Converse Track Star

Converse is best known for its All Star Basketball and gym shoe, for years the ubiquitous footwear for active use. A little known variant of the shoe is the Track Star, a running specific version pictured here.

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These were the shoes I wore in my first organized races. Of course we thought they were fast, and the runners on my father’s high school cross country and track teams wore them, so they had to be fast. A layer of cushioned foam under foot, and a layer of rubber outersole. A re-release would fit well with the minimalist and barefoot crowd. These fit well with indoor tracks, cross-country, and were even the footwear choice of Bobbi Gibbs and Katherine Switzer at their breakthrough Boston Marathon races.