Perennially living in the shadow of the and Jack Purcell, the Converse One Star is still an iconic sneaker, albeit with a somewhat strange history. The silhouette debuted in 1974 as a suede basketball shoe, but went dormant for a while before coming back hard in the ’90s thanks in part to pro skaters who gravitated toward its flat sole and low profile. Converse describes the material as aged suede, which gives the sneakers a broken-in quality from the start.