Race for the Whitehouse: Kamala's Converse

 Like pretty much no other woman before her, Kamala Harris has spent much of her time on the campaign trail wearing trainers. Being the first to do something seems to come naturally to Harris, though. In 2017, she became the first South Asian-American senator in US history, and only the second African-American woman elected to the senate. 

On 7 November, Harris became the first African-American and South Asian-American person, as well as the first woman, to be elected vice-president of the United States following Joe Biden’s presidential win. Amongst other things, that means we’re about to see Harris’s Chuck Taylors in the West Wing – and will witness a senior female politician blithely ignoring the “rules” of traditional political dress, redefining them in her signature trailblazing fashion.

Harris in Las Vegas in October wearing her classic Converse

In September, Harris set a precedent for what was to come. Then a would-be VP, she disembarked a plane in Wisconsin not in sensible court shoes, but in a pair of black Converse All Stars – more often seen on off-duty models on coffee dashes than politicians on the world stage. “Laced up and ready to win,” read Harris’s caption. She knew her classic American trainers signalled a can-do attitude and a sense of purpose. 

And don’t be fooled into thinking Harris’s footwear was an attempt to appeal to young voters following her VP nomination – she wore them last year as a presidential hopeful, too. “I run through airports in my Converse sneakers,” she has said previously. “I have a whole collection of Chuck Taylors: a black leather pair, a white pair, I have the kind that don’t lace, the kind that do lace, the kind I wear in the hot weather, the kind I wear in the cold weather, and the platform kind for when I’m wearing a pantsuit.”

Harris wearing a pair of Converse in 2019.

In October, she really upped the ante, attending a Florida rally in a symbolic pair of embellished white high-tops. Badges pinned to the sides of her trainers read variously: “Black Joy”, “Stop Hate” and “Love 2020”. It was a neat way to nod to the feelings of millions of supporters at the close of a testing year.

Harris wore her symbolic shoes at a rally in Florida in October.

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