Jeepers

Jeepers were an affordable clone of the Converse sneaker, sold at Sears for kids whose parents wouldn’t buy them the much sought after label. Like most athletic shoes at the time, they came in only two colours and two styles: black or white, low or high-top.

Dubbed ‘cheaper Jeepers’ by both the kids who wore them and the privileged few who had the real deal, the high-top basketball shoe actually was made by Converse. The low top version was made by Uniroyal, the same people that made Keds.

But Jeepers didn’t have the Converse tag, and if you know anything about being a kid, you know that made all the difference in the world.

Super-Jeepers remained a popular girl’s style shoe even up into the ’70s, but Converse wanted to do away with the cheaper connotations that Jeepers were entrenched in.

The boys’ high-top shoe was renamed the Winner, and a winner it became. The new shoe became a popular competitor of the All-Star but remained affordable for everybody. And it didn’t rhyme with ‘cheaper.’