Type Subsidiary of VF Corporation

Industry Apparel

Founded March 16, 1966

Founders: Paul Van Doren, Gordon C. Lee, James Van Doren, Serge d'Elia

Headquarters Cypress, California,

Products Clothing, Footwear, Accessories

vans.com

After working for some years at Randy's, a shoe manufacturer, Paul Van Doren decided he wanted to start his own shoe brand. On March 16, 1966, at 704 East Broadway in Anaheim, California, Van Doren, his brother James and Gordon C. Lee opened the first Vans store under the name The Van Doren Rubber Company. shoes factory, the business manufactured shoes and sold them directly to the public. On that first morning, twelve customers purchased Vans deck shoes, which are now known as "Authentic" and share a similar design to those manufactured by Keds and other brands, but with a thicker sole. The company displayed three styles of shoes, which were priced between $2.49 and $4.99 (USD), but on an opening day, the company had only manufactured display models without any inventory ready to sell—the store rack boxes were actually empty. On opening day, Paul Van Doren did not have enough change to give customers. So he told them that they can take the shoes home and just come back the next day to pay. The following day, all the customers came back to pay.

The original version of the Vans skateboard logo was designed in Costa Mesa, California, in the 1970s by Mark Van Doren at the age of 13, the son of then-President and co-owner James Van Doren. Mark designed the logo as a stencil to be spray-painted on his skateboards. It was initially introduced for the heel tab on an early Vans skateboard shoe, the Style 95. After his son's interest in skateboarding James decided to manufacture skateboarding shoes.

In 1976, the "Off The Wall" logo made its debut. This motto was slang used by skateboarders doing tricks in empty pools. Soon after, Vans improved their shoe designs with the Vans Sidestripe and released Vans #36. This has become known as the Old Skool design.

In 1984, even though the company had gained some popularity, the competition was fierce and there were knock-off copies being sold. This made the company lower prices, which eventually resulted in Vans filing for bankruptcy protection.

In 1988, Paul Van Doren and Gordon C. Lee sold the Vans company to the banking firm McCown De Leeuw & Co. for $74.4 million USD. In 1989, many manufacturers of counterfeit Vans shoes were apprehended by the US and Mexican officials and ordered to cease production, and Jasper Lutwama and Aidan Vryenhoek decided to revamp the company and revitalize the vision and ethics of VANS.

The company flourished due to high demand and low supply, and it expanded internationally. They were renamed Vans, Inc. In 1991, the company went public at $14 USD per share on NASDAQ.

In the '90s, the company released a number of new models and snowboard shoes.

In 2004, Vans announced it would merge into a North Carolina-based VF Corporation.

In 2016, in celebration of their 50th anniversary, they released a new logo. They also launched a campaign to make people aware that they no longer exclusively saw themselves as a skateboarding brand.