Converse has been busy in the last few months celebrating the brand’s 100th anniversary. The latest editions to the brand’s retro lineup is the Skidgrip, a low-top casual sneaker that can be traced back to the 1940s. These shoes are availabale in two colorways including the patriotic red/white/blue and the blue/orange/green colorway shown above.

I like the Skidgrip’s profile but I dislike the colorways immensely. I have profiled efforts by Converse and Adidas to bring the past into the present with mixed results. The problem is that the colorways are stuck in a place and time that cannot be transferred to the 21st century (at least not on a pair of shoes).

The American flag-inspired Skidgrips show the World War II roots of this shoe. The blue/orange/green shoe would fit in well with rental shoes available in a bowling alley in the 1970s. The Skidgrips fill a very small niche in the retro sneaker market that includes flag wavers, high school students looking for ironic footwear and dabblers wooed by the Converse name.