By Gregg Krupa, Globe Staff

BEAR PROFILES DynaGen, Inc. Palomar Medical Technologies Inc. Designs Inc. Converse Inc. SystemSoft Corp. MAIN STORY Bulls and Bears

ll of a sudden, none of the kids want basketball shoes.

The reason for the untoward stock performance of Converse is that simple. Tastes have changed, and basketball shoes are just not the hippest things on the block anymore.

''It's been a volatile stock, really,'' said Glenn N. Rupp, chairman and chief executive, pointing out that Converse had been the best-performing stock in last year's Globe 100. ''And it's really a reflection of consumers' taste in footwear.''

Sales of basketball shoes and some other sports shoes are depressed worldwide. Because Converse is more reliant on basketball shoe sales than its competitors are, it is the most affected by the decline in demand and the glut of supply.

As a result, Converse's stock price declined 64 percent, from 18 to 6, in the 12-month period ended March 31, 1998.

''It's difficult to predict when this will end,'' Rupp said. ''We predict [it will take] the balance of this year before the situation will improve.''

Converse is moving quickly to diversify its line of shoes, hoping to take advantage of the increased demand among youths for so-called action sports shoes, which are worn by skateboarders and athletes in other alternative sports.

Rupp said Converse is also relying on technological advances to remain competitive in the athletic shoe category, and plans to aggressively market its line of Athletic Originals - including casual shoes and the ''retro styles,'' which remain popular.