cover image Chuck Taylor, All Star: The True Story of the Man Behind the Most Famous Athletic Shoe in History

Chuck Taylor, All Star: The True Story of the Man Behind the Most Famous Athletic Shoe in History

Abraham Aamidor. Indiana University Press, $21.95 (184pp) ISBN 978-0-253-34698-8

Chuck Taylor, known best as the namesake of a shoe, made his fame with the help of great skill in both basketball and marketing. Called ""the most famous name in sports that no one knows anything about,"" Taylor was known in the 1930s, '40s and '50s as a pro basketball player, a clinician who taught basketball in high schools and colleges across the country, as coach of the Army Air Force's ""Air-Tecs"" basketball team and as a salesman. Legend, which Aamidor has found is mostly true, tells of his taste for expensive cars and hotel rooms and his overzealous use of his Converse expense account. ""Chucks,"" the canvas high-top shoes bearing his name, have held their place in youth pop culture for decades as the cool, everyday sneaker. Although Aamidor does well to reinsert Taylor's name in basketball history, he also shows that Taylor will remain most well-known for his shoes: the biography ends with the history of the Converse shoe company, and the ""Chucks"" logo and shoes are pictured throughout.