The first basketball shoe was designed in 1917 by the company called the Converse Corporation. The model was then redesigned after the arrival of Chuck Taylor, who became their ambassador. In the 1960s, 90% of professional and college basketball players were wearing the Converse Chuck Taylor All Stars and they were later joined by the big stars like Dr. J, Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird. During the mid-1970s, new challengers slowly removed Converse from the basketball scene, but the company successfully positioned its »Chucks« as a lifestyle sneaker. Still, in the early 2000s, Converse was bought by Nike because of financial problems. In 2019, Converse made a big move by returning to basketball courts with the Converse All Star Pro BB model. They also acquired some famous NBA players as ambassadors (Draymond Green, Kelly Oubre Jr., and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander) and announced a couple of new performance models for the future!