Converse Appreciation Thread - Page 38

Thoughts? :

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B009157YQ8/ref=s9_simh_gw_p309_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=19AVGHC3XGQV1XX8A913&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=317828027&pf_rd_i=468294

I think those look pretty ugly.

Just a couple days ago, ordered Chuck lo-tops in the color A. Blue. I'm rarely attracted to bold colors in shoes but this shade of blue looked real nice on my screen. It's not navy, it's not regular blue, it's not a dark blue... It's like a medium blue but with a little bit of a green coming through.

Anyone know what the "A" in A. Blue stands for?

Referring to the chucks in my post above, I guess it is kind of a dark blue. In bright sunlight though, it's a nice vibrant blue.

Been crazy into Jack Purcells lately. Even busted out my JP boaters which I had put away for winter. Just yesterday bought JP white canvas. I'm not into white canvas at all, but I was willing to give them a chance. I'm hoping they'll look awesome after they are worn in and dirty.

JPs have been redesigned, mostly which I'm OK with. The vent eyelets are now placed between the rubber and canvas, and they seemed to have deleted the embroidery on the tongue. That's the change I dislike, but what are you gonna do. The other change I'm not to fond of is the laces are more wooly/fabricy, and they took out the metal tips.

Anyway... yea...

The new JP redesigns are atrocious. The vent eyelits literally serve no purpose other than decoration. The laces no longer have metal tips. The toe cap nub is now just a strip of rubber glued on. 

 

It's just really shitty all around. What's worse is that the First String JP's also seem to have these changes, which effectively stops me from buying any of them.

Honestly I don't think they look that much different. If you hadn't told me I don't think I would have noticed.

The eyelets aren't completely useless, it's just that the insert tends to block them. You can cut the insert a little bit to no overall detriment.... But converse should do that, not us... which reminds me the inserts are a little different. They are thinner, which I like (more interior room) but I don't like the material. They now are a bit more like styrofoam and less like the old foam rubber. The toe cap... seems fine to me... it's actually all flush now which looks nice. I didn't mind the slightly sunken one, but the color of the smile used to be a strip of rubber where you could see the shape of that strip under the cap which could look wonky on some pairs. It looks a little nicer now TBH. What I didn't like before is the actual cutout of the smile could be really inconsistent from shoe to shoe... not pair to pair but each individual shoe could look quite different. Also the white rubber used to be bright and obvious WHITE, now they are sort of a slight off white. Doesn't affect me but some people might not like it.

It seems like they changed the manufacture and cut some things to save cost (the laces and the embroidery, maybe the inserts). All in all not horrible changes but its not going to diminish my enjoyment of these 'new gen' JPs. The only thing I'm hating is they are putting out sooo many uselss/specialized designs (plaids, ugly colors) where I want versatility. And they sure let the boat shoe and Racearound designs come and go. I hope they bring those back in some capacity.

That's a fair assessment. The only thing I sharply disagree with you about is the vent eyelets. It's just completely dysfunctional out of box and that should never be the case. Perhaps I'm just a bit too OCD for my own good, but I can't stand little cheap details like that.

 

Corners are being cut. I wouldn't mind so much if it was just the regular JP's that got this treatment, but when the First String and Varvatos line get the quality cut as well, it's a bit of a slap in the face. We're talking $100-$200 sneakers here...

 

I really did like the old indentation though (when they did it right, at least.) It just feels like they tacked a piece of rubber on now. 

 

Rest in peace, old toe cap. 

 

New one for comparison

 

 

Yea, the old toe cap did look a little more 'crafted'. All my JPs have years of life in them based on how often and how hard I wear them, so I'll still be able to have both for quite a while. I think I'm done buying them for now... a foolhardy statement, but I'll always change my mind for a good design. But I have all the basics I need... black canvas (last gen), black leather (new gen), white canvas (new gen), black leather racearounds mids, blue boaters, a pair of old gen customs from the Converse site... more than enough variety and versatility...

Confession of something weird:

Scored a pair of 'lightly used' Jack Purcell boat shoes in white from ebay. $12-something I think, and look to be the 2010 spring ones. Took me a while to get into the ones I bought back then, but last summer they were my go-to sockless shoe.

I've never gone in for used shoes, I can handle like pre-owned shirts and stuff, shoes are a LITTLE odd. But some people are freaked out at the concept of used shoes. I've washed my navy pair in the washing machine about a month ago, that turned out fine. So I'm gonna toss these dudes in the machine when they get here. Couldn't really pass them up considering they only made that particular model for a while and then they kinda disappeared.

I picked up a pair of natural high tops a bit ago and they're pretty sweet. I'm moving away from sneakers right now but converse will always have a place in my heart. I still have my first pair of black low tops from at least six years ago that are now legit disgusting and splitting to pieces. They're just starting to look good.

Hi I'm new here and I have exhausted every online resource and now resorting to posting on forums.
I'm trying to get identifying information and possibly valuation on this vintage pair of all stars.
From what I have so far they are from around 1981 and are the old star chevron type basketball shoe. (Size 17)
The shoes are in great condition with the exception of some dirt from being lightly used but other than that they have just been shelved for about 25 years.
We just thought it was time to get rid of them and I know there is a collectors market for old shoes/basketball shoes.
Anything helps.

 

 

 

 

Probably ebay. Not sure of any sites that sell old/vintage chucks aside from that.

Not particularly thrilled that Converse took the Jack Purcell embroidering off the tongue of the standard black and white leather and canvas models, but are still putting it on everything else. I didn't realize how much I wanted that embroidery until I buy 2 pairs of the damn things. They better not go back to putting them on those again or I'll be pissed! =)