Are Converse really returning in the NBA?

It was NBA Draft day, June 22, 2017, and I was watching at the new Chicago Bulls’ roster, without Jimmy Butler, which a few minutes earlier was packed, tied up with ribbons, and gave as an early Christmas present to the Minnesota Timberwolves. I was thinking about poor Dwyane Wade, the only one left on a team with poor technical and managerial ideas. I was thinking about Wade’s career, the first playoffs with the Heat, and the title with Shaq. With those thoughts in my mind, I thought about that time when a single athlete managed to bring Converse on top of the basketball world.

Since when Nike bought Converse in 2003, almost every athlete that used to wear that brand switched to the Swoosh or some other company. 2012 was the year of Converse goodbye to the NBA when the last standard-bearers left the brand or basketball. The last ones are the perfect representation of the Converse brand: columns like Elton Brand and Udonis Haslem, or those classic white guys with a clean game, made by fundamentals, and the Seventies look, as Kirk Hinrich, Luke Harangody, and Kyle Korver, which surely had “The Weapon” on his feet when his father saw the commercial with Larry Bird in 1986.

And then, there was Dwyane Wade, Flash in his prime. I used to have a poster of him in by bedroom at the time. I believe it’s still attached to my closet. A thin Wade was gliding on the Dallas Mavericks with his Converse Wade 1 “Playoffs” at his feet. I saw it every day and I had no other desire. For six years, the first of his career, Wade wore Converse, bringing the brand to unseen levels from the Eighties, when Larry Bird and Magic Johnson used to wear the star on their shoes.

A while ago there has been the release of the Air Jordan x Converse "The 2 That Started It All" Pack, a double box with a pair of Converse Fastbreak Mid and some Air Jordan 2s, with North Carolina Tar Heels-inspired colorways. And a while ago, Converse announced collaborations with Miley Cyrus, Jonathan Anderson, and Footpatrol, while now it has been revealed a short video about a “One Star” themed collaboration between Tyler, The Creator, and Converse.

There’s no better way to sell basketball shoes that associate them with Michael Jordan, just like a few people have the same appeal than Off Future’s founder in lifestyle. Has Nike finally decided to bring Converse back to life - and not just with the Chuck Taylor All-Star - with a series of consistent retro releases? There’s hope. I don’t like the concept of nostalgia, but to be able to walk in a pair of brand new Accelerator RS1 or R.A.W. Energy excites me.

Why don’t dream about the return of iconic models of the 1992 Dream Team like the Magic Olympic Mid, or the Cons Larry Bird? Not to talk about the potentialities of models like the Run N’ Slam, Accelerator III, Aero Jam has in terms of collaborations. Think, for example, at an Undefeated x Aero Jam or a Ronnie Fieg x Run N’ Slam makes mi head spinning, and I have to hold something to stand up. In the era of the return at the highest levels of brands like Kappa and FILA, there’s a lot of hype to see what Converse will bring alongside with Tyler, The Creator, hoping that it can be just the beginning of the return of iconic models in basketball.