Business folk trust the theory that if they develop the perfect product we, the customer will stick with it for life. How many of us actually do that? From washing up liquid, chain lube on our bikes, wetsuits, surfboards, football boots, sunglasses, cameras, clothing, and even cars, many buy once and never look back? I remember showing my students a video of a supermarket owner that says he treated his customers like the £50,000 customer. He provided a limited line of the best products, the best customer services and they keep them coming back each week, every year.  If they spend £100 a week, thats £5k a year, over ten years you have a £50k customer. Create thousands of those, the rest is in the bank! It makes sense so I thought I’d write a few words about how I might not be a 50k customer, but one brand found me and I never left. I also had a bit of fun doing a collage one evening to add something to the words. 

When the  BMX boom arrived on our shores, I used to call it poor man’s Motocross.  I must have been eleven, possibly twelve years old when BMX took over my life and I got my first taste of a brand that had a impact on my life in terms of what I put on my feet. I didn’t know it then, but I would be loyal to Vans shoes to this day. 

I have this really vivid memory of my parents taking me to a little shop at Five Ways in Brighton and they bought me my first pair.  I recently asked a good friend and legendary Brighton Skater, Jock Paterson, who actually lived at Five Ways, if he remembered a skate or bike shop. He can only remember a bicycle repair shop there back in the very early 80’s, so that must have been the shop that started it all. 

The iconic Californian skate brand, born out of beach culture in 1966, with the famous waffle soul and the canvas uppers had already been around for fifteen years before I even got a pair, and a culture was built wearing these shoes. Back in the early 80’s, as far as I was concerned, if you had a pair of vans, you just felt ‘rad’. I walked out of that shop with my parents, proudly grasping my iconic Vans box, the red and white box with the logo for all to see. Inside a pair of brand new, red white and black chequered Vans, I was so stoked. As soon as I got home, they were quickly on my feet, I grabbed my my bike and went riding, jumping and generally racing around. As the years passed, my feet grew as they do and I remained loyal to that brand. The shoes worn by so many skaters including the Z-Boys of Dogtown, the famous BMX racers, BMX freestyle riders with all the multitude of colour way shoes and outfits, the 80s was a cool time to be wearing Vans. 

Inspiration to ride and race also came through the images in the magazines, the races teams like Redline, Diamond Back, Kuwahara and GT were everywhere and Hutch, Robinson, JMC and Skyway wore the red, white and blue. The matching outfits, the race pants, race jerseys, crash helmets everything looked so rad. Vans had so many colour combinations; simple plain colour way, stripes, and checks, whatever colour you can think of Vans we’re doing it. The logo also drew me in. The little tab on the side of your shoes and the red one on the heal. The little sticker you’d get with your Vans was like a perfect little gift that required time and patience when considering where to ‘stick it’, you didn’t want to waste it, you only got one.

At 56 years old I’m still wearing Vans, I’ve never stopped wearing them and I always will. Every time I open the box I still look for the sticker, but sadly they’ve take it away and as far as I know, the boxes are less iconic now, just brown and very understated. I suppose that’s ‘cost cutting’ in a world of corporate finance and profit maximisation. Vans has been through many changes, ups and downs, and near misses, but just ask those true to this great brand and they’ll tell you that when they put them on their feet, Vans are still the best.

A recent article on social media from GQ said ‘Vans were now cool again’. Excuse me?!! They were never not cool. I always bought Vans thinking they were cool, but I also bought them because I knew that they were the best for the job, racing and riding BMX. We were influenced by real athletes and in some ways I still am. The superstars of our favourite sports, not a fashion journalist that’s is matching shoes to their summer outfit. People loyal to Vans don’t buy them because GQ magazine says it’s cool to wear the brand again; a true skater, BMX rider or dirt jumper just want good shoes. Yes fashions change, styles change, and I’ve not liked every style of shoe that Vans has ever produced, but when I walked out of that shop in 1980 with my first pair, I felt like I was part of the family and since that day I’ve never left. In fact, my latest shoes are the BMX specific shoes called the ‘Peak’ and although I’m not racing BMX anymore, I’m still jumping bikes, riding pump tracks, or bike parks often in my high tops. 

I’ve owned so many styles; Authentic, Eras, style #36, #44, the #98 slip ons, high tops, mid tops, half cabs, new school, old school, pink and blue teddy bears, camouflage, stars and stripes. I’ve had newer models like the MTE1, 2 and 3 models, Tony Truillos and AV models,  chucker highs and low, I’ve even had wetsuit boots which I destroyed very quickly. Only briefly in the 90s did I dabble in any other brand? I had two pairs of Etnie’s and a couple pairs of Airwalks, but that didn’t last long. 

So why do I love Vans? I love the fact that surfers like Joel Tudor have been loyal to Vans for decades and they’ve been loyal to him. Skater Steve Caballero not only skates, but rides moto and is also mad about mountain bikes now. As an 11-year-old boy I was inspired by a brand that just got it right, they were born from the beach and ended up on the BMX tracks, the streets, the skate bowls and back to the beach. To this day my bikes are chrome and titanium, and covered in red and blue components, my little throwback to the 1980s BMX teams that always got me so inspired. Each one of those teams and each team rider all wore a pair of red or blue vans, chequered or plain. I’m not sure what it is with brand loyalty, but there’s some strength in a brand that keeps you coming back year after year, without fail. 

Vans believe in the communities too. They put back into competitions skating, BMX, surfing and snowboarding. They supported some of the coolest events and in the 90s notably the Vans Warped  Tour with the hottest US punk bands playing to thousands of young stoked kids. They’ve taken over old swimming pools and turned them into BMX parks, they brought the coolest surfing events to our screens like the Vans Triple Crown and the Vans Duct Tape, and last year a young Mountain Biker dropped into RedBull Rampage in a pair of baggy jeans and black slip-ons, there are rad people out there doing rad things wearing Vans.  

So despite what fashion magazines write or wannabe influencers put out there, I’ll wear them anyway thanks. I’m into my fifth decade of wearing Vans and I’m always waiting to find that next pair. There are thousands of people like me, but they are the true collectors who ride, skate, and surf, those deeply into the brand, and they will have their reasons too. A sponsored athlete might get a better deal, free shoes, stickers on their boards and bikes, but when the contract is up, next week be wearing another brand.  Not us, we’re ’Down for Life’ as the saying goes.

Thank you Vans and I hope you continue keeping kids stoked even if they are 56 years old. 

Yes I’ve been slack on the blog front. I’ve got things I’m writing but they seem to be taking me an age and coming home from work cold and little bit knackered is not helping. One piece though has required a tiny bit of local knowledge to get my facts straight so that’s coming this weekend. Anyway, I couldn’t leave it any longer so here’s Beau Miles again. Planting more trees on his quest to reforest and help save the planet. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Beau Miles is pure entertainment.