world wide and keds founded 1949 headquarters lexington ma parent wolverine world wide website http www.prokeds.com in 1949 keds shoes established pro keds an american athletic footwear line primarily intended for basketball . the first pro keds product was the royal a canvas basketball shoe in high and low tops . subsequently new styles were added across the categories of baseball football tennis track and field . items utilizing exclusive shock absorbent support and cushioning techniques were also developed . contents 1 history 1.1 1949 1969 1.2 1970 1981 1.3 1982 2001 1.4 2002 present 2 external links history edit 1949 1969 edit the us rubber company made the first pair of rubber soled canvas shoes called keds in 1916 . the brand became popular with athletes in the mid 1920s and 1949 established pro keds the first style of pro keds was a canvas hi top basketball shoe known as the royal . originally marketed as the sureshot . in the early 1950s george mikan basketball s first true big man endorsed the royal and he and all his teammates on the 1953 1954 minneapolis lakers wore this shoe en route to a nba finals championship that season . in 1969 pro keds introduced the pro keds super which was also known as the 69er . 1970 1981 edit in the early 1970s pro keds introduced the royal master also known as the royal plus . the shoe featured a rich suede upper double power stripes and a padded collar . it was available as both a high top and low top and earned credibility for both its performance elements as well as its key style features . some of the game s most exciting players including pete maravich nate tiny archibald and jo jo white endorsed the shoe . over the course of this decade pro keds continued to diversify their footwear offerings . the royal edge later known as the royal cvo was one of the brand s first lifestyle products . in 1979 the stride rite corporation acquired keds shoes and their sister brand pro keds from uniroyal the successor to u.s. rubber co. in the spring of 1980 pro keds launched a collection of performance cupsole basketball shoes with the marquee model being the shotmaker . the shotmaker would be worn by ralph sampson and gerald henderson in 1981 sugar ray leonard became the newest face and spokesperson for the brand . 1982 2001 edit throughout the 1980s new styles were added across the categories of baseball football tennis track and field . pro keds also developed shoes using shock absorbent support and cushioning . 2002 present edit since the early 2000s pro keds focused on their classic styles in a variety of colors and materials . the pro keds line was anchored by five cornerstone styles the royal the royal master the royal plus the 69er and the royal cvo . on february 3 2014 pro keds now a subsidiary of wolverine world wide confirmed that it had discontinued the line . on march 14 2016 pro keds relaunched globally . external links edit pro ked s official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title pro keds & oldid 742746264 categories athletic shoe brands navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 5 october 2016 at 14 52 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view