If you've ever owned a pair of Converse Chuck Taylors, you probably noticed that they look awesome. You might have also noticed that they tend to allow water to enter freely through those little eyelets and commence to turn you shoes into a sloppy soaked mess. When John Varvatos set out to rethink Converse's classic shoes, he had at least one idea that might actually be an improvement on the original: waterproof uppers.

These rubberized Chucks not only have the advantage of keeping those summer downpours from rotting your feet off, but the rubber creates a cool semi-gloss effect. Varvatos also took the liberty of going with black leather laces and completely blacking out all features except the toe and sole. They look just a bit more stylish, yet the don't loose the old school appeal. We say: way to not screw up a classic design. Now, if he could only do something about their tendency to get stinky.

[via Refinery29]