Chuck Stangl: The Man With The Shoes

by Jim Dittmann
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The Man With The Shoes

I hope you enjoy our little made for LocaLeben TV movie: The Man With The Shoes

Hit the play button – sit back and enjoy the show!

Publishers note: It was my pleasure to spend a few hours with Chuck Stangl learning a bit more about his legendary “Chuck Taylor” Converse All-Star shoe collection.  I’ve gotten to know Chuck over the years, as our children attended school together and shared some sports as well.  Chuck’s story has been told before, but now we get the opportunity to hear it directly from “The Man” …

By: Chuck Stangl

I have been collecting Chuck Taylor High Top tennis shoes since 1996.  I am known in Beaver Dam as the man with the shoes.  I have 103 pairs.  There are two spots in my house that I store them.  The shoes that I wear in the early spring and winter are kept in a closet in my laundry room and the rest of them are stored in their original boxes in my bedroom closet.  I can honestly say that I have more pairs of shoes than my wife.

I am a retired school teacher and wore Converse every day to school.  My students knew that my shoes and shirt usually matched.  They would even request me to wear a certain pair.  When I retired from Washington School I was presented with a pair of Converse that every student put their thumb print on.  What a wonderful gift.  I wear them every time I go back to help with school activities.

My daughter Katelyn designed a pair of Converse for me to wear at her wedding.  I think that I am the only man that has walked in to a David’s Bridal and asked for a swatch of fabric of the bridesmaid dresses so that a pair of shoes can be matched to it.

The only time that I do not wear Converse is when I referee basketball games or go for a long walk with my wife.  I went to Kwik Trip to get a gallon of milk and was wearing Crocs instead of Converse and was asked by another person in the store why I was not wearing Converse?  I now wear them whenever I go out.

Chuck Taylor All-Stars – Learn more here at Wikipedia

Ad from 1920 for the forerunner of the Chuck Taylor All Star, Converse “Non-Skids.”

Here is another video made in 2013 by Madison WMTV Channel 15

 

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