Chuck Taylor's all star revolutionized American sport like no other shoe, full stop. The advent and growth of basketball amongst the US urban poor and Converse will forever be intertwined. The beauty and attraction of the brand for its vast legions of admirers is that despite technological breakthroughs in sneaker design, fashion and market forces, the look of a shoe such as the Jack Purcell is unblemished, whilst at the same time being incredibly relevant today. When America entered World War II in 1941, Converse shifted production to manufacturing footwear, apparel, boots, parkas, rubber protective suits, and ponchos for pilots and troops. Widely popular during the 1950s and 1960s, Converse lost much of its apparent near-monopoly from the 1970s onward, with the surge of new competitors such as Nike, Adidas and Reebok who introduced radical new designs to the market. Converse found themselves no longer the official shoe of the National Basketball Association, a title they had enjoyed for many, many years. This loss of market share, combined with poor business decisions forced Converse to file for bankruptcy on January 22, 2001. When the company subsequently changed hands that year, the last factory in the United States was closed. Thereafter, manufacturing for the American market was no longer performed in the United States, but instead in a number of Asian countries, including China, Indonesia and Vietnam. On July 9, 2003, the company accepted a $305 million purchase offer from rival Nike.