Converse Chuck 70 Ox 'Orange Ivory'
Colorway: Orange/Ivory · Style code: 164928C · Price: $182 · Availability: Available now
More colorways: Converse Chuck 70 Ox 'Black' (144757) · Converse Chuck 70 Ox 'Herringbone' (A03662C) · Converse Chuck 70 Ox 'Black' (167065C) · Converse Chuck 70 Ox 'Amarillo' (166825C) · Converse Chuck Taylor 70 Ox (149444C)
The shoe Converse sells as the Chuck 70 is a reconstruction rather than a survivor. The All Star began in 1917 as the Non-Skid, a canvas-and-rubber basketball shoe from a company that had been making rubber footwear since 1908. Charles Taylor joined as a salesman in 1921, and within a year his suggestions for flexibility and ankle support had been built into the product. His signature went onto the circular patch that protects the ankle, and by 1923 the design had settled into more or less the form it still has.
Then it drifted. Decades of cost engineering thinned the canvas and lowered the rubber. In 2013 Converse went back to how the shoe was made in the late 1960s and early 1970s and reissued the result: thicker canvas, a higher midsole and foxing, real cushioning underfoot.
This is the low-cut Ox, orange canvas against an ivory sole, at $80. The differences from a standard All Star are small individually and obvious once they are stacked up.