The Shoe & the Story
Behind every great company there is
story, Vans is one of a generations that has continued to today. When the
beginning of skate boarding began with roller skates nailed to a piece of wood,
who knew it would become one of the most popular extreme sports there is. Who
knew that the small rubber factory owned by two brothers with the last name
Doren would become the widely known icon it is today? The truth is no one knew,
it just catched fire in the 60’s and has been burning bright since then. Anyone
who skates also has a story of how they feel in love with it and the shoes they
ride with. It is a love to the person that never stops even with age. When I
began to skate it was at a young age because I received a board for Christmas
from my father. Under the tree, something I’ve only seen on television, my
first board. He got me this gift because he had roots from it as a child. When
he started it was when skateboarding just started, back when boards had metal
wheels he told me; he was hooked since and now so was I. Now you know the
stories, do you want to learn the history of this icon and the board it took? They
took off in sixty six and have been together since, evolving and changing to
the times.
Skateboarding just like any hobby or
sport takes passion for it, and that’s the one thing that makes the Vans
company stand out of a crowd of businesses. It has the passion for what it does
and the loyal customers they have for over the past forty years they’ve been in
business. Their hardcore skate kids that only wear Vans is what makes them
strong as well as popular with the youth culture. The customer and suppler have
an equal passion for what brought them together; skate-boarding the sport that
influenced generations.
Skateboarding
began like a wildfire and has spread all over the world but where did it start?
The first actual skateboard was just a piece of wood with roller skates nail to
it, nothing like the boards we have today, looked more like scooters with a
push bar. As soon as that part was taken away skateboarding was born. Then it
started to be modified and changed till it looked something like the boards we
see today. It was 1959 when the first derby skateboard went for sale. The
sixty’s came, skateboarding became an overnight success it seemed. The demand
for these skateboards was high and over fifty million were sold just in a three
year period. Then it was in this time period when the Vans story began.
After sport hit big in the sixties a
group of so safety experts claim it to be unsafe, telling parents to stop
purchasing boards causing skateboarding to go into its first slump. This would
not be the last.
Even though put through a slump, skateboarding
rose again like a phoenix in the ashes. The 70’s was a time period of rebirth
for the style of skateboarding and the board itself. New levels of skating were
being discovered and Vans story had just begun. This is about the time empty
swimming pools began to be used by skaters for the first time. Also the same
time the first stars of skating rise from the others. People like Tony Alva,
Stacey Peralta, and Jay Adam; heroes of skateboarding to the pros we have
today. The craze of the skating in California gave the Vans Company a name
among the youth, “It became the skateboard shoe of choice, beginning the
company’s long, and devoted, association with the sport” (FundingUniverse).
This was just the beginning of the icon.
As the eighties came to be the
skateboarding culture went into a more underground sport taking skaters to
homemade ramps and other places that were seen as unlivable in the past. The
ways of skating went to the streets and became more edgy to the public’s eye.
This was also a heavy time for Vans, for other companies making their shoes
cheaper in other countries selling cheap imitations of Vans forcing the company
into bankruptcy. So then the current Chief of Vans James Van Doren let his
brother Paul Van Doren take control of the company. Paul pulled Vans out of bankruptcy
saving the company. It was tough times for the company but they somehow made it
out by new investors and getting back to their original roots they had in the
start of the company. A bright thing about this era with the new skating stars
that came from it, most from young ages but with extreme skating skills, people
like Tony Hawk and Steve Caballero; pros that still skate and are known today
by many. Though tough times for both skateboarding and Vans both have to
survived and improved to today.
The 90’s was the era where
everything went to the masses and became the extreme sport and the icon we see
today. Vans coming back from the bankruptcy was sold to a banking firm but kept
Paul Van Doren as the chairman of Vans. Also sales for Vans just kept rising as
the cheap imitations of Vans were shut down by officials. Of course the X-Games
had something to do with the increasing sales for Vans. The X-Games put
skateboarding in a good view and exposed it to millions of people. This
increased the trend of skating clothes, and footwear was what went up the
most. In 1998 according to Transworld
Business survey shoes represented more than a quarter of the shares. Both skateboarding and Vans Inc. had an
excellent process of new changes that improved both.
Now the story of the iconic shoe
brand and the extreme sport is where we are now but continues to evolve
together as the years pass by. Vans growth is now larger than it has ever been
with the loyal customers of the 21th century. Many youth of today are dictated
customers to Vans as they are dictated skaters. As the skate the pipe, the
ramps, pools, and take their world to the street to express themselves like
they cannot in any other way. Over forty years of history has lead up to this
moment where Vans and skateboarding are known side by side continuing what
started in 66’.
