Pairs of colorful canvas Chucks deserve happy hundredth birthday this year

I was 5' 8" in seventh grade so playing basketball was a given. I just needed my first official pair of basketball shoes.

Dad said he'd pick them up after work, and I was excited until I discovered he went to Sears. I wouldn't be sporting Jordan's or Adidas Superstars like the rest of the kids. I would become the tall dork stuck with a pair of white, navy-trimmed Converse high tops.

It was devastating, but looking back I realized my dad was hip. After all, he bought me my first pair of Converse and plenty more would follow. So while seventh-grade me wasn't impressed, immature-college-student me still can't get enough.

That's why, in honor of Converse celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, I'm sending out a happy birthday to my Chuck Taylors.

Unlike its big name competition, Converse is known for the solid-colored, canvas-infused Chucks that lend themselves to broken ankles as much as it does concert scenes. Wrap your mind around the fact that more than 750 million pairs of Chuck Taylor All-Stars have been sold since its creation in 1921 (that's a shade fewer than 9 million a year) according to Elle.com. The shoes are a cultural phenomenon, and there's good reason for it.

Chucks are relatively cheap (between 30 dollars and 40 dollars) and come in many different styles. Anyone can find a pair that fits them. Anyone includes some of pop-culture's most historic icons. This means I can wear the same shoes as James Dean, Kurt Cobain or Hunter S. Thompson.

Today you can see The Strokes, Snoop Dogg, Harry Potter and Avril Lavigne (well, overlook her) wearing them as well. I guess my dad was right about something: these definitely suited me for everyday wear.

But back when Chucks were born, the shoes were actually for athletic purposes. Chuck Taylor himself was a basketball player who approached Converse complaining about sore feet and ended up gaining notoriety more for his feet than his game. Soon enough, college and pro players wore Converse shoes.

Converse was and is still semi-relevant in sports. Bird and Magic used them. Dwayne Wade and the prettiest face in basketball, Kyle Korver, wear them now. Certain college teams maintain current agreements with Converse including Marquette and the Sweet 16-bound Western Kentucky Hilltoppers.

But I knew it would happen in seventh grade: Nike and others would devour Converse in the athletic shoe market (literally, Nike ate up Converse as a subsidiary within the last five years).

Off the court, Chucks remain an incredibly reliable shoe. Despite all the different generations who've worn them, the shoe has basically remained unchanged. It still lasts as long in the Syracuse winter today as it did back in the 60s or 70s. Even hip professionals, who make enough money to upgrade shoes, know the value of being loyal to Chucks like USA Today pop culture blogger Whitney Matheson.

"And speaking of dependable, that's another reason I haven't abandoned the shoes: they never change," Matheson wrote in her Chucks column two weeks ago. "Every 10 months or so, when I begin to feel a breeze at my heels, I know it's time to upgrade. I love how I don't even need to try them on; I can just point, pay and stroll out the door."

Perhaps the best thing about Chucks is despite how unchanged and widespread it is, the shoe still comes with an emphasis on individuality. Chucks lend themselves well to Sharpie and pen for personalization. They come in practically infinite amounts of styles and colors so everyone on the block doesn't have to sport the classic black.

It's not even unusual to own two or three different pairs of Chucks for color coordinating purposes. Apparently Josh Mueller of Lakewood, Wash., owns more than 525 unique pairs of Chucks. (Yes, he's in the Guinness Book of World Records).

I could go on because there's a lot to like about Chucks. It doesn't surprise me at all that the cool kids on the athletic shoe block are still kicking 100 years later. It wouldn't surprise me if they last another century. I know plenty of people who think shoe before bar when they hear Chucks, and as long as people like that exist, our great grandkids will be clad in canvas too.

Nathan Mattise is a weekly pop-culture columnist for The Daily Orange where his columns appear on Tuesdays. He's been told his columns should continue to include Disney references - so Violet from "The Incredibles" is the Disney character most likely to rock Chucks. Mattise can be reached at nzmattis@syr.edu.