Today, many vintage basketball collectors consider player-endorsed shoes to be a unique item to add to their collection.  The "craze"  began in 1917, when the KEDS Company produced the first mass-marketed athletic shoes.  It was only a few short months later, that Converse produced the world's first performance basketball shoe, the Converse All-Star. 

The next step was the player-endorsed shoe in 1921.  It was then that Chuck Taylor offically joined Converse as America's first player endorser.  A mere two years later, his signature was aded to the All-Star patch.  Since then other player-endorsed shoes have included Joe Lapchick, Bob Cousy, Pete Maravich, Jerry West, and Rick Barry.  This was 62 years before Michael Jordan's endorsement with Nike. 

Some other interesting information about these distinctive basketball collectables are that these shoes were nick named sneakers because the soles were quiet and made no noise on any surface and that the unworn shoes still have the new shoe rubbery smell.  Overall, these are considered a highly sought after item to the vintage basketball collector of today. 

Jerry West

Pete Maravich

John Wooden

NBPA

Keds
ALLSPORT

Player Endorsed Shoes

Rick Barry

Bob Cousy

Joe Lapchick