Converse Starts a New Business on the Side

Converse are the lo-fi sneakers that everyone loves--precisely because of their can't change, won't change-ness. And now, with a little help from Takahiro Miyashita, designer of now-extant, but-still-cult Japanese label Number (N)ine, they've gone through a serious jhuzz-up. The laces are off-center, there's some crazy lace/felt upper stuff going on--actually super-shaggy suede--and there's a rather twinkly little gold star on the back end.

In fact, just about the only thing that hasn't...