Exclusive: Converse Store In New York City

The freshly opened Converse store in Lower Manhattan New York City has been on my to do list for a while now. The shop that has been open for for 3 1/2 months now, is one that should be visited. It’s a nice space with good offerings for both male and female and kids. BUT, I didn’t visit the store just to take a peek at it. My appearance was drawn in by two attractions. One being that you can design a Chuck Taylor and other converse shoes on location. The other, well, I’ll just let the pictures speak for themselves…

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As soon as you enter the store, there is this massive display of Chuck Taylor’s on the right hand side of the wall in the USA colors of the Blue, Red and White. My picture doesn’t even do it justice, but you can catch more images of the area at the Converse blog. I don’t know for how long that display will be there for, but if you can make it to the SOHO area it’s a must see.

The second attraction was the fact that you can design your own Chuck Taylor shoe on the premises. There’s already a feature for an online build that lets you pick from a good selection of silhouettes, colors, and materials. When inside the store, I headed to the back area where the iD section is. I saw a bunch of people there and some iPads on a table that allow you to design your shoe. COOOOOL! As I started to snoop around some more, I took out the camera for a few sneaky undercover shots; Unfortunately, stores out here are finicky when it comes to taking pictures in their locations. Just like when I went to the J.Crew location and asked if I could take some images of just the New Balance 1400 set and got a denial. Talk about, “You have to contact corporate”. REALLY? smh. That’s why I bought the Grey pair for a Fresh Look review and than returned them. Anyway, instead of trying to get permission to capture the place and getting the DENIAL BUTTON, I snuck-in some shots so you can see what the iD area looks like. I even got one last snap of a machine that colors/prints the shoes. Than when some associates were looking at me and talking, I took that cue to walk away with whatever images I got on my visit…

Though I strongly beleive that this is a silhoutett that shouldn’t be messed with in anyway, there are some exceptions to just creating a nice color-way in the iD builder. Putting prints and cross-coloring the panels of the shoe is a big no no on this classic. Chuck Taylors, undeniably, Are the Holy Grails of Basketball shoes. That should say it all…

Enjoy my undercover images.

Converse SoHo Specialty Store
560 Broadway (x Prince St)
New York, NY

Store Hours:
Monday – Friday: 10 a.m. –  8 p.m.
Saturday: 10 a.m. –  9 p.m.
Sunday: 11 a.m. –  7 p.m.

Here’s a quick attempt at a Chuck Taylor Product Red iD so you can see what it’s like to color-up.