Happy 45th Anniversary Vans!

We’re a few days late, but back in 1966, on March 16th, in sunny Southern California, Paul Van Doren opened the very first “factory-to-you” retail store, where he manufactured “made-to-order” canvas deck shoes, all made in-house, from beginning to end.  The Vans history is long, and rich, with it’s share of ups and downs, but this was where the vision started.  They started with the style#44, aka the Authentic, and it is still the most popular Vans style today.

“Vans joined the select few companies since 1900 producing vulcanised deck shoes for boating, was then infamously adopted by the dogtown crew who henceforth revolutionised skateboarding forever, entered the 80s ‘checkerboard era’ shortly followed by a checkered history after filing chapter 11, an ownership change, moving production to the east… before shifting seamlessly into the marketing giant they exist as as of march 16 2011. although in my heart of hearts i know sacrifices were made to the end product in moving production offshore in 1994, the brand is much bigger than that & it is this legacy & the narrative that vans shoes embody that has changed the face of youth subculture & remains timeless.”, –theothersideofthepillow blog

A special shout-out goes to the folks over at theothersideofthepillow for sharing this info with us, and also OTWS member erwin for giving the heads up!

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