One of the best articles ever written about Wilmeth Sidat-Singh appears this morning in the Washington City Paper, as a cover story by sports journalist Dave McKenna titled “The Syracuse Walking Dream: The Most Famous D.C. Athlete You’ve Never Heard Of.” Here’s an excerpt:

In October 1937, Syracuse University’s undefeated football team traveled to Baltimore to face the Maryland Terrapins.

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Next week is the 36th annual Black Invitational Basketball Tournament in Halifax, Nova Scotia, starting May 14.

By far, this is the most amazing basketball tournament you’ve never heard of. Yet. Read the rest of this entry »

My niece in D.C. gave me this idea for displaying the Converse Black Fives Century Pack:

That’s an actual antique wooden Converse shoe crate at the bottom, and a vintage laced leather basketball nestled cozy in between. Read the rest of this entry »

In the headlines of the Sports Business Journal (SBJ) yesterday was this piece about how sluggish the U.S. athletic footwear industry is right now:

Nike bucks trend of ‘uninspired’ U.S. market

Here’s a quote from the article:

“Nike still

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Black Fives gets some burn on FOX Business News, as part of a clip about Converse’s 100th anniversary that aired yesterday.

Check this out:

That’s my man Scott Patt, my friend and former colleague from our way Read the rest of this entry »

So you think you want more burn? In the early days of basketball, that meant literally more burn!

Games were played in cages. Mostly to protect the players from the spectators. But Read the rest of this entry »

News of the Black Fives Collection by Converse continues to spread, partly through the help of a syndicated story that first ran in the Washington Post.

Here are some more recent press clippings. The New Jersey Star-Ledger: … “Included will be shoes inspired by the high-top Chuck Taylor All Stars worn by the Black Fives, the first African-American professional basketball teams. They transformed basketball into the fast- paced game that we know today and one of them, the Harlem Rens, won the first World’s Championship in 1939″ … The Columbus (Ohio) Post-Dispatch: … “To celebrate its centennial, Converse is reissuing $200-a-pair “Black Fives” — updates of the broken-in brown-leather beauties worn by the legendary Harlem Renaissance basketball team in the 1930s” … Stack Magazine … “John F. Kennedy Read the rest of this entry »

My kids are on vacation this week so I’m distracted. But I do have a few free throws to share with you.

Yesterday we were on our way to a bookstore to Read the rest of this entry »

We recently featured the new white/whites in this style. Now, the black/blacks are here! Introducing the new Converse All Star “Original” Laser-Detailed Leather Hi, in black! But where the white/whites are sweet, the black/blacks are stealth. They’re midnight. They’re for creepin’. And, O.K., they’re just as sweet.

As I mentioned before, these are some new pre-Chuck Taylors with an upper made of laser-detailed leather. The intricate laser detailing and etching is inspired by the art-deco ballroom style Read the rest of this entry »

Senator Barack Obama guarantees an indoor basketball court at the White House if elected (as first brought to my attention by TrueHoop). An article about Converse and Black Fives in the Chicago Daily Herald calls the 1933 Rens All Star “an old school gem.”

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