It was in 1908, when Marquise Mills Converse founded a little shoe factory named Converse. He loved basketball and wanted to produce special shoes for this very young sport. Ten years later he hired designer Chuck Taylor, who created the Chuck Taylor All Stars in 1917. Because of its high cut they were just worn on the basketball court at first. But over time that changed dramatically. Mills Converse and Taylor probably never expected this sneaker to become the most successful shoe model of all time. From 1917 until today Converse sold over over 600 million pairs worldwide. Up until 1966 Chucks were only made in either black or white. Only after that did they add seven new colours. In 2003 Converse became a part of Nike, Inc.