CONVERSE: You Don'T Want To Be In Shanzhai! Brand Campaign Has Begun

Last month, CONVERSE, a sports shoe brand, suddenly came to power, suing Skechers, Ralph, Lauren, FILA and other brands, plagiarizing (Shanzhai or plagiarizing) the classic design of Chuck Taylor All Stars.

We all produce black, white and rubber sole shoes, and CONVERSE CEO Jim Calhoun said that we should stop that kind of copycat activities and maintain CONVERSE's uniqueness.

This lawsuit is bound to be protracted and difficult to resolve.

Chris Sprigman, a law professor at New York University, said that those functionalized designs are hard to be protected by trademark law, and white rubber toe is hard to be judged by CONVERSE.

In fashion, Shanzhai is everywhere.

What is interesting is that if there is no Shanzhai, the influence of fashion brands will be much smaller.

Another lawyer said that in order to win a lawsuit, CONVERSE must produce evidence to prove that the shoe is a unique and famous design. The court must convince the court that consumers will not buy other brands when they want to buy a pair of CONVERSE shoes.

There is a lot of copying in fashion or clothing industry.

A designer once said that when consumers buy a product, they should not be bewildered by similar appearances. He must know what is truly original. He must know the origin and the story of that product. That is the value of the brand's accumulated value. It is "product added value".

In 1908, British immigrant Marcus Conways built his own "rubber shoes factory" in Marton, Massachusetts. Conways's main business was to manufacture rubber protective shoes and rain boots for workers in the industrial assembly line. In 1921, All Star ushered chuck Taylor.

The high school student came to CONVERSE headquarters in Chicago, hoping that the new sports shoe factory could produce more light and strong sneakers.

Bob Pulitzer, the sales director, hired the little boy who was keen on improving basketball and basketball. He became a CONVERSE salesman. He quickly rebuilt the rubber outsole and added a ankle pad. After the upper shoe was raised, CONVERSE gradually defeated the other players.

Manufactor.

Taylor was also given the title of "CONVERSE basketball ambassador", shuttling across all American universities with a Cadillac car loaded with his improved CONVERSE sneakers.

In 1976, Dr. J (Julius Erwin) brought the CONVERSE Pro Star on his feet together with the explosive head, tight Jersey, fancy dribbling and windmill dunk to NBA.

The whole 60s and 70s were the heyday of CONVERSE.

After CONVERSE was bought by Nike in 2003, NBC and the Washington Post interviewed some of the guys in New York and Washington on the streets wearing All Star, college students, temporary workers, and street artists, and many angry that they wouldn't buy any more CONVERSE products.

But without that merger, CONVERSE might have gone bankrupt.

Now, CONVERSE sells $1 billion 700 million a year, and has a small proportion in Nike's annual sales of $28 billion. But Chuck Taylor All Stars is the most classic of casual footwear, and sells 30 thousand pairs a week in the US market.

This old brand, no technology of canvas shoes, is also popular among fashion people.

Every year there is classic cooperation. In recent two years, Martin Margiela's "paint opening smile" is a very beautiful one.

CONVERSE is relatively cheap.

It's easy to glue, but after that, it's more flexible.

In the 1967 graduate, Dustin Hoffman has a pair of light brown canvas sneakers on the feet. That is the shoes Jack Purcell made by Jack and peso, a famous badminton player in 1935 and CONVERSE, with a signboard "Open Laugh" stripes on the toe.

George Harrison of the Beatles is also a loyal fan of Jack Purcell.

Hal Peterson has a book called chuck Taylor phenomenon. He said that there are many movie stars dressed in CONVERSE, and many ordinary people are walking through CONVERSE in different times. These shoes can evoke a certain sense of the times.