Converse Releases Kurt Cobain x Chuck Taylor All Star: exploitation or homage?

Article written by: Jacob Breinholt
Posted on: March 12, 2010

When plaid flannels and ripped jeans have come back to the forefront of street wear fashion, why not launch a shoe named for those who first made the look popular in the 90’s?

Apparently that is the logic employed by some execs somewhere up the corporate chain at Converse: meet Converse’ s “Music Collection” series of Chuck Taylor All Star shoes.

The Music Collection All Stars include models of Chuck Taylor All Stars inspired by Kurt Cobain, Blondie, The Clash, and Metallica. The shoes feature graphics from the bands, song titles and lyrics. One of the Kurt Cobain models reads “Punk Rock Means Freedom.” Aside from the irony that this collection plausibly goes against everything that punk rock stands/stood for, the Kurt Cobain series is especially troubling.

Presumably, a member of the other music groups had some say in okaying the shoes designed that bear their names. However, Mr. Cobain most certainly was not available to weigh in on his signature model of Chuck Taylors.

This isn’t the first time that Converse has produced a Kurt Cobain product: The first sneaker was introduced in 2008, 14 years after his death. The deal was hatched with Primary Wave, a group that purchased a large portion of Cobain’s back catalog from Cobain’s widow, Courtney Love in 2006. The exploits of that transaction are said to be one of the biggest reasons that Cobain is ranked among one of the richest of dead celebrities.

According to Jeff Gordinier in his article “Here we are now,” that appeared in Details of March 2009:

You might say he’s the victim of posthumous gentrification: Memorializing Kurt has turned into its own industrious wing of the media business. In 2006, Forbes crowned Cobain No. 1 on its list of the most lucrative dead celebrities—higher than Elvis Presley and John Lennon

Devin Lasker, of Primary Wave, defended the decision to strike the Chuck Taylor deal with Converse saying “It wasn’t like it was, like, some artist who never wore Converse before.” As a matter of fact, Lasker is absolutely right.

Many photos show the former Nirvana frontman wearing Converse sneakers. Even photos of Cobain’s discovered corpse reveal that he was wearing Converse’s when he died.

The shoes that Cobain died in are the Converse One Stars, which Converse incidentally also created a Kurt Cobain model for:

Are Primary Wave and Converse expecting consumers to take this as some sort of posthumous endorsement? A lot of Nirvana and Kurt Cobain fans would most likely argue the contrary.

Despite all of the troubling moral and philosophical questions raised by this Converse marketing scheme, not everyone sees it as a blight on Cobain’s legacy. In Gordinier’s 2009 article, the writer spoke with Ben Gibbard,  of Death Cab for Cutie about Converse’s 2008 Cobain Chuck Taylors.

If they were making ‘Heart-Shaped Box’ into ‘Eight-Piece Box’ for, like, Kentucky Fried Chicken, yeah, that would offend me… But if it takes a Kurt Cobain Converse to remind people to go buy Nirvana records, that’s fine with me.

April 5th of 2010 will mark the 16th anniversary of Cobain’s self-inflicted death. What is your opinion of Converse using Cobain’s namesake in their “Music Collection?”