Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index Converse Shoes is an American shoe company that has been selling shoes since the 1950s. Converse shoes' line of shoes includes Chuck Taylor, Jack Purcell and Heritage. Wildly popular during the 1970s and early 1980s, Converse shoes lost some of its popularity during the middle 1980s and much of the 1990s with the surge of new competitors such as Nike and Dr. Martens. This loss of market share forced Converse to file for bankruptcy in 2001. Since that time, Converse has improved business. It has been the official shoe of many NBA teams, and is re-introducing the Chuck Taylors back into the market. In July, 2003 the company accepted a $305 million purchase offer from rival Nike. This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.