Big Dreams Tiny Pocketbook: March 2016

So there's this guy in my class who wears a different pair of Vans everyday. Today he wore a pair of faux snake skin vans, yesterday it was a simple blue pair, the day before that he wore a pair covered with pink flamingos.

A Vans collection holds great significance to any proprietor of shoes. Everyone remembers their first pair, and how they were more than a simple pair of shoes for the coming school year; they were a ticket into the coolest society of people to exist.

I got my first pair in the 6th grade. Before that the "it" style of shoes on the playground were Chucks, in every color imaginable. I got the full "back-to-school" treatment that every kid should, especially since I was starting middle school (!), which was kind of a big deal. I got a pair of cool gray slips-ons; simple. Today, these simple gray shoes slip-ons would be remarkably "on trend," but, at the time, they were just something my mom and I decided would go with everything in my closet. And they did. I wore them nearly everyday that year, and by June my heart was broken over the state of my shoes; torn, dirty, worn out, faded and no longer wearable. Just so you can get a visual, when I say "torn," I don't mean a small hole on the canvas, I mean so torn on the sides that you could see my socks through the holes in the shoe.

I have always been known to be a bit nostalgic and I had wanted to keep the shoes regardless of the condition they were in; my mother had a different idea.

But, come September, I had acquired a pair of Authentic sneakers in a pewter shade with mauve contrasting panels. Since then my collection has become a littler more colorful. And due to the heavy rotation with which I wear them, they are not falling apart...well, most of them aren't.

Today, Vans is celebrating FIFTY FUCKING YEARS in the biz...Here's a bit of Vans History:

The very first Vans store opened up on March 16th in 1966, the year my mom was born, at street 704 E Broadway in Anaheim California.

Paul Van Doren and three partners gave birth to The Van Doren Rubber Company, which was unique in that it manufactures shoes and sold them directly to the public.

On that morning in 1966, 16 customers bought shoes which were made that day and were ready for pick-up that afternoon.

These were the Vans #44 deck shoes, also known as the Authentic.

Vans quickly became very popular among skateboarders who appreciated the rugged style and sticky sole.

In 1975, the Vans #95, also known as the Era were designed by Tony Alva and Stacy Peralta, legendary skateboarders and Z-Boys. This new style featured a padded collar and different color combinations.

In 1979, with the help of skateboarders and BMX riders, the Slip-On became all the rage in Southern California.

Here's a quote from Steve Van Doren, Paul's son, about the different styles:

"The first day they open the doors, 16 people came in and they had a sample of all the styles. We didn’t even have names for the styles, we had numbers, style #44 was our authentic deck shoe. In the 44s my dad had navy blue, white, loden green and red. We didn’t have black at first; it became our best seller in later years. The women’s styles for Vans were smaller styles in the same deck shoes. We had a lace up, we had a 2 eyelet, we had a slip-on and the styles were called #16, #19 and style #20. Then we had a leather deck shoe, a leather boat shoe, style #46 and a canvas boat shoe, style #45. These were the original styles with children’s shoes called style #15. The original price on the shoes was $2.29 for women’s and men’s style 44s were $4.49. My dad had never been in retail before, so it was new for him. He could basically look at your foot and say ‘hey you’re eight and a half’ so they had a stick to make the customers feel good. They would then find out what style they wanted and what colour they wanted. Basically those first sixteen pairs did have to be made that day, and the people came back the next day to pick up their shoes, just because they wanted to get open so quick. They started filling the boxes in the store and by the third or fourth day they had filled them in."

Vans created shoes for other sports, including baseball, basketball and even skydiving. Although Vans were selling well, the wide range of products offered quickly drained the companies resources and in 1983, Vans declared bankruptcy. Luckily, three years later, Vans paid back all the creditors and in 1988 Vans' original owners sold to an investment banking firm. Vans now has the resources to expand and increase its worldwide presence. This year Vans will celebrate 50 Fucking Years of being any ever prevailing presence in the heart of Youth Culture.

To read more of the Vans History, check out their home page here.

Of course the idea behind the custom shoe in not new to Vans. Steve Van Doren explains how the "custom shoes" came about in Vans history, "In the women’s area, a lady came in and said ‘that’s a nice pink but I really want a brighter pink’ and then she picked up the yellow shoe and said ‘that’s a nice yellow but it really is too light’. My dad thought to himself, for crying out loud I can’t afford to carry 5 different colours of pink. So he said lady, ‘why don’t you get a piece of fabric, whatever colour pink you want, bring it back and I’ll make a shoe for you’. So it was almost the first day that they started charging extra to do a custom pair of shoes. In the sixties, we had Catholic schools that had uniforms, so we’d make shoes out of their plaid uniforms and stuff. If the High school colours were red and gold or their colours were tartan plaid we would make their shoes, plus we were making shoes for all the cheerleaders and drill teams all over southern California; it was a big business for us."

Read more about this awesome interview with Steve Van Doren here.

One thing that seems pretty obvious about the Vans brand is that it all started as a small company in Southern California, and that is perhaps why they have come to represent a culture of people. I am originally from So-Cal, as are my parents. We are often characterized as being laid-back hippies who surf everyday, skate to school, eat lots of tacos, smoke pot and listen to Bob Marley and Led-Zeppelin.

Now while this is very true, one thing that stands the test of time, and perhaps pulls us away from such stereotypes, is our footwear. My parents are separated, thank God, and my dad lived in Los Angeles while my mom lived in San Bernadino. Every weekend I'd visit my dad and we'd go to Venice Beach, or the Culver City Ice Rink and there would be a sunny happy vibe of innocence. As cheesy as it sounds, the nostalgia of my childhood dwells within the soles of my Vans. To me, my Vans aren't just cool shoes. They are a brilliant piece of history.

If you saw Catherine Hardwicke's "Lord's of Dogtown," (and who-the-fuck hasn't) and also "Dogtown and the Z-Boys," the documentary about the skateboarders that gave Vans its reputation, then you understand the what I refer to as "the look."
This look is an acutely cultivated aesthetic.
Ripped jeans, long blonde hair, worn in vans and no shirt. Yeah, being in Venice every weekend and watching these two incredible films (one of which was financed by Vans itself) having indeed secured me with a "type" of guy that is particularly attractive to me.
But this archetype isn't new candy. I asked my dad about his history with Vans and what it was like to be a Vans customer in the "golden era" of Vans, when Vans were a new item and still independently owned.
He had told me his mother, my abuela, dragged him and his brothers to the closest Vans store, which happened to be in Venice.

My dad had to choose between three colors at the time: blue, red and yellow. He wanted black, which was not an option until a few years later, but went with blue instead. At the time, Vans were fairly cheap in price, which is why they were the perfect option for my family, "It was all she could afford," my father tells me, referring to my abuela. My dad tells me that in high school he was a total vato, and it wasn't until he noticed all the "hot Asian chicks" flocking to the surfer dudes with sun bleached hair and worn Vans that my dad decided to switch up his personal style. I mention to him that I love the look of a worn in sneaker, and this is true. I hate looking down at my new pair of kicks and seeing no holes, no scuffs, no dirt. Apparently I am not the only one; my dad tells me that people with "new" Vans were teased, and the dudes and chicks with holes in their Vans were the gods and goddesses of Venice High. My dad would relish when his older brother, my tio,would notice a tear in his Vans and pass them onto my dad.
My dad tells me about how when picking his shoes for basic training in the Marine Corps he bought a pair of purple and white checkerboard slip-ons. He got the weirdest looks among his fellow paratroopers, but I'm sure he would have fit in perfectly on the beach.

Vans legendary history spans decades and styles: Today Vans are worn by everyone. From rappers, to fashion bloggers, to business men and magazine editors. There is a Vans style for everyone.

Especially since Vans keeps tradition alive with the options to customize eras, authentics, slip ons, sk8-his, backpanks and even hats.

Today, and everyday, we celebrate the amazing journey of Vans, and the amazing adventures we take in our Vans.