Hello Charlie ! As my first blog article, I have decided to talk to you about Vans, a very important american brand in todays fashion and one of my favorites.
The Vans brand was created the 16 of May 1966 in California by the brothers Van Doren and Gordon Lee under the name "The Van Doren rubber Company ". On that day, 12 pairs of shoes were sold for less than US5$. In the 1970s, Mark Van Doren, the son of the president and co-owner of the brand, designed the logo as a stencil to be spray painted onto his skateboard. Because of his son's love for skateboarding, James decided to manufacture skateboarding shoes.
The logo "Off the wall" was created in 1976 ("Off the wall" is a slang word for a skateboard trick on the side of an empty swimming pool). During that year, they also added the vans-side strip to the side of the pairs of shoes.
During that time, the very recognisable checker-board pattern came to life after the owners saw that skaters customised the sole of their shoes with that same pattern.
In 1984, the company had to lower their prices because of other brands making knock-off copies of their shoes. In 1988, the Van Doren brothers and Gordon Lee decided to sell Vans to the banking firm McCown De Leeuw & Co. for US$74.4million.
In the 1990s, the company released a number of new models and snowboard shoes. In 2004, Vans announced that they would merge into North Carolina-based VF Corporation. For the 50th anniversary of the brand (in 2016), the brand changed it's logo.
I have decided to talk about Vans because I find these shoes very confortable and stylish. I personally just have the high ankle original shoes but they're my favorite pair of shoes. I hope you liked reading my article ! Don't hesitate to leave comments to give me your opinion.
Goodbye !
Since I myself am a big fan of this brand, I had to read, and comment your article... SO thank you Camille ;)
ReplyDeleteWell, I loved your article and even though I don’t wear shoes from this brand, I particularly like this kind of shoes since I wear Converse… I like that you talked about where “Off the wall” comes from, I always wondered how this could make sense and you brought the explanation to me (I hadn’t the intelligence to search for it apparently) so, thank you… I also loved to learn the rest and especially why the brand is made for skateboarders since I wondered about it as well…
ReplyDeleteThank you Camille for this article, I really like this brand, especially the logo but I never thought about doing research on its history ;) I only have a pair of vans too, but I agree with you they are very comfortable
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your article I learned a lot about Vans, so thank you. Even if personally Vans isn't my favourite shoe brand...
ReplyDeletethank you for this article, i find it very intersting and learned a lot, i even enjoyed learning some informations about this brand even though i don't like it hahah
ReplyDeletehi Camille, thank because it's always so interesting and surprising to discover the beginnings of a now so big and important brand like vans
ReplyDeletehey Camille, that's actually really cool that you opened up our eyes on the history of this brand. I never knew they had changed the logo and that the phrase "Off the wall" came to them because Mark Van Doren was a simple fan of skateboard.
ReplyDeleteI have never worn those shoes but that did not forbid me from finding your article very intresting!!. That glimpse into the creation of this brand is such a good idea. I would have never thought that such well-known shoes would have started at such a cheap price. I also really like the explanation of the 'Vans off the walls' logo.
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