Weapon – Yellow / Court Purple
Converse and Engineered Garments introduce a new interpretation of the Weapon, reworking one of Converse’s most iconic basketball silhouettes through Engineered Garments' distinctive utilitarian lens. Rendered in a low-top execution, the Converse × Engineered Garments Weapon brings a fresh point of view to a shoe that first launched in 1986 and, despite being produced for only two years, made decades worth of waves. This collaboration returns to that legacy with a deliberate expression of a silhouette that left a lasting mark on basketball culture.
By the late ’80s, nearly every NBA star except Michael Jordan had worn the Converse Weapon at some point.
The Weapon was Converse’s most advanced basketball shoe of its era: a bulky high-top leather sneaker that built on the legacy of the Chuck Taylor All Star and Julius Erving’s Pro Leather. It featured a fully leather upper with extra heel and ankle padding for comfort, paired with a simple, functional midsole.
In 1986, the NBA was defined by the rivalry between Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, whose feud mirrored that of their teams, the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics. Both stars wore the Weapon, giving Converse a powerful marketing angle.
Converse positioned the shoe as the league’s premier sneaker by putting it on many of the NBA’s top players. Magic and Bird fronted the iconic “Choose Your Weapon” campaign, each wearing team-coloured versions of the sneaker. Their rivalry dated back to the 1979 NCAA championship, when Magic’s Michigan State Spartans men's basketball defeated Bird’s Indiana State Sycamores men's basketball—making them the perfect figures to elevate the Weapon into basketball sneaker history.
