Oldest Athletic Shoe Endorsement

Converse's basketball shoes, cross-training casual shoes and children's shoes are sold under the Chuck Taylor Converse All-Star brand, named after Chuck Taylor, who became the very first athletic shoe endorser in 1923. Taylor's name was added to the ankle patch to honour his contribution to basketball.

Over 750 million pairs have been sold since 1923.

Chuck Taylor worked as a salesman for Converse and also acted as player-manager for a basketball team who played exhibition matches to popularize the brand. He ran basketball clinics too, for sports coaches.

In terms of a signature sneaker identified with a professional sportsperson, the earliest example is the Jack Purcell badminton shoe, produced in 1935 by the Canadian company B F Goodrich. Also popular at the time with tennis players (and later as a general-purpose sneaker), the shoe was named after the Canadian badminton star John Edward "Jack" Purcell, who helped to design it. In the 1970s, Converse bought the rights to the sneaker's silhouette from B F Goodrich and went on to launched its own Jack Purcell sneaker.