Converse Jack Purcell Signature Ox 'Black'
Colorway: Black · Style code: 147560C · Price: $91 · Availability: Available now
More colorways: Converse Jack Purcell Signature Hi 'Black White' (153586C) · Converse Jack Purcell Signature Low 'True Navy' (147563C)
John Edward Purcell won the Canadian national badminton title in 1929 and 1930, lost his amateur status in 1931 for writing about the sport in a newspaper, turned professional, and was declared world champion in 1933 after beating the best players Canada, the United States and Britain had. He did not lose again before retiring in 1945.
In 1935 he put his name to a canvas court shoe for B.F. Goodrich's PF Flyers, with a steel shank in the heel for support on a badminton court. It was nicknamed Blue Tips and Smilies for the curved stripe across the toe cap, and it spent most of the twentieth century as a standard tennis shoe.
Converse acquired PF Flyers and the Purcell trademark in 1972, and kept the rights to that line even after antitrust proceedings forced it to give up the rest. Nike's purchase of Converse in 2003 did not interrupt production. The black Signature Ox is the plainest surviving version, at $75, and roughly the same shoe a badminton player would have laced up ninety years ago.