So, who’s up for a one star review? Generally, the lesser the stars, the more uh-huh a product will appear. But in this case, that one star easily equals five. And even though the Converse One Star might not have the long history of the mighty All Star flagship, its evolution is no less varied and fascinating.

With more and more brands entering the sports market, Converse hustled to keep their headstart and released the One Star in 1974. But its unadorned design, low cut and Suede material might have been a little too novel for its own brand, since the design was quickly shelved and locked away in the archives for almost twenty years. It was only in the retro-crazy climate of the early 90s that the One Star finally made a comeback. Skateboarders in the US and Europe liked the simple and light, yet trusty build of the shoe as much as London’s Acid jazz dancers or future Fragment founder Hiroshi Fujiwara‚ who was already around and making his mark in Japanese streetwear at that time.

The One Star looked great with the baggy trousers that were all the rage with techno kids and urban hipsters, and it went just as well with the ripped jeans and cargo pants of the emerging Seattle grunge musicians who would soon rise to, well, stardom. Fast forward another twenty-odd years, and you have cool rulers like Tyler the Creator using his sense of style on the Converse One Star. His first exclusive collab was a light blue, Clearwater colorway. The shoe has long become a staple in the brand’s line-up while remaining true to its origins.

The latest colorways dip the whole shoe – including the central Star — into pastel tones like the unobtrusive Egret and Dusk Pink shown here. Converse promises to bring even more colors and materials to the One Star in the Seasons to come. Not at all bad for a shoe with only one star.