What’s in your clothes closet? ‘Chucks’ or ‘Jack Purcells’?

For many generations, two iconic athletic shoe brands have competed for our allegiance. Are you partial to Converse Chuck Taylor All Star basketball shoes, or do you prefer classic Jack Purcell tennis shoes? 

This is a story that continues to unfold. Today, both brands are thriving after having been re-engineered, revolutionized and “retro-ized”…all at the same time. 

In the beginning, Marquis Converse of Malden, Mass., opted in 1917 to expand his core business of manufacturing rubber galoshes. He boldly added basketball footwear to his product line. 

Converse introduced high top All Stars with rubber soles and canvas uppers.

 

Just a few years later, Converse hired a Midwesterner who knew the game of basketball inside and out – Charles Hollis “Chuck” Taylor – to take charge of sales and marketing.

Taylor’s secret to success was cozying up to the people who had the most influence over young basketball players – their coaches. Taylor worked long and hard to convince coaches that black canvas Converse All Stars were the best. He was very good at building relationships. 

Converse recognized Taylor’s contributions by relabeling the brand in 1932 as Chuck Taylor All Stars, adding his signature to the circular logo patch on each shoe.

Meanwhile, John Edward “Jack” Purcell of Guelph, Ontario, Canada, began working with Dr. Benjamin Franklin (B.F.) Goodrich to develop a durable performance shoe “for the racquet sports.” 

Purcell designed a low top, bleached-white canvas-and-rubber sneaker that was launched in Canada in 1933.

 

Tim Newcomb of Sports Illustrated said: “Jack Purcell sneakers had perfectly flat soles, unmarred by grooves that could tear up grass, clay or composition tennis courts. For most of the 20th century, Jack Purcells were ‘required wear’ on these surfaces.” 

“In the 1930s and ’40s, the Purcell was the shoe,” said Jack Kramer, an American tennis legend, who held the Number One ranking for several years. 

“In 1935, I went to a junior tournament in San Bernardino, and everyone was wearing Jack Purcells,” Kramer said. “I needed to have the shoe with the funny blue mark on the toe.” 

The trademarked “smile” on the toe was part of the mystique.

Few knew that the real Jack Purcell was just a so-so tennis player. However, he was a world championship badminton player and nicknamed “The Smiler” for his ever-present grin. After a 13-year career, Purcell retired from the sport in 1944; he never lost a match on the badminton court. 

In 1936, Converse introduced its “Olympic white” version of “Chucks,” and from then on, it was game-on between the two shoe companies to make inroads with “general consumers.” 

Freelance feature writer Todd Truman said Jack Purcells were embraced by “the west coast surf and beach scene and became a symbol of attire at prep schools and country clubs across the nation.” 

“The Jack Purcell still carries a hipper-than-thou kind of swagger,” Truman asserted. 

Truman said that Chuck Taylors began popping up on television in 1950s, featured in black-and-white programs such as “Lassie,” “The Donna Reed Show” and “Dennis the Menace.”

 By 1955, Converse owned 80% of the entire sneaker industry. Low top All Stars made their debut in 1957. 

Chucks took on a more rough-and-tumble image in the 1961 film “West Side Story.” The Sharks wore the original black high tops, and the Jets wore the white All Stars, said Whitney Matheson, a pop culture journalist. 

Would Jack Purcells and Chuck Taylors survive…once the Beatles arrived?