On March 16th 1966 Vans founder,Paul Van Doren, and three other partners opened the first Vans shop where shoes were made during the day and ready to be picked up in the afternoon. In the early 1970s skateboarders fell in love with the shoe and it quickly became the shoe of choice for many skateboarders. Vans got the name “off the wall” from a saying in the 1970s when skating bowls because they were actually getting off the wall! When Vans made their first official skate shoe in March 18th 1976 the name “off the wall” had its own logo and was put on all skate shoes. Paul Van Doren was born in 1930 and Vans was took over by James Van in 1976. Vans started in Southern California. Paul Van Doren had a dream and Vans was the result of making his dream possible. Paul Van Doren was 14 and soon realized that school was not for him so his mother made him get a job at a shoe factory. He later became executive vice president of the company and the owner, Randy, had a task for him to shape up one of the factories that was losing over 1 million dollars a month. Within 8 months the factory was making more money than the main headquarters in boston. That is when he decided to start his own shoe company, Vans. |
http://www.vans.net.au/wawcs0130206/History.html
http://thevansblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/ask-steve-van-doren.html
https://prezi.com/iv5yxnxhpist/history-of-vans-off-the-wall/
http://sneakers.about.com/od/brands/p/Vans.htm