Ironically, this quest for the perfect Weapon was spurred by a version of the sneaker that intentionally diverged far from the ones Bird and Johnson wore. Converse brought back the Weapon in limited numbers earlier this decade via Rick Owens, whose namesake label released the first chunky-soled, long-tongued, logo-altered Turbo Weapon in August 2021.
The more recent Weapon pulls the pendulum back. The Weapon looks now how it did in ‘86, which orients the design again toward its roots as a basketball sneaker.
The history is not lost on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the Oklahoma City Thunder point guard who has been the face of Converse in the NBA since 2020 and is the star of a new campaign for the Weapon. He’s not met Bird or Johnson, but he knew about their roles in promoting the sneaker before he was tasked to do so.
“It’s crazy—they were the pioneers to the whole signature sneaker business,” says Gilgeous-Alexander. “They were pioneers to basketball itself, the playing style we play today. They just have so much imprint on the game, on and off the court.”
Gilgeous-Alexander, who’s mastered the art of big fits, is an appropriate pitchman for the Weapon. He’s as good a dresser as there is in the NBA, a connector who can draw a line from the Weapon’s past as a basketball shoe to its present as a style shoe. Converse listened to advice from Gilgeous-Alexander when bringing the Weapon back to the market.
“He loves vintage,” says Foster. “He was like, ‘Imagine you go to a garage sale and the leather’s crackled and everything, all yellow.’ He was like, ‘Keep that going.’”
After loads of input, samples, lasts, and scrapped ideas, Converse arrived at its new Weapon (meant to look exactly like the old Weapon), which debuted in May 2023. Here’s how Converse remade the shoe, who helped the model along the way, and what’s coming next for the Weapon.
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