The Converse Blog » TaoBao

S Weapon Wednesday: Plus Dwyane Wade to play in Chucks tonight.

admin — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 09:31:55 +0000

Sorry for the later post today. I’ve been enjoying Coach Calipari Day here in Kentucky. If you haven’t heard, Calipari accepted UK’s offer of 8 years and 31 million to coach the Wildcats. It’s a great day to be a UK fan that’s for sure. I am so fired up for next season, but I am even more excited for Football season that really kicks off today with the first Spring practice.

Anyway, you don’t come here for UK sports, so lets get going with today’s Weapon Wednesday. These Weapons just popped up on TaoBao and are one of the better Chinese exclusive Weapon’s I’ve seen in a while.

There is a lot going on with these shoes but I am sucker for Neon Yellow and Teal on anything so I am digging these. Not really a fan black as a main color for a shoe, but it really helps to bring out the colors I mentioned above so it works really well here.

Some late breaking news, I just got word that Dwyane Wade will be wearing Chuck Taylor All Stars tonight, at least to start the game. From what I’ve heard Dwyane Wade lost some kind of wager with Udonis Haslem and whoever lost had to wear some Chucks in tonight’s game. Hopefully I can post up some pictures tomorrow.

Thanks for checking out the Converse blog and Happy New Month!

The Converse Blog: Converse NYX Automatic

admin — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 09:41:43 +0000

Recently these shoes, the Converse NYX Automatic showed up over at Eastbay. However, I first saw these on TaoBao about 2 or 3 months ago. To me they have a lot of similarities to the Converse Transition which was a Finishline with a mix of the Converse Assist. The main influence from the Assist appear to be in the outsole which is the same for the Converse Double Double also.

These shoes scream fast and they’re very clean. They also come in a Black/Black colorway that Eastbay has too. Well that’s it for today, I am off the Bowling Green for a few days and may or may not be able to post again before Friday. Check back to see, thanks checking out the blog and remember to vote on your way out.

The Converse Blog’s Weapon Wednesday: Poker Chip Sample

admin — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 11:28:06 +0000

I couldn’t decide which Weapon to feature today, so I took a gamble……you’re right that was bad. Today’s Weapon is a sure bet to be unique. As you can see, the Weapon is in a white/black/gold colorway. The Gold comes in the form of Poker Chips and can be found on the ankle and the toe cap.

These are certainly sample’s and may not even release here in the states. I found them on TaoBao. I almost expected all of the chips to be 100 dollar chips for the 100th year, but that is not the case. You can see chips in amounts of 1, 5, 25, 50. Thanks for checking out the blog and I’ll see all again on Friday.

Converse Training Shoes?

admin — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 12:01:26 +0000

About once a week I go and surf through TaoBao, and with simplified Chinese it’s pretty hard to read anything. So a lot of times it’s just dumb luck that I stumble on something interesting. Last night I hit a personal goldmine. It has been a dream of mine since I began obsession for the brand to return to it’s former glory and product range. This means Football, Baseball, Soccer, Tennis, Running, Skating, Golf, and Training.

Over the past few years, in different ways, there has supposedly been plans to return to Running and Training shoes. The most prominent was from a release on Converse’s plans to file for an IPO, here is a excerpt below and here is the summary

“We plan to launch a full line of sports performance basketball products in
2003 and cross training and running shoes in 2004 and 2005,respectively.”

Now we all know that never happened. Granted there were a limited number of Running Shoes that had the now dropped ICON technology. Only problem is that none of these shoes were released in America, at least to my knowledge.

For over a year now Converse has had a job opening in the design department for men’s Training focus. This is a job I would love to have, but alas I don’t think I’ve had the correct schooling.

All of this rambling brings me to my discovery.

This sample appears to be a cross training shoe, at least to me. It doesn’t seem to fit the mold of a typical Lifestyle shoe, but I am not completely sold on it’s cross training status. However it is the closest thing to a training shoe I’ve seen from Converse in a really long time. The only exception could be the low top versions of the Wade 1.0 and the Wade 2.0.

By this picture of the heel area I feel strongly that this is not a Lifestyle shoe, but certainly a cross training shoe or low top basketball shoe. The red square tap appears to add extra flexibility to the heel area, similar the heel tap areas in recent Basketball releases. Also in the amount ventilation holes in the toe box area suggest a design for more active use. If you know anything about these drop me an email or leave some feedback and let me know.