Four low-tops, one heart logo, and twenty minutes of scrolling that ends with the tab still open. Most people arrive for the heart and then notice it has been stitched onto three or four completely unrelated shoes. The PLAY sneakers listed at CDG share that patch and almost nothing else, so the question worth answering first is which outline you want on your foot.
Start with the shoe, not the patch
Filip Pagowski drew the heart-with-eyes mark for the PLAY line, and it has sat on canvas ever since without being redrawn. But a heart on a Chuck 70 and the same heart on a Jack Purcell hand you two shoes that behave nothing alike. One is tall-walled and narrow through the middle. The other is wide, flat and faintly orthopedic — in a good way, honestly. Sort out the silhouette and the color question gets much smaller.
Chuck 70 lows
This is the pair most people picture when they hear the words. The ’70 cut carries a chunkier rubber foxing than a standard canvas Chuck, a stitched toe cap and a glossier sidewall, and the fabric itself feels heavier in your hand. On the low that extra rubber reads as a beefier shoe, which is worth knowing if you cuff your jeans — the sidewall doesn’t vanish under the hem the way a slimmer sneaker does.
Heart placement does a lot of the talking on this one. The Multi Heart runs repeat the mark across the panel, while the Big Heart pairs put a single oversized patch near the ankle and leave the rest of the canvas alone. Same shoe underneath, wildly different volume of logo. Wear mostly plain black and want one loud object? The single big patch does more for you. Already wearing prints? The repeat version starts arguing with your shirt.
Jack Purcell and that smile
The Purcell is the odd one out, and it’s the pair I’d push on anybody who finds Chucks too narrow. Flatter, wider, rounder at the toe, with a thick rubber bumper running across the front — the “smile” people keep mentioning. The heel sits low. Nothing about it looks like a basketball shoe; it looks like something from a grainy photograph of a tennis club.
It also dresses up without much effort. A Purcell under cropped trousers gets away with being canvas in rooms where canvas normally doesn’t. And because that front bumper is one continuous piece of rubber, a scuff across the toe wipes off instead of settling into a stitched seam and staying there.
One Star, for people who hate a toe cap
No cap, no smile, no rubber climbing up the front. The One Star is the lowest and slimmest of the lot — thin sole, clean upper, a single star on the side panel. If your complaint about canvas sneakers has always been that they look clumpy in photographs, this is the shape that fixes it.
The star and the heart end up sharing that side panel, which is either a nice bit of layering or one logo too many. Depends entirely on your taste. I lean toward it working, because the star is embroidered flat, and the patch sits proud of the canvas, so they read as two different textures rather than two competing badges.
| Style | Front of the shoe | Overall profile |
| Chuck 70 low | Stitched rubber toe cap | Tallest sidewall of the three |
| Jack Purcell | Thick rubber bumper | Wide and flat |
| One Star | Clean, no cap | Lowest and slimmest |
| Pro Tip: Try the Purcell on in the socks you actually wear. That front bumper sits higher than it looks in product photos, and a thick ribbed sock changes where your foot breaks over it. |
What they’re going for
Price is the part that simplifies everything. The Converse styles on the site, lows and highs together, are listed at $555.96 and marked down to $138.99 — one number across the whole group. Nothing is cheaper for being a different shape, so budget can’t make the decision for you. Which is annoying for about five minutes and then a relief, because you only have to work out what you like.
A quick word on fit
Sneakers aren’t where this house gets strange about sizing. That happens on the clothing, which follows Japanese standards and tends to come up smaller than the US number on the tag. Canvas low-tops behave like canvas low-tops. Take your usual size and expect the Purcell to feel roomier across the forefoot than the Chuck, because it genuinely is wider there.
What goes with them
Canvas shoes, a cotton fleece hoodie and whatever jeans are clean — that’s most of an outfit already, and the last thing people add usually isn’t clothing. Parfums is one of the house lines, and the pebble-shaped bottles in the CDG Perfume range run from the incense-heavy Series 3 through to the greener end of the shelf. A low-top, a heart patch and something slightly odd on your wrist covers the whole PLAY idea in three objects.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which low-top is the narrowest?
The Chuck 70. It’s built on a slimmer last than the Purcell and the toe box tapers more, so wide feet notice it by the end of a long day. The One Star is slim too, but low rather than tight.
Do the Multi Heart and Big Heart versions come as lows?
Heart treatment and shoe cut are two separate things on the listings. The site carries Chuck Taylor All Star ’70 lows and highs, Jack Purcell and One Star, plus Multi Heart and Big Heart versions, so read both lines on the product page before you add anything to the cart.
Are the highs priced differently from the lows?
No. Everything in that Converse group sits at the same $555.96 list and the same $138.99 markdown, whichever height you pick.
Can these be shipped outside the US?
Shipping is offered worldwide. Anything more specific than that — cost, timing, the carrier — shows up at checkout rather than on the product page, so check it there before you commit.
Pick the outline first and the rest sorts itself out. Loudest version of the look, the big heart on a Chuck 70 low. Something you can wear to dinner without thinking about it, the Purcell. A shoe that stays quiet and lets the patch do the talking, the One Star. Comme des Garçons has been putting that mark on canvas long enough that none of the three is going to date badly, so take your time, look at the panel photos properly, and buy the shape rather than the hype.