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JJ Barea & Carlos Arroyo Launch Converse Open Gym in Puerto Rico

July 24th 2011 | 36 comments

JJ Barea and Carlos Arroyo launch Converse Open Gym.

words // Nick Engvall

On Saturday, Converse launched the Converse Open Gym Puerto Rico, the grassroots program dedicated to supporting youth basketball. Serving as honorary on-court monitors were Converse athletes Carlos Arroyo and JJ Barea, who talked to the kids about how basketball has played a major role in their lives. A record number of kids, more than 1,000, attended the launch of the Converse Open Gym Puerto Rico which is free for all participants ages 10-18.

As part of the event, kids were invited to play pick-up games and had an opportunity to try on the latest Converse basketball shoes.  The event featured a green screen-technology photo area where kids created their own Converse Connectivity Campaign, a temporary tattoo parlor highlighting the Puerto Rican national flag and Open Gym graphics, and the Converse barbershop where local barbers, including Carlos Arroyo, gave free haircuts to participants. They even helped some of the kids with drawing their own pair of Converse.

After being launched in 2007, Converse Open Gym has provided a free and safe place to play basketball for over 56,000 kids in cities like Atlanta, Chicago, Philadelphia, Miami and Boston. The next Converse Open Gym Puerto Rico will take place on September 24th.

Check out some of the pictures from the event below.

 JJ Barea and Carlos Arroyo Launch Converse Open Gym Puerto Rico JJ Barea and Carlos Arroyo Launch Converse Open Gym Puerto RicoJJ Barea and Carlos Arroyo Launch Converse Open Gym Puerto RicoJJ Barea and Carlos Arroyo Launch Converse Open Gym Puerto RicoJJ Barea and Carlos Arroyo Launch Converse Open Gym Puerto RicoJJ Barea and Carlos Arroyo Launch Converse Open Gym Puerto RicoJJ Barea and Carlos Arroyo Launch Converse Open Gym Puerto RicoJJ Barea and Carlos Arroyo Launch Converse Open Gym Puerto Rico

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36 Comments » What's being said ...
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Much Respect
Much Respect
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Nice! always good to see people doing something for the youth!
Vi Veri Veniversum Vivus Vici
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pretty cool this took place
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lol at the tip off, some kid is miles away!
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lol thought that kid was really tatted up at first!
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Thats a nice look for them .
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haha kids rocking nike
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JJ Barea is my dude.
I am looking for size 11.5 SB Space Jam Dunks, Woodgrain Janoskis, Statue of Liberty Dunks, and Stussy Dunks as well as size 12 Ronnie Fieg Mint Leaf asics, all preferably DS. PM me if you can help.
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Much respect to JJ Barea...Northeastern alum!
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little kid wearing griffeys in the last pic SWAG
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good work
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converse is the original basketball shoe and deserves so much better. had some great kicks in the 90s. need to get back to performance basketball footwear. not the cheap crap they do now and when they do something really good (like the star player evo) the marketing and availability is dismal. wish someone that respected the converse history owned them. w/ nike its all about how much they can make off the chucks.



I agree, there is so much potential there but Nike is failing at growing Converse outside of the fashion area.
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Nice! always good to see people doing something for the youth! :up: :up:
pretty cool this took place
lol at the tip off, some kid is miles away!
lol thought that kid was really tatted up at first!
Thats a nice look for them .
haha kids rocking nike
There were 1000 kids that showed up, not every kid got Converse shoes. So the other brands you see are because those are the shoes that the kids came in. There were no Nike shoes given out. seriously? those poor kids living in PR can afford those kicks they're wearing? if thats the case maybe they should help some kids who aren't so privleged. just my .02
JJ Barea is my dude.
Much respect to JJ Barea...Northeastern alum!
little kid wearing griffeys in the last pic SWAG
good work
[quote] converse is the original basketball shoe and deserves so much better. had some great kicks in the 90s. need to get back to performance basketball footwear. not the cheap crap they do now and when they do something really good (like the star player evo) the marketing and availability is dismal. wish someone that respected the converse history owned them. w/ nike its all about how much they can make off the chucks.[/quote] I agree, there is so much potential there but Nike is failing at growing Converse outside of the fashion area.
There were 1000 kids that showed up, not every kid got Converse shoes. So the other brands you see are because those are the shoes that the kids came in. There were no Nike shoes given out.
great work for helping out those in kids in Puerto Rico!
this is good work. if its a converse event give the kids some Cons. I get that nike owns them but it's stupid to use a converse event to promote nike. converse is the original basketball shoe and deserves so much better. had some great kicks in the 90s. need to get back to performance basketball footwear. not the cheap crap they do now and when they do something really good (like the star player evo) the marketing and availability is dismal. wish someone that respected the converse history owned them. w/ nike its all about how much they can make off the chucks.