Reminiscing on Chuck Taylors and retro athletic wear
When I search for a topic to write about for this column, I rely on almost any source of interest. I read health and fitness newsletters, go to lectures on fitness, talk to other runners, read newspapers, watch sports on television, and even resort to finding a topic in the comic section of newspapers. The comic section is amazing when it comes to poking a little fun at everyday life. This is especially true when it comes to the fitness world and many of the people in it. That is the case for this week. The comic strip, “Luann”, had a week-long adventure of her father going to a shoe store to buy a pair of running shoes.
As he walks into the store he is just astounded at the many shelves of shoes that are there for his selection. He asks the tattooed, pierced, teenager clerk for a pair of “tennis” shoes. This is a subtle take on the older generation right from the start. When the father was young and you wanted to buy shoes for an activity, you asked for tennis shoes. It didn’t matter if the shoes were to be used for basketball, volleyball, running, football, or tennis, you asked for tennis shoes. The shoe clerk took him to the several isles of tennis shoes. The father mentioned he wanted a shoe for running. The clerk replied, “Oh, the running shoes are two aisles down.” Today, if you want to buy shoes for an activity, you better ask for a specific shoe for that activity. No more generic tennis shoe that fits all sports. The Chuck Taylor Converse black high topped shoe is now used for the younger generation as a wear-at-all-times shoe. And the price is about four times more expensive than when the father bought it decades ago.
Here the father is once again confronted with several shelves of shoes to choose from. He asks the clerk, “Why are there so many different shoes to choose from?” The clerk answers, “There are so many shoes in case you pronate or something.” Being new to the running game the father asks the clerk, “What is pronation?” The clerk answers, “That means when your foot does weird stuff.” In many activity shoe stores the clerks are probably students working in the store as a part time job while they go to school. They are there to sell shoes and often have no knowledge of running physiology, biomechanics of running, or construction of the various shoes. The days of David Moody at Core Running are few and far between. The name of the shoe, the brand, and the color of the shoe was about as far into constructive advice the father was going to get from the clerk.
The next sequence had the father explaining his plans to start his running fitness program. “I think I will start walking for a time, and then gradually try jogging before I start running. Do you have a shoe that will fit that plan?” The clerk looked at him with an astonished expression on his face. He said, “You mean you want a shoe that does two things at once?” The father expected that with all the new technology available in shoes, he expected that there had to be a shoe that could do both walking and running. The clerk said he doubted that the store had such a shoe, but could fit him in a walking shoe and a running shoe. The era of the Chuck Taylor Converse all-purpose shoe is officially over.
When you start looking at shoe selection for sports you find that shoes are not only for the sport itself, but in some cases for the select position you play in that sport. You can buy a basketball shoe, but you can’t play volleyball in that shoe. If you are a pitcher in baseball you need a special attachment to the toe of the dragging foot to keep it from wearing out. A volleyball shoe can’t be used in basketball or running. In track you have shoes for sprinters, for long distance runners, for shot putters, for the pole vaulter, for cross country, for jumping events, etc. Wrestlers have their specialty shoe for a foam mat and don’t need cushion, or an edge, as they slide the feet instead of stepping. The wrong shoe in that athlete’s event puts them at a disadvantage.
In my career of teaching, I started out teaching a lot of activities. I opened my locker and glanced at the pile of shoes on the bottom of the locker. I had shoes for coaching football, another shoe for a fitness class, a wrestling shoe, weight lifting shoes, and several pairs of gymnastic slippers. In case a group of my friends came over to the gym to play basketball, well, I had a pair of basketball shoes in the bottom of that locker somewhere.
If the bottom of the locker was a selection mess of shoes, the top portion of the locker was just a step below that. There was a wrestling singlet, a fitness T-shirt, a gymnastic tank top and special shorts, hand grips for the high bar, a long-sleeved coaching shirt, a thick weight lifting belt, a couple of whistles, a ball cap or two, and probably a sweatshirt for cold days.
The Chuck Taylor shoes, grey cotton sweat pants and shirt, and cotton socks are no longer available. There are a few individuals that like to wear retro clothes and can find stuff at secondhand stores to reminisce about the “good old days.”
