Part of any culture is the clothes. Whether it’s big black boots and leather in abundance for the Goth crowd or Vans which really took off in the skater community when they began to develop a range of custom made options
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Shoes are a fundamental aspect of any get up, giving artists a chance to literally stand out from the crowd and here I look at Vans importance in popular culture.
A Potted History of Vans
Vans first opened for business in 1966 and as you can imagine back then didn’t really have names for many of the designs, opting instead for the imaginative #16 and the like – although that obviously was well before the days of hashtags on Twitter etc. so maybe a similar range of names could soon start to take off again. The price of the shoes? Around $2.29 for women’s and $4.49 for men’s.
Rocking The Custom Pumps
Apparently the idea of customer Vans came about when a female customer started complaining about the shade of pinks and yellows available, so the founder of Vans, Paul Van Doren, said to the lady in question, bring in a piece of fabric the colour you want and I’ll put something together for you. With that custom vans were born.
Vans Importance In Skate Culture
Thanks to the idea of custom pumps, it wasn’t long before Vans started gaining more popularity with the skate community. It was from the 70’s, Vans shoes really became popular with skaters with a number of sneakers designed especially for the market, including a design called the Old School which had a leather toe and heel designed to make the shoes last longer under the punishment they received from the skaters using them.
Other designs for skaters included the Skate Hi with padded sides designed to protect the skaters ankles from a flying board should they get dismounted.
The Warped Tour
It wasn’t until the 90’s that Vans really emerged on the alternative music scene though. The Warped Tour was founded in 1994 by Kevin Lyman, and he approached Vans the following year, and so, from 1995 until present Vans has sponsored the event and really paid an active part in the Punk and Ska scene.
After all, it is called the Vans Warped Tour. Steve Van Doren, the son of founder Paul had already been bigging up the idea of a skateboarding event by then, so it made the perfect combination – music and skating.
Steve has never been under any illusions about the client base, a large chunk of the people buying vans are kids and before picking up a driving licence was a possibility a number of kids would skate, cycle and carry out all sorts of activities that led to grazed knees and skin getting scrapped off of elbows!
The Ever Popular Vans
A couple of Vans designs are timeless, with the checkerboard style being particularly synonymous with the brand. Through in the option of slip ons and the influence of Fast Times At Ridgemont High and Sean Penn rocking the checkerboard look, and you have an iconic image sure to pop up in retro classic selections for years to come.
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Louisa Jenkins loves trainers and shoes. She blogs on everything from Vans to the latest high heeled creations.
