Yep, the title says it all. The first two designs of the Super Mario Chuck Taylor All-Stars series will be released next month. The more scenic designs like the one above will start showing up on gamers’ feet in August. And although it looks like Mario is stealing the show, Toad, Princess Toadstool, Luigi and Bowser make appearances on the kicks as well. What I really love about these Chucks are all of the hidden bits – the coins on the outside flap, the “Thank You Mario” screen, the oh-so clever placement of the Invincibility Star on the back. Even the box is awesome.

“The Converse All-Star shoe, which on the bottom says “”one star”“, one of the first specifically designed to be worn when playing basketball, was introduced in the 1910s. Taylor started wearing them in 1917 as a high school basketball player.[1] (A.G. Spalding had already been making a basketball-model shoe for nearly two decades.[2]) In 1921, Taylor went to the Converse Shoes Chicago sales offices in search of a job, where S.R. “”Bob”” Pletz, an avid sportsman, then hired him.[3]
Within a year, Taylor’s suggestions of changing the design of the shoe to provide enhanced flexibility and support, and also including patch to protect the ankle, were adopted. The All-Star star logo was then immediately included on the patch. By 1923 Chuck Taylor’s name was added to the patch, and the shoe became the Chuck Taylor All-Stars.
Chuck Taylor was an exceptional representative for Converse. Joe Dean, who worked as a sales executive for Converse for nearly 30 years before becoming the athletic director at Louisiana State University, told Bob Ford of The Philadelphia Inquirer, “”It was impossible not to like him, and he knew everybody. If you were a coach and you wanted to find a job, you called Chuck Taylor. Athletic directors talked to him all the time when they were looking for a coach.”“[4]
Taylor received a salary from Converse, but received no commission for any of the 600 million pairs of Chuck Taylor shoes that have been sold. For years, he drove a white Cadillac across the country with a trunk full of shoes, living in motels, and with only a locker in the company’s Chicago warehouse as a permanent residence.[4] Author Abraham Aamidor, however, points out that Taylor wasn’t sparing in use of the Converse expense account.[5]”

So nice the detail of the star

That depends…are these finally stateside available ones? Because I’ve seen plenty of pictures of ones I “can’t” get. And if I can get them, I want link! Although, I really liked the design of the Japanese ones.