You probably don’t know – and not by accident – that Converse is a wholly owned subsidiary of Nike. Yes, the Nike of sweatshop infamy (unfairly, since Nike now has some of the best business practices in the industry, but lasting perceptions have power). For consumers who care about such things, it looks like this:

No wonder that the Nike Store doesn’t mention Converse and Converse marketing doesn’t mention Nike. If people knew that Converse was a division of Nike it wouldn’t be as cool.

This is from a great blog The Long Tail from the author of the book of the same title. I love these did you know that Mazda is actually Ford, or KFC and Taco Bell are owned by the same company.

Have to say this example was a surpise.