It’s not every day a pair of worn-in sneakers that you cannot (and really should not) wear come up for auction at Christie’s. These are classic Converse All-Stars, slightly worn, and with an estimated finishing price of $1,000-1,500. Sure the frame they come with is nice, but it’s the owner that makes them valuable. Hunter S. Thompson wore these sneakers, which are now titled “Hunter’s Converse” and mounted in a shadowbox with a matching plaque.

Style may not be Thompson's most direct legacy but perhaps it should rank pretty high. A pair of Converse were the foundation of most of Thompson’s outfits — he wore them all the time. They may be much less gonzo than the man himself but that makes them all the better.

Appropriate of his gonzo moniker, Thompson would often wore wild looks that mashed up striped shirts and camo trousers or short-shorts and cowboy hats. He clashed patterns and nailed every kind of headwear.

his louche-grunge style effectively predicted the modern scumbro look, especially as he got older. But of it all, Thompson’s preferred white canvas All Stars perhaps best speak to his personal style. Even the Thompson surrogate in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas donned Converse's low-top version. 

Christies

These shoes became Thompson’s uniform, his entry in the unspoken dialogue of so many writers and artists.

This pair of overtly normal shoes is a worthy contrast for a man who supposedly requested his ashes be fired from a cannon. But a uniform is normal, so normal that it becomes second nature.

The name “Hockney” conjures images of a red cardigan and round glasses. Ernest Hemingway bought his safari jackets at Abercrombie & Fitch in New York. One has probably never seen (or ever will see) Fran Lebowitz in a dress — she uses this word as a verb rather than a noun, sticking to a signature sartorial style of a blazer, shirt and Levi’s 501 jeans, often matched to cowboy boots. Footwear seeped into Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, with Estragon’s boots becoming the central symbol of the character’s shortcomings, but Beckett himself favored Clarks Wallabee shoes and a turtleneck.

Uniform dressing allowed these creatives the space to create, freeing them from having to worry about what to wear. Many presumably cared little for fashion yet they had a signature style and their output says it all. Anyone who was forced to dress up for school in shirt, tie, skirt or trousers will recall the dread that came from non-school-uniform day. Imagine Thompson scuppered by thoughts about what to wear each day. Not likely.

Like many great artists, he knew what he liked, and he liked Converse.

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