Glen Lynch has sold a lot of merchandise during his four decades as a downtown retailer -- from black lights and psychedelic posters to Indian clothing, tie-dye T-shirts and other novelty and imported goods.

But nothing has had more legs for Lynch than the running shoe business.

The owner of Baggins, which has operated continuously in the core since Dec. 1, 1969, and turned exclusively to selling the Converse brand eight years ago, expects to top $1 million in sales for the current year.

That's a huge milestone and a nice icing to a 40th anniversary for Lynch, who spotted the return of the historic running shoe early and gained a good grip on a surging market.

Baggins will sell close to 20,000 pairs of Converse this year, by far the best of any "single-door Converse retailer" in Canada, said Lynch. Over the past eight years, growth has averaged between 12 per cent and 15 per cent a year.

Lynch said about 35 per cent of annual sales are via the Internet and those orders stream in daily from places like Tokyo, Hamburg, Madrid, Johannesburg, Iceland -- even to some of the monks at the Shaolin Monastery in China, birthplace of Zen Buddhism and the martial art of kung fu.

The majority of sales remain walk-ins at Lynch's tucked-away store in the PaperBox Arcade on Lower Johnson Street -- and we're not just talking locals. "There's a lot of crazy collectors who come here. We've had people from Siberia, France, Germany ... lots of Americans who know about us through the Internet because we carry such a huge collection," said Lynch.

The brand has come a long way since Marquis Mills Converse started making winter boots in 1908 in Malden, Mass. The first rubber-and-canvas tennis shoe appeared in 1915 and the world's first "performance" basketball sneaker -- the Converse All-Star -- came to market two years later.

Converse was made wildly popular in 1921 when all-American basketball star Chuck Taylor, a member of the Boston Celtics, joined the com- pany and improved the shoe's traction and ankle support.

The brand is now made in China and produces close to a billion pairs a year, selling in 144 countries.

Although Converse has never seemed to go out of style, the shoe has evolved into a rainbow of colours and is now a virtual canvas for artists, musicians, poets and the pop culture movement.

Lynch carries between 400 and 500 varieties, including his latest favourites depicting Rosie the Rivitor, the poster girl for factory women during the Second World War, and the Product Red artists who put their work on the shoes benefitting AIDS awareness and endorsed by Oprah Winfrey and U2's Bono.

"This isn't the yo-yo that comes and goes as a fad. Converse is like a platform," said Lynch, adding the style remains the same but the look is continually changing.

Lynch said he double-ordered a Union Jack tribute to The Who -- about 380 pairs -- when the design was first unveiled earlier this year and as of yesterday had two pairs remaining.

"All the other [Converse retailers] knew I had a lot and were calling to get some. I can just tell what's going to sell. I buy all the crazy stuff -- artwork, tie-dyes," he said, adding the basic black and the basic white are still just as popular.

Looking back, Lynch, 60, chuckles that he probably ran a hippie store long after the hippies disappeared. He credits his longevity on the bumpy retail scene to some good landlords (citing Sam Bawlf and the Jawl family who gave rent reductions during recessions), a little luck and lots of excellent staff.

He has eight on the payroll, including general manager Brydie Griffin, webmaster Bruce Cranston and managers Jessica Walmsley and Jessica DeCoste.

Over the 40 years, Lynch has moved Baggins -- named for the character in the J.R.R. Tolkien Lord of the Rings novels -- a half dozen times, from the initial location on Government Street to Bastion Square, then over to a few different spots in Market Square for more than 20 years and finally to LoJo district in 2002.

Baggins is at 110-561 Johnson St. Call 250-388-7022.

dkloster@tc.canwest.com