A Vans History:
In the beginning, the Van Doren Rubber Company—a 1966 startup shoe company helmed by founder Paul Van Doren—only manufactured shoes with diamond designs. Unfortunately for Van Doren, these shoes kept coming apart. Van Doren’s shoes would crack right down the middle—the most walked upon section of the shoe and the most heavily impacted section during skateboarding. After some more trial and error Van Doren found a redesign that would keep his shoes from splitting. Thus was born the Vans “waffle-sole,” an incredibly durable and un-crackable sneaker. The Van Doren Rubber Company, slowly becoming more commonly known as Vans, boxed their waffle-sole sneakers and marketed them toward surfers and skaters. The scene would never be the same.Vans went bankrupt in 1984 when the company tired to extend their market reach into football and baseball shoes, an idea that never took off and left their loyal skater base feeling betrayed. The company was acquired by investment bankers McCown DeLeeuw Company and went public in 1991. In 2004, Vans was sold to VF Corporation.Vans has enjoyed a recent resurgence in popularity, reclaiming its stake on the skate, surf, rock, punk, ska, hardcore, and emo scenes with the reintroduction of the Slip-On style, and catapulting the company into the urban sneaker scene—a trend believed to be started by rapper Bran.B currently of the underground hip hop/rock group Reform Skool. Vans, unlike peers Airwalk, Etnies, and DC, is one of the only skateboarding shoes to be embraced by high-end sneaker lovers.
————————————
Vans Sneak-Facts:
• The original Vans were priced from $2.49 to $4.99• Many of Vans retail stores contain skate parks. Examples: King of Prussia, Ontario Mills, The Block at Orange, Potomac Mills
• In 2004 Vans was acquired by VF Corporation, manufacturers of Lee and Wrangler Jeans for $396 million.
• Since 1995, Vans has been a sponsor of the punk/ska music and extreme sports festival, The Vans Warped Tour.
• A recent resurgence in the popularity of the Vans “Slip-On” in the punk/hardcore community has greatly reduced the market domination of the Converse “Chuck Taylor All-Star.”
• Some detractors have claimed that the Vans company is anti-Semitic. This claim is based on the star shaped pattern on the ball of shoe, which, they claim, resembles the Star of David. Therefore, when you walk in Vans you are “stomping on the Jews.” The Vans Company vehemently denies this allegation. The honeycomb shape was designed to give skaters a more secure footing.
————————————
Notable Models:
Slip-On
Introduced in 1979, the “Slip-On” was all the rage in Southern California. The obsession with the “Slip-On” went nationwide in 1982 when the film “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” featured California surfer dude Jeff Spicoli wearing a pair of checkered “Slip-Ons.” The design’s popularity faltered a bit in the late 90’s, but recently the “Slip-On” has returned to the forefront as one of the company’s most popular designs. The “Slip-On’s” main competitor is the Converse “Chuck Taylor All-Star.”
Old Skools
The longest running skateboard shoe of all time, the Vans “Old Skool” was there before the X-Games, before Tony Hawk, before everyone else. When the first skaters needed a shoe that would grip to their boards while sliding and curving on the street, Vans was listening. The company developed a gum rubber sole which was glued to the shoe via vulcanization (treating it with sulfur at high temperatures), and the “Old Skool” was born.
The Sk8-Hi
The “Sk8-Hi” is in many ways, the high-top cousin of the Old Skool. Featuring the “Off The Wall” sole and the “Old Skool” stripe, the “Sk8-Hi” is a true classic So-Cal sneaker. Recent years have seen an influx of variations on the classic “Sk8-Hi.” Even designer Marc Jacobs made a version.
The Half-Cab
The “Half-Cab” began when Vans found out that people were cutting the tops off their high-tops. Never one to pass up a trend, Vans embraced the cutting craze and released the “Half-Cab.”
