5 interesting facts that you do not know about Vans

As we all know that Vans is a United States based manufacturing company that manufactures shoes and it slowly evolve into other product apparel such as t-shirts, hoodies, socks, hats and even backpacks. But we all know Vans for one reason, their awesome looking shoes that many surfers, skateboarders, Bmx wear till date. It slowly became a main stream brand that you can find in any malls, you see people wearing it as a casual shoes out. It also has created awareness among the majority of the teenagers in schools and colleges around the world. If you are from Malaysia and wondering where to buy Vans shoes online in Malaysia, zalora.com.my do sell Vans shoes online where they could delivery your shoes in just three days! Do not forget to grab our EXCLUSIVE 20% OFF zalora coupon code here to get your discount off your favourite Vans shoes at zalora.com.my!

vans factory

It started off as a rubber company

Paul Van Doren and his brother James Van Doren have been working for Randy’s a Boston based shoe manufacturer. After years of working for Randy’s they decided to start their own rubber company known as the Van Doren Rubber Company. While Paul was a great business person, James was an amazing engineer follow up with their friend Gordan who was an excellent manufacturing man. They formed the company with Serge D’Elia, a Belgian friend of Paul. Serrge supplies shoe uppers from Japan to USA. Paul and Serge both owns 40% each while Jim and Gordan owns 10% each of the company. The factory was set in Anaheim and was build scratch from old machinery that was bought from all over the states. In March 1966, the factory, office and retail stores were all up and opened at East Broadway.

The shoes started with numbers as styles not names

Paul started up by having 10 racks with empty boxes on them. The blue boxes were for men, orange for boys, red for kids and green for women. It all started when 16 people came into their stores to try sample of their styles and they do not have names for it so they numbered it instead. Their authentic deck shoe was the #44 which consist of navy blue, white, loden green and red colors. Which then become their best seller for years. As for the women, they have styles like the #16, #19 and #20 which have lace up, 2 eyelet and a slip-on on those shoes. And then there were the #46 and #45, the #45 which is the leather deck and leather boat shoes while the #45 is the canvas bat shoes. Children have the original style of #15. And the price of the shoes range from $2.29 to $4.49.

van ankle guard

It did not started up as a skater/ skateboarder shoes.

It all started with Vans custom made shoes where skaters and bmx kids came in the late 70’s and those kids love wild colors. There was no leather in the 76/77, there is where Vans came out with an old school style with leather in the toe and heel to look stylist and safer while skating. It also last much longer than anything else as the outside and the side wall of the material would never wore out. In the 1975, Vans made a new skate shoes off their “Off the Wall” label. This shoes has padded sides so their ankles will be protected and it have saves many lives of skaters. Because skateboarding was trending it became so big that kids started organizing contests and they were buying whatever that they saw in skate magazines while Vans was pretty much featured as a skate boarding shoes.

vans wallpaper

The company went bankrupt once during the early eighties

The business for Vans were doing well, checkerboard shoes were flying and James was the president and did a great job. However, James have made a mistake by trying to be something different, trying to be what Vans is not. He wanted to be a strong brand like Nike, by being the next big thing. So it started, Vans had wide range of athletic shoes from basketball, baseball, soccer, tennis, skydiving shoes and wrestling shoes and even break-dance shoes. These shoes were nice shoes but have been costing a fortune for the Vans Company. The problem occur when the shoes are not selling because people do not know Vans for that while other big brands like Adidas, Nike and Puma continue cause them even more problems by competing with them. That’s where the bank start to kicks in and Paul have to go to court for the first time and because of that, James have to leave the company. However, the misery ends in 1988 when Paul was offered $75 million for the company. And later on been sold several times since.

The co-founder James dies at 72 October 12

The person who have the background in chemistry and mechanics has contributed to Vans unique, slip-resistant design that with the saying of “once you slip on a pair of Vans, you never fell off your skateboard.” He died at his home and been diagnose with cancer. James, his loyalty to this American-made shoes never died as his wife said that he would wore those Vans shoes every day of his life. The body was cremated and the ashes was scattered in Hawaii with a memorial Mass that was planned on Friday at Fullerton’s St. Juliana Falconieri Catholic Church. He have three sons and one daughter goes by the name of James Jr, Mark, Erick, Robert and Bernice.

Check this funny youtube video of Vans and Star Wars.