TAHLEQUAH, Okla. — He’s no Imelda Marcos, but John Yeutter does have a lot of footwear.

Marcos, former first lady of the Philippines, had about 1,220 pairs of shoes. Yeutter, a Northeastern State University accounting professor, doesn’t have that many.

But the strange thing about his collection is they’re all the same kind of shoe: canvas Converse Chuck Taylor All-Stars.

“For a while, I wore just cowboy boots,” said Yeutter, who began wearing All-Stars exclusively three or four years ago. “But these are comfortable, they make a fashion statement, and I can match my ties to them.”

Yeutter owns seven pairs of All-Stars – not necessarily for each day of the week, but for the various occasions in which he finds himself.

He’s got a pair of monotone black All-Stars, “so I can go to church without offending people.”

He’s got a pair of green ones, “for NSU basketball games.”

And, for those patriotic occasions, he’s even got a pair of red, white, and blue All-Stars.

“They remind me of the days when I was in school, when they [Converse sneakers] were all we had,” said Yeutter. “Back in the ‘60s, it was these and Keds. In the early ‘80s, I remember musicians were wearing them.”

Indeed, musicians – especially drummers – do seem to have a soft place in their hearts (or on their feet) for All-Stars.

“They stick to the bass drum pedal really well,” said drummer Robby Weeks. “And they’re not really thick on the bottom, so you can kind of feel what you’re doing with your feet. Plus, they just look really good with ripped up jeans.”

Weeks suspects there are other shoes that would probably work just as well for playing drums, but All-Stars have become such a common sight on drummers’ feet, it’s almost expected.

“You look at a band, and yeah, they’re all going to look really scruffy and stoned, and you might not be able to tell, say, the bass player from the singer,” he said. “But look at their feet. The drummer is most likely the one with the Converses on.”

Imagine what rock ’n’ roll – not to mention college accounting classes – would be like if Marquis M. Converse hadn’t started the Converse Rubber Co. back in 1908.

In 1917, Converse introduced a shoe that looked a lot like the All-Star of today. Chuck Taylor’s name became associated with the shoe in 1921, when Converse hired him from the Akron Firestones basketball team to conduct basketball classes. He got his signature shoe in 1923 (at age 22), and was inducted in the National Sporting Goods Hall of Fame in 1958.

He died in 1969, just as the shoes bearing his name were at their peak of popularity.

They’ve come in and out of fashion several times since then, and today are available in a multitude of color schemes, including plaid, leopard print, jaguar print, ostrich print, and of course, in red, white and blue.

You can get them with peace signs already attached, with snakes on them, with graffiti on them, and with paint splashed all over them (for those folks who don’t want to mess with splashing their own paint on their shoes.)

But according to L.D. Jones of Felts Family Shoes in Tahlequah, when it comes to Converse All-Stars, as with a lot of other things, they don’t make ‘em like they used to.

“Converse got bought out by Nike, and they’re not made the way they were years ago,” said Jones. “We sell PF Flyers, which are like the Converses, but neither one of them have as much cushioning as other shoes.”

Jones has worn All-Stars himself, but not in quite a while.

“If [All-Star wearers] could find an old pair, they would never want to wear the new ones,” he said. “I had a pair for about 10 years. They were green, and my wife threw them away. I dug them out, and she waited until I went somewhere, and she threw them away again.”

But even with the Nike buyout, Yeutter’s probably not going to give up his All-Stars any time soon. After all, they match his neckties.

His only concern about them is the price. They used to be some of the cheapest shoes around, but their popularity has changed that. Even the least expensive models will cost $30 to $40, and some of the print All-Stars run well over $100.

“”Now they’ve become almost premium shoes,” said Yeutter. “One of my students said, ‘I wish I could wear Chuck’s, but they cost too much.’”



Eddie Glenn writes for the Tahlequah (Okla.) Daily Press.