SHOPPER

Independence.

What is it good for? Absolutely everything.

Take this American shoe.

Converse brings out the latest in 1917 technology, canvas and rubber. Public says, "Eh." Then comes basketball player Chuck Taylor, not so tall, not so fast; if he had glorious pro moments, they are lost to time.

But, oh, that man with a trunkful of shoes in the back of a Caddy, he could sell the All-Stars. All the players. GIs working to liberate Europe -- they did their drills in standard-issue white Chucks, the official gym shoe for the U.S. of A. armed forces. And then the Ramones.

And now, a kind of snarky patriotic twist, not your heaping table of cheap commemorative tees at Old Navy. Wrapped-in-the-flag still speaks; it simply has to know the language of a country conflicted, a dialect of smart, stylish and irreverent humor.

More subtle than Alexander McQueen's burnt Union Jack coat worn by David Bowie in the '90s, these are Chuck Taylors by John Varvatos, who found Converse's original flag design, an off-and-on-again production, in the company's archives.

Part Jasper Johns painting, part hipster insouciance, the classic shoes have now been faded, beaten and scuffed as if they've been marching for causes since before you were born. Vintage, ready right now with a swipe of the plastic.

And ain't that America?

-- Cory Ohlendorf