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Vans, the first name in streetwear
Paul Van Doren, his brother Jim, and their friends Serge D’Elia and Gordon Lee opened the Van Doren Rubber Company in 1966 with skateboarders in mind. But Champs Sports’ selection of Vans gear today shows just how far they’ve come as cultural icons.
The foursome carved out a place in history early on, becoming just the fourth manufacturer of vulcanized rubber in the United States. But while they grew fast, their earliest days were humble ones. When they opened that first store, in Anaheim, Calif., they had empty boxes on their shelves and had to make shoes for customers on the spot!
Vans’ shoe models didn’t even have names to start with. They went by model numbers. The no. 44 was the authentic deck shoe that remains popular, and models 45 and 46 were the canvas and leather boat shoes that have remained popular staples ever since.
But humble as it was, custom-making shoes for their customers gave the team an interesting artistic advantage. They would make shoes out of customer-chosen bolts of cloth, including from uniforms from local Catholic schools.
Skate world
The company became synonymous with skate culture. But its first venture into that world came in those early days in Southern California, when local skaters called for custom versions of Vans’ shoes. The Van Dorens added strategically placed padding to help protect skaters’ ankles from their boards and released the Skate Hi (now the Sk8-Hi) on March 18, 1976.
Vans innovated new ideas through the 1970s, developing now-classics like the Vans #95 (now known as the Era), the Vans #36 (Old Skool), and the Vans #98 (Classic Slip-Ons). That also was the era when the shoemakers rolled out their “Off The Wall” slogan and logo, which emphasized its place in counterculture; a breaker of the status quo.
Learning as you grow
Vans explored other areas of athletic footwear by the early 1980s but began to realize it was straying from its roots. Leaders reset the company’s course by 1987, and Vans has remained the first name in skate style and streetwear.
Check out a wide range of classics – the Era, the high-top look of the Sk8-Hi, the Authentic, the Old Skool, and more. And Vans are available in so many colors and patterns, you could wear several styles of the same model without looking or feeling like a repeat.
And you can complete your Vans look with a similar array of colors and styles in Vans hoodies, tees, and fleece pants.