charcoal to create a glossy texture on the canvas.
Made by You will be at selected Irish retailers until the end of July, including DV8, Belfast (April 12th); Millar Shoes, Lurgan (May 26th); Tribe, St Stephen's Green (June 8th); Gosh Shoes, Galway (June 23rd); The Bag, Gallery 27, Dublin (May 7th); and Naas Arts and Culture Centre (May 15th)
