What You Need to Know about Van's

A Quick History of The Vans Rubber Company

The Vans Shoe Company was founded on March 16 1966. Vans was founded by Paul Van Doren. Paul grew up in Boston, and dropped out in 8th grade. His mother insisted that he get a job, so he began working at Randys shoes, where he got his start in the industry. Through a sequence of events of the next 20 years, Bob found his way to California, where he and three other men split the ownership. Over the next year they set up the manufacturing plant using old equipment they found from all over the U.S. At this point, only 3 other shoe companies with Vulcanized rubber existed. There was Randy's, Ked's, and Converse. Now there were Vans. The rest is history.

Why are Van's Popular?

Paul Van Doren has even admitted that global expansion of Van's came from a lucky break. A student was spotted drawing lines on his rubber soul canvas shoes. This inspired the classic "checkerboard" design.Van's made a few patterns of this design. Suddenly a young actor named Sean Penn wore the design in a new movie called "Fast Times at Ridgemont High." The "checkerboard" design turned into a phenomenon. At this point Van's made every make and color combination they could.