Converse with men makes sharp the glittering wit... (Converse)

Member Name: oodlenoodle9

Product:	Converse
Date:	17/12/08 (265 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Comfortable, good looking shoes that quickly become part of your feet. Millions of designs!

Disadvantages: Cold in winter, may not fit everyone or be to everyone's taste

As a pretty lazy teenage boy, I have a bad habit of wearing shoes until utter oblivion consumes them. My last pair (some nice blue Trespass thingies) I liked so much that I wore them until the soles fell to bits, then duck taped them back together and continued wearing them until I had to duck tape the duck tape. In desperation I searched for a similar pair and found nothing good at all - until I turned to Converse.

I was a bit sceptical at first. In economics there is a term called the Snob Effect - this is a psychological effect that affects some people, increasing their price elasticity of demand for a good as more and more other people consume it. In other words, the more people who own something, the less you are willing to pay more for it. Apparently I suffer from this when it comes to shoes - every other person, even some OLD people (like, over 20 years old), seems to wear Converse, which struck me as a pretty good reason not to wear them. Still, I was desperate.

I should probably explain at this point what exactly they are. Converse are shoes, originally designed by the apparently legendary bloke Chuck Taylor for basketball, normally with cream/white coloured rubber soles and brightly coloured canvas upper bits. They come in two main designs - high tops and low tops. Surprisingly enough the high tops have high tops, coming up over your ankles (with the obligatory star design on the inner edge), whereas the low tops stop below the ankle. I myself am a high tops kinda guy, for no particular reason.

My description is probably a bit rubbish, so you can check them out on their website here if you like: http://www.converse.com/index.aspx?mode=init#

My first pair of Converse I ordered online from the UK Converse store, and were simply navy blue in colour, similar to my beloved but deceased Trespasses. I paid about £20 for them I think, which seemed pretty reasonable, and was enough to persuade me to give them a try. I was a bit worried that what with the whole mail-order thing and all they would be the wrong size, but they fitted perfectly, and once I worked out how they laced up and how to get the flipping things on, they were actually really comfortable.

They are very simple inside - flat and canvassy, no padding or anything, and yet somehow they manage to be perfectly comfortable. In fact, I generally put my Converse on in the morning and wander round in them all day without even noticing them...they're pretty much part of my feet now I fear. Indeed the whole wearing-out process is very important you see - Converse just aren't cool unless they look like they've been co-existing with a dog that likes to chew shoes for about three years. My even more Converse-nutty friend even got someone to wear her new pair for her for a couple of weeks until they reached the desired on-death's-door look.

Sadly, I loved my blue pair to death's door a bit fast, and they started ripping along the seams after about a year. Although still perfectly wearable (indeed much cooler than their pre-ripped state!) I decided I needed a second pair to ease the strain, and proceeded to drool over a new pair (the pair currently attached to my feet) until I got my Amazon voucher through Dooyoo and bought them for £25 reduced to £15. They're so cool, and I love them - they have hibiscus flowers on.

One of the best things about Converse, and something that goes a long way to mitigating the old Snob Effect, is that there are about a million designs to choose from, ranging from plain blue, black, red etc. to tartan, flowers, checkers, flames, stripes and pretty much any other pattern or picture that you can imagine. You can have twenty different pairs and still feel like you're being original! Hurrah! Although if you've got twenty pairs you're probably not very original actually...

The only downside I can think of (other than the fact that your parents probably wore them back in the day) is that they are a tad chilly in winter. They seem to have a tendency to keep the cold in, not out. Plus they have speed holes in the side (seen The Simpsons lately?) which, although undoubtedly speedy, do tend to let in water when you step in puddles. Still, it's a small price to pay.

Furthermore they don't seem to be for everyone. I let my friend try them on to see what all the hype was about and he said they were horrible and pinched the sides of his feet. They are quite narrow shoes I guess, so they may not suit all foot shapes! Still, they fit me fine, and so many people wear them that I can only guess that this is not a particularly common problem.

If you ask me though, you can't do much better than a pair of Converse if you're looking for casual shoes. Even Doctor Who wears them, at least in his David Tennant incarnation, so they must be good - comfortable, functional (sort of anyway) and good-looking. What more could you want from a pair of shoes?

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