Anyone who knew me between the ages of ten and fifty could tell you that I wore off-white Converse All-Stars — the sneakers named after a semi-pro basketball player in the early 1920s named Chuck Taylor — every single day.

I wore them to work. I wore them on weekends. I wore them to every radio promotional appearance. I wore them on every TV show I did. I wore them to the White House Correspondents Dinner. I wore them to my wedding.

My wife insisted on that last one. After all, she was the one who gave me six identical pairs of Chucks for my birthday one year.

When I was very young, my Mom bought me Keds, because that’s what kids that age wore. Then I saw a TV commercial for PF Flyers, which promised that anyone who wore those sneakers would run faster and jump higher. It turned out that was a lie, which taught me a lesson about the believability of advertising.

By the time I emerged from my single-digit years, I had begun following professional basketball, and saw that many NBA and ABA players were wearing Chucks. So, when it came time for this growing boy to need a new pair of sneakers, I dumped the PF Flyers and went with Converse All-Stars.

I stayed with them for four decades, although when I started playing tennis again in my early forties, I needed more support than Chucks offered. After all, they were barely more than some canvas and rubber stapled to an old tire. That’s when I bought real tennis shoes — but only wore them when I played. The rest of the time, I was in my Chucks.

They were still popular and pretty inexpensive. Even after the last turn of the century, they still only cost about thirty bucks a pair. Who cared if, over the course of a year, I went through all six pairs my wife bought me? That was still less than fancier, more fashionable brands.

But for some reason, when I turned fifty, I decided it was time to leave Chucks behind. I can’t explain why, although maybe it was because I wore them for all those years and was never offered a sponsorship deal.

When the last pair wore out, I bought some sneaker brand I can’t even remember today — and never went back. I didn’t need the tennis-specific shoes anymore either, because injuries to my knee and achilles tendon (on the same leg) made it impossible for me to make quick lateral moves and I had to give up the game entirely.

I just checked and discovered Converse Chuck Taylors are still around, more than a century after they first became available, and the price has only gone up to $60. You can also buy Keds, whose product line looks like it’s more geared to people of my generation who no longer want to lace up their sneakers. PF Flyers are available, too, and their website continues to declare they’ll help you run faster and jump higher.

But let’s be honest. Now that I’m in my mid-sixties, there’s no athletic shoe that can live up to that claim.