Vans
VANS: AMERICAN SPORTS FOOTWEAR COMPANY, FOUNDED BY PAUL VAN DOREN
Paul Van Doren left school in 1944 at the age of 14. He raced horses and followed the races under the nickname “Dutch the Clutch”. Paul’s mother Rena insisted on a job at Randy’s, a shoe manufacturer. The job consisted of cleaning floors and making shoes. Over the years, Paul became head of the company, Executive Vice President at the age of 34. Randy’s became one of the largest shoe manufacturers in the USA under the leadership of Van Doren in Massachusetts. The Randy’s factory in Garden Grove, California was losing a million dollars a month so Paul and his brother Jim moved to Anaheim to take over the factory. After only eight months the Gardenvale factory was rebuilt. After three months Paul decided to start producing shoes on his own.
Vans, initially specialising in surf and skateboard shoes, opened their first flagship shop in 1966 in California. Then, during the 1980s, it launched other lines for sports such as baseball, basketball and football. In 1988, it was sold to the McCown DeLeeuw Co., which created a strong distribution network to promote the shoes internationally.
In 2004, Vans was acquired by the US clothing giant VF Corporation: Steve Murray became the company’s new president. This marked the start of a re-launch of Vans, which was driven by sporty values, linked to the outdoors and street life. In 2008, in this context, the collaboration with the artist Keren Richter began, who created a line of shoes in the name of Californian cool style.
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