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Wednesday, October 31, 2007

The Converse Blog's Weapon Wednesday, All Hallows Even Edition

Welcome ghost, goblins, and ghouls to the All Hollows Even edition of Weapon Wednesday. Sorry for the later post today, but this morning I had to finish getting my costume gear. I am dressing up as a 50's greaser complete with leather jacket, jeans, white t, and a fresh pair of white Chucks. Which happened to be on sale at Meijer today for 27 bucks, can't beat that I should have got two pairs. Anyway I am excited the girls in our crew have been making poodle skirts for a week or so now so it's going to be a blast.

While I am thinking about it, there may be a few of you that are slacking and don't have a costume yet. Fear not I've got just the thing for each and every one of you. This mask will change your life, and for the better.
These once again come from TaoBao and from user hlwxpno1.

You can see from the first pictures that these are not over the top, they just have black patent Chevron and Star logo and Y Bar. Then you can see the familiar orange and green that accompany most Halloween items. In the last picture below you will see three jack'o lanterns with trick or treat written under.

Well that's it for today, I've got some math homework to do before the fun begins tonight. And I am almost late for Wednesday lunch at the Thai Orchid Cafe. Without question the best Thai food I've ever had, so you if you're ever in Lexington check it out. As for the Weapons to day, I know I've been hyping them for a few weeks, but really I love the simple design and approach that they took with these. However, seeing as how today is Halloween and I haven't seen these anywhere else my safe bet is that they got scrapped, oh well maybe next year. Everyone have some fun tonight and watch out the little bits, it's really their night anyway.

Monday, October 29, 2007

The Converse Blog: Wade 3

Well not long after I posted on Friday the Wade 3 campaign took off online. The new release page went up from On The Scene. There you will find all three commercials, behind the scenes video, and other pictures. Below you'll see Dwyane dunking during the photo shoot, so my guess is that rehab is going well. Of course this could be before he went under the knife, but since this is the first ad that Anomaly has produced for Converse my guess is that it's a recent shoot.



The second picture is of the letter that Dwyane wrote about his first year at Marquette. It's small and hard to read so I will post what it says below.

"In the summer of 2000-2001, high school had ended and it was time for college. I did everything in my power to take you with me, but you didn't wanna go. You said I needed to become a man and that I counted on you too much ... So you left me -- feeling unsure, unloved and confused. How could you not love me anymore?

How could you not love me anymore? You've had my heart since I first laid eyes on you. I woke up to the thought of you and went to sleep with my heart with you. You completed me and now you were leaving me. How? How could you?

You left me with nothing to do ... no one to turn to ... You helped mold me into the man that I am today. You were the one that understood me -- but I knew deep down inside you were gonna come back to me. So I practiced ways that I could love you more, and so you'd never leave me again.

And then 2001-2002 came ... you said the words that I've always dreamed of hearing ... "From Robbins, Illinois, 6 foot 4 Guard ... Dwyane Wade.

And we fell in love all over again ... To my first love ... The Game of Basketball ... I love you ..."

The letter was written to explain what Dwyane went through his first year at Marquette when couldn't play. Well that's all for now, I might have something else before Wednesday but I am not sure yet. If you want to see all of the videos and learn more about the Wade 3, check out the on the scene page here. Thanks for stopping by.

Friday, October 26, 2007

The Converse Blog: New Website, NBA Tip Off, and Wade Commercial.

I want to start off with a shout out to Derek Webb, I was fortunate enough to get to his show at The Dame last night. If you haven't heard of him, it's worth your time to check out his myspace.

Well my computer is still on the fritz, so I don't have access to my library of pictures. But I do have access to youtube, and I'll get to that in a minute. Converse updated their website sometime yesterday. It's got a feature on the Wade 3.0 and it's really worth your time to click through and learn about the shoe and Wade. They also finally show off some of the other endorsers, well sort of. If you click on the Basketball button, and then click on "Find out about Open Gym" in the bottom right hand corner, you'll see a picture featuring Maurice Evans, Acie Law IV, Kirk Hinrich, Udonis Haslem, Dwyane Wade, Kyle Korver, and Jameer Nelson. These are not all of the members of the Converse team, but it's nice to see them finally get some love on the Website.

The second thing on the list is NBA Tip-Off, and from this press release it appears that Converse will be sponsoring ESPN's NBA Tip-Off show this season. This starts opening night Oct 31, witht he CAVS vs MAVS followed by the Sonics vs Nuggets. Very cool to see Converse every night ESPN has an NBA game.

The final thing I wanted to share with you today is the new Dwyane Wade commercial that will start playing Sunday during the Giants vs Dolphins game. With a commercial were less is more I'll just let it speak for itself, have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by, pass the word along.




Wednesday, October 24, 2007

The Converse Blog's Weapon Wednesday

Hello all, it's the Wednesday before Halloween and I thought I share the Halloween Weapons, but then my computer crashed so I don't have the pictures right now. However I have found two new Weapons that you can buy right now. Recently Eastbay posted up two new versions of the (Product) Red Weapons. The first pictured is ox model followed by a mid model.
These pictures came from Eastbay, the links above are to the respective pages to purchase the shoes. Hits on the site have really been picking up, which is awesome. So I want to thank all of you for coming by and checking out the site, I'll see again on Friday.

Monday, October 22, 2007

The Converse Blog: Thank you Dime Mag

Recently I came across a blog entry over at Dimemag.com. The entry talks about the new Converse collection. Here is of what Justin from Bounce Magazine had to say.

"I hit up Soho this morning for the ‘07-’08 Converse Basketball preview. The most historic footwear company in basketball has come a long way in the past few years. The new product looks great and there is real positive energy and enthusiasm driving the brand. Product previews are often in stale show rooms, and the people showing want to be there less than you do. But, on occasion, they are actually worth the time and the Converse crew did a great job pulling this one together. The space was dope, the OJ was fresh, and the kicks were on point. We finished off the morning with a mini history lesson viewing the last molds used to make Larry Bird and Dr.J’s shoes, the first Converse basketball shoe ever made (around 1915), as well as an actual shoe worn by the Harlem Rens (’30s). New products to keep an eye out for are the Wade 3 (On sale 11/3), the “What If” packs (March), and the Dumalis. Check out more pics…"



I am loving this, it sounds like everyone is getting excited about what Converse is bringing to the table in 2008. Before I got into some of my thoughts I want to post some pictures that they had on there website so you can have a reference to what I am talking about. The first picture below is the first Converse basketball shoe ever made, circa 1915.





This is the shoe made for the Harlem Rens in the 1930's, you can click above in Justin's comments to learn more.





Now here is the big daddy. I wish I could make the picture bigger, but I can't find a way. So the best thing I know to do is talk you through each smaller picture. Starting in the upper left box you see a few of the new models coming out, you can't tell much about them really. I also don't have a name for them, but Udonis Haslem and Maurice Evans have worn one of them during the preseason. Then moving to the right we see a pack with the Converse Revolution, which was supposed to be a new Chuck Taylor like shoe for last year. I've heard it was scrapped, but it looks like it might have some life again. Then another unknown basketball shoe followed by what looks like the Wade 3.0 in a Black/Red colorway. The third picture on the top row is special makeup of the Pro Leather.

The second row starts with the Dumalis that Justin talked about liking. I've got some more pictures of these to share later. Next pictures of Dr.J and Larry and Magic's Weapons. The third row beings with another shot of the three shoes featuring the Revolution, unknown, and the Wade 3.0, this may be the "What if" packs that Justin talked about. Then the foot molds that Justin talked about for Dr.J and Larry Bird, followed by another pack of the three shoes mentioned before. The only new picture in the last row is that of some Converse Yearbooks from back in the day. Someday I'll try and provide a little history lesson on those.




Big thanks to Dime Magazine and Bounce Magazine for posting their story, please go by and check out their sites. I'll try to get some more information of the unknown sneakers and get that information to all of you. Thanks again for stopping by.

Friday, October 19, 2007

The Converse Blog: Marquette Jerseys

I am going to put off the flashback again today because I wanted to get to the Marquette Jerseys before next week. These showed up online at Marquette's Spirt Shop. From reading around other websites there are going to be Navy and Gold Jerseys also, for a total of 4. However, I am not sure if either one or both will be in this design. You'll see here first the White Jersey and Shorts.









Baby Blue, Navy, and Gold, classic. I am so geeked to see this actually on the court. I love the retro look with the color panels and I think that the navy shoulder stripes really ground the whole jersey. And of course the Circle and Star is the best part for me.








Below are two shooting shirts, one short sleeve in the baby blue and the other long sleeve in navy, both with alternating piping.





As I said before all these items are for sale over at the Marquette Spirt Shop, that is also where I got the pictures from. Well that's all for today, hopefully there will be some more Converse stuff up soon. Thanks for checking out the site, if you like it please tell everyone you know, well maybe not everyone you know, but you know what I mean. See you at College Gameday... Go C-A-T-S-!

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

The Converse Blog's Weapon Wednesday

So I am sitting here watching the Magic and Cavs play from China, I can't wait for the season to start. Then I started thinking about the blog and I wanted to share a pair of Weapons that I got last week from the Converse store in Las Vegas. So I got my camera out and began to set up the shoes when I realized that my cable to connect to the computer isn't in the bag. So I am thinking it's back home, so it will just have to wait a little while. So I dug back into the files from Weapons that hlwxpno1 had up on TaoBao.

Patent leather is always a nice way to start off a Weapon, just as long as it's not over done. In this Weapon you'll see black patent leather in the heel and toe cap areas. This is a pretty simple design compared to some of the other samples that I've shown. As you will see, most of the shoe is an Aqua colorway.













Well just a quick hit with the pictures, I am supposed to be doing some Math homework. I am trying to get all my work done so I can get a good spot for College Gameday in Lexington, for the Wildcats and Gators match up. So thanks for stopping by and checking things out, tell all your friends and I see all again on Friday.

Monday, October 15, 2007

The Converse Blog: Marquette, Kenny Thomas, Ron Artest

I'd be amiss to not start off by talking about UK. I've been very fortunate to experience a lot of sporting events in my life, but I can't think of anything that rivals what happened in Lexington on Saturday night. Then on the way home from the game it was reported that College Gameday will be in Lexington for the first time ever. All this leads me to realize how much I dislike Steve Spurrier. Anyway it was a great game and I can't wait to see Commonwealth come alive again for the Gators.

Also this weekend was Big Blue Madness, which from what I saw and heard from some people in attendance was not that thrilling. This was the first Madness I had every actually watched all the way through and I was a little disappointed. Especially with the lack of any exciting gimmicks to introduce the players and coaches. However, I will say that Patrick Patterson is a beast.


On Saturday night there was another Madness that I was really interested in. That would be Marquette Madness. It was crazy, Dwyane Wade showed up and surprised everyone. The team scrimmaged rocking various Converse models. Below in the introduction videos and then a picture showing all of the models worn. You'll see the Converse 099, Team Wade 1, Team Wade 1.3, and Wade Team TFC. I got this picture from MU Scoop.





Also you can go to http://www.gomarquette.com/ to find more pictures and videos of the event. Below is a little bit of Dwyane Wade's speech. This doesn't have the beginning of the video where it just shows Dwyane on the jumbo tron and then is says something like you'll aren't being loud enough and then he walks out which right where this video starts.





Now I've got to give some love the Ron Artest. Artest as you may or may not know signed with Converse as a rookie and wore He:01 shoes with Helium, the Converse All Star 2000 re-release, and also some Dr. J Pro Leathers his first season in the NBA. However I can't find any good pictures, this is the best one that I could find. You can see Artest wearing some Pro Leathers.



Then the other day the rest of the NBA media day pictures finally went up. Artest might have had the best Media Day pictures for his choice of footwear.


Yep that's right Ron Artest in some Chuck Taylor's. However, he's been wearing the Nike Air Force 25 in the actual Preseason games. Then I kept looking and it looks like another former Converse endorser has returned home.



Kenny Thomas wore Converse while playing for the New Mexico Lobos and then early on in the NBA when he was with the Rockets. Below here is Kenny rocking the Converse 099 in his Media Day photo.



As you can see I got most of these pictures from Getty Images, the Marquette stuff I got from Mu Scoop and the Video from HilltopperMU from youtube. Well that will be it for today, thanks for coming by please clicks some ad's on your way out and tell all of your friends.

Friday, October 12, 2007

The Converse Blog's Friday Flashback: Get you Jog On

Did I really just type that for a title, wow, sorry about that. Well I've got a bag of Converse goodies last night, nothing like loving Parents stopping by the Converse stores in Las Vegas and Primm, Nevada. I might get to them next week, say like Wednesday. However, they weren't going to find anything that would help me out with today's post. So since I am back home right now and close to my supply, I thought I'd dig into my own collection for a change.

Right off the bat let me tell you that my camera skills have certainly waned from all of those film classes I took. I did also rush, but I am not about making excuses...yet. So I am not sure how this will look on screen, well that's a lie because I will see them before this gets posted. Anyway let's get to the goods.

The Converse Blog's Friday Flashback

Converse Jogger




Here is a side shot of the Jogger. When I bought these on eBay a few years ago they were advertised as being from the 70's, in fact I think he said from 1977. As you will see from the box shot below that they were produced during the Eltra period.




The heel tap is simple and just proclaims Converse. Sometimes this works really well and I think this is one of those times. However, I can't help but wonder want this would look like with the Star in a Square logo. Also you notice the rest of the heel area is in suede. In the another picture that you will see a close up shot of the toe cap. The outline of the toe cap is also in suede.



The rest of the shoe is almost like a nylon and satin mix. Of course I could be completely wrong about that. However, I do know that the Chevron and Star's are screened on. I am still a little surprised by this and can't think of another Converse shoe I've seen with screened logos.

Well the outsole was pleasantly unexpected and pretty unique. It's all molded with ovals in alternating directions. One thing that stood out to me was the lack of branding on the outsole, a rare feature for any athletic shoe.



This is probably the best shot of the whole bunch. It shows a great profile view of the shoe. The nylon, stitching, suede, and gum outsole really come together in this picture.

Finally, here are some pictures of Eltra era box.




Well that will be it for today. I haven't worn these yet but I am thinking it might be time. Anyway I know the colorway is a little off, but it's vintage so I am not going to complain. Thanks for stopping by, don't forget to click a link on your way out. Enjoy the weekend.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

The Converse Blog's Weapon Wednesday


Hello world, since the switch to the new domain hits have gone up everyday. Thanks to everyone that's stopped by and continue to stop by. Today I've got a set of Weapon Mid and Weapon Ox from Converse China. The design on these appears to just be random at first, but the more you look at it you should started to see the bones of a foot. I found these pictures from http://www.taobao.com/.












As you can see with the exception of the sides of the shoe, the toe cap and heel areas are pretty simple and clean. However, when you look below you will see that inside the shoe you will see a Gold lining, that I think is a pretty nice touch.












Well that will be it for today. I've got some Halloween Weapons but I am going wait until we get a little closer to the date. Not a lot of content today, I am supposed to be studying for an East Asian History exam so I am a little rushed today. Thanks again for stopping by, and check back on Friday.

Monday, October 8, 2007

Converse in NBA Media Day and Practice

Well a lot of craziness going on in the sports world these days. Joe Torre coaching to save his job, after one of the best turn around in recent baseball history. Then you have Marion Jones coming clean...well at least coming honest. Trent Green is done as an NFL, or should be anyway. Locally, UK got Spurriered-for the 15th straight time. Jim Harbaugh won the only game he has coached for since taking the Stanford job. Today some of that craziness will fade out, at least for NBA fans. Today the preseason begins in earnest and I for one can't wait.

I want to see how Miami can respond. I want to see how good Boston really is. I want to see if AK47 brings in his wife to get him more playing time. Can the Bobcats continue to improve each season. How long until Acie Law IV gets some serious burn and takes over as starting point guard of the Red, White, and Blue Atlanta Hawks. The Most important question of all...will Lukasz Obrzut make the Indiana Pacers!

So I thought I'd pass a view pictures along from the Media days and practices. First up is Alando Tucker from the Suns. The guard from Wisconsin should fit in nicely with this up tempo Suns team. And I already love the White/Purple/Orange colorway of the 099's. Below he's taking a charge and posing for a media day shot.




Here is a shot of Kirk Hinrich and Ben Gordon from the Bulls media day. This is a different colorway than from the ad's showing the black/white/red 099's that you can find at Dicks Sporting Goods.


In this shot of the Hawks guards notice Acie Law IV on the end, he's the one not smiling because he'd rather be playing. Below is a picture from Hawks practice, that picture I got from the Hawks website.

Finally here is a shot from the Heat's scrimmage, Udonis is wearing a shoe that I haven't seen before so I hope to get some more information on that soon. And you also see an action show of D-Wade in the Wade 3.0...which I actually like this colorway once I've seen being worn. This is a smaller picture, so for a more detailed shot click here.

With Preseason starting tonight I hope to have some more pictures soon. Maybe even of some new Converse guys, I am trying to find out who they might be. Thanks for stopping by, come back often and tell your friends.

Friday, October 5, 2007

Converse NCAA's Friday Update and Wade 3.0

Alright big time news today, so I am going to have to put a hold on the Flashback. I decided recently to go ahead and purchase a domain name to increase the amount of people that can find the blog. I just bought it a few minutes ago so I don't know when it will be up and going.

While I love the Converse NCAA name, I realized that this is much more than a blog just about Converse in the NCAA. So the the new name of the blog will be simply...The Converse Blog. Sometimes less is more, that and converseblog.com is owned by someone that wants 200 bucks for it.

You can find the blog here at http://www.conversencaa.blogspot.com/ and at http://www.theconverseblog.com/.


So right before I went to post this today I thought I'd go and check out http://cons.blog.sohu.com/. An awesome Converse Blog from China, and well it's a great thing I did. They had sample pictures of three previously unseen Wade 3.0 Samples.




I've got to say these are a million times better than the previous colorway that has been shown. However, keep in mind that these are still samples as you can see most noticeably in the Black/White colorway in the difference between logos. Enjoy the rest below...


Thanks for checking out the blog, it's Friday enjoy it! I'll try to get some more info on the samples for everyone...Thanks again.