Meet the historian behind Converse's massive archives
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Sam Smallidge, Converse's archive manager, shows off a Celtics-inspired sneaker (right) and the denim shoe made for the Kentucky Wildcats in 1996 (center left). Photo: Steph Solis/Axios
Consider Sam Smallidge the world's top Converse scholar.
Why it matters: Smallidge has spent 15 years building the archival collection for one of the oldest shoe brands in North America — all from the company's Boston headquarters.
The big picture: Corporate historic preservation isn't new, but Smallidge is part of a growing crop of 21st-century archivists for major American brands.
- The Winchester resident has built an extensive repository — and in the process, an encyclopedic knowledge — that rivals Boston museum collections on local Civil War, transit and art history.
What they're saying: "A lot of other brands would kill to have this history and heritage to leverage all the time, and so it really serves as this tool of inspiration," Smallidge tells Axios.
- Many know the SHAI 001 as the first signature Converse shoe developed by NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, but Smallidge says it's also a nod to Converse's history of creating basketball shoes since the early 1910s.
Flashback: Corporate archival preservation took shape in the early 20th century, partly thanks to the formation of Harvard Business School in 1908 (the same year Marquis Mills Converse founded his namesake rubber shoe company in Malden).
- While business history took off in the 20th century, Converse didn't have an archivist when Smallidge was growing up in Lyme, New Hampshire, Marquis Mills Converse's hometown.
- Still, the Converse name was everywhere from the library to his grade school history lessons, and that hometown connection didn't hurt when he applied to a contract job at Converse.
State of play: What began as a spreadsheet and a folder has transformed into an archive database exceeding 10,000 items.
- The relics range from decades-old boots and sneakers to shoelaces to one of the first telegrams sent by a company employee at the turn of the century.
Zoom in: One piece of Converse history, which Smallidge calls the "martial arts" shoe, took roughly 12 years to track down.
- Smallidge noticed the sneaker's fist logo with the words "martial arts" printed on the side the first time he entered the Converse Archives, but the details eluded him until a year or two ago.
- He was sifting through a former employee's old records when he found a 1989 press kit for the Street Master, a shoe released around the third "Karate Kid" movie.
- "It perfectly encapsulates my time here, from 'I know nothing' to like, 'I know exactly what this shoe is for,'" Smallidge says.
When he's not updating the company's growing archive database, he's advising Converse designers and collaborators like Gilgeous-Alexander and Tyler the Creator.
- His knowledge of the history of Converse's shoe styles and materials guides them as they develop new products.
What's next: Like any archival collection, Converse has a backlog of items that need to be added to its ever-growing database.
- "It's a never-ending process. I feel like our brand really values our archives, so it's going to continue be that kind of growing piece of the history of our brand."