Converse. The best thing to do was nothing.
Nike bought Converse for 305 million and it now makes 2.4 billion a year. The most valuable thing a company can do to an iconic product is nothing.
THE GIST ON CONVERSE: "The best thing to do was nothing"
What did Nike do to Converse?
Nike bought Converse in 2003 for $305 million. It's now worth $2.4 billion a year. They did it by refusing to change anything.
What has changed about the Chuck Taylor?
The All Star was released in 1917. The design was finished in 1949 and has not meaningfully changed since. Same canvas, same rubber sole, same rubber toe. Often emulated, never duplicated. They go with anything, to any occasion. Maybe not a wedding.
A hundred million pairs a year. The best selling shoe in history is a design your great-grandparents could have bought.
What happens when a product stops changing?
Something weird. It moves from product to furniture. Your Converse is the same shoe someone was wearing in 1955. It's owned by us all and by none of us, which is exactly why it outsells everything else on the shelf.
Why is that so hard?
Nobody in corporate history has been promoted for saying, let's just do nothing. So iconic products are slowly ruined by the companies that own them. Nike's genius was resisting the urge to fix what already worked.
Almost everything we own is deliberately unfinished. Your phone gets updated, your car gets a software patch, and all of it demands your participation. The Chuck Taylor is finished. It stopped asking anything of you in 1949. In an economy addicted to iteration, actually finishing something is the smartest thing you can do. When did you last buy something for the last time?
Chuck Taylors: timeless or boring?
Your take. One tap, then see how everyone else voted.
Quick answers
What did Nike pay for Converse?
$305 million in 2003. Huw says it's now worth $2.4 billion a year.
Has the Chuck Taylor changed?
Not meaningfully since 1949: same canvas, same rubber sole, same rubber toe.
Why does it keep selling?
Huw says a product that stops changing moves from product to furniture, owned by us all and none of us.
See you on the next one.
What should the next one be? Suggest a topic for Huw to explain
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