All Star shoes to basketball players, Taylor held basketball clinics in high school and college gyms and YMCAs all across the United States and taught the fundamentals of the game. During the 1926–27 season Taylor also served as a player-manager of the company-sponsored basketball team called the Converse All Stars. The Chicago-based touring team was established to promote sales of the company's All Star basketball shoes. Numerous professional basketball players were soon wearing All Stars. Converse All Stars were the official shoe of the Olympics from 1936 to 1968. During World War II All Stars were the official athletic training shoes of the U.S. armed forces. Post World War II popularity By the 1950s, Chuck Taylor All Stars had become a standard among high school, collegiate, and professional basketball players. In the 1960s, Converse had captured about 70 to 80 percent of the basketball shoe market, with Converse Chuck Taylor All Stars being worn by ninety percent of professional and college basketball players. Due in large part to the sale of its All Stars, the company began to expand and open more factories. Converse began to struggle financially during the 1970s, due to competition and poor business decisions as the shoe lost its popularity among basketball players. Many athletes switched to shoes with leather uppers and harder rubber soles made by Converse as well as its competitors. Tree Rollins was thought to be the last player to regularly wear canvas Converse All Stars in the NBA during the 1979–1980 season, although Micheal Ray Richardson and Mickey Johnson briefly wore leather All Stars with the New Jersey Nets after 1982. Chuck Taylor All Stars regained popularity in the 1980s and 1990s, making a shift to casual, retro-style footwear. The athletic shoe evolved into the shoe of choice and a favorite for subcultures, particularly artists and musicians. By 2000 Converse had sold more than 600 million pairs of All Stars during its eighty years of manufacturing them. Nike acquisition While Converse dominated the U.S. basketball shoe market from the 1920s until the 1970s, it began to struggle in the late 1970s due to competition, poor business decision-making, and lack of sufficient funds. In subsequent years Converse filed for bankruptcy multiple times and fell into further debt. Nike acquired Converse in 2003 for an estimated $305 million and continues to market Chuck Taylor All Stars. Converse's manufacturing operations for Chuck Taylor All Stars,