Vans — The Shoe That Grew Up With BMX

Legend Bike Co · BMX heritage series · told by Bill Ryan

Most of the brands in BMX started with a frame. Vans started with a rubber sole. A shoe company out of Anaheim, family-run, mixing its own glue — and somehow that little deck shoe ended up on the feet of half the kids who ever dropped into a ramp. I know, because I spent years of my life with a Vans ramp parked out front of my shop. But let me back it up to where it actually starts.

Anaheim, 1966 — twelve pairs the first day

On March 16, 1966, two brothers — Paul and Jim Van Doren — opened a little storefront at 704 East Broadway in Anaheim with two partners, Gordon Lee and Serge Delia. They called it The Van Doren Rubber Company. Here's the part that made them different. They didn't just sell shoes. They made them right there, in the back, and sold them out the front the same day.

Day one, twelve customers walked in and bought a pair of the #44 deck shoe — the one everybody now calls the Authentic. Story goes the shop didn't even have inventory or change in the register, so people took their shoes home and came back the next day to pay. That's how small it started. A family, a back room, and a sticky sole.

The waffle — why the sole mattered

The whole thing came down to the bottom of the shoe. Vans built their soles thick, out of vulcanized rubber, with that grippy waffle tread. It wasn't built for fashion. It was built to grab. And that's exactly the thing skateboarders needed — a sole that locked onto a board and didn't wear through in a week.

By the early 1970s, kids were riding skateparks all over Southern California in Vans, just because the shoe worked. Vans didn't chase that crowd. The crowd came to them. The #95 — now the Era — got designed in 1976 with input from Tony Alva and Stacy Peralta, two of the biggest skaters alive at the time. The #36 Old Skool landed in 1977 with that side stripe — a doodle Paul Van Doren drew that turned into the most recognized mark in action-sports footwear. Funny how the best logos are accidents.

Where BMX comes in

Same sole that grabbed a skateboard grabbed a pedal. So BMX kids were on Vans early, for the same plain reason — the shoe held. Vans says it straight in their own history: the Classic Slip-On, the #98, became the rage in Southern California “with the help of skateboarders and BMX riders.” We were in there from the start, riding the same shoe as the skate kids, often the same parks.

Then Vans started paying to keep freestyle alive before anybody knew it was a sport. In the summer of 1981, when Bob Haro took his trick team national on the first Haro Freestyle Tour — three months, 18,000 miles crammed in a van — it was Vans and Oakley footing the bill. Nobody was racing. Nobody was competing for anything. They were inventing a job that didn't exist, and Vans was one of the brands writing the checks. That tour is a straight line to everything freestyle became. You can read the whole thing on our Haro chapter.

My years with the Vans Freestyle Team

This is where I come in. I ran the Vans Freestyle Promotion Team in 1988 and 1989. The riders were Eddie Fiola, Todd Anderson — who was my roommate at the time — and Danny Hubbard. We put on shows. We rode ramps. We carried the Vans name out to crowds who'd never seen freestyle in person.

The ramp and the truck lived at my house. Parked out front of my shop, Power Plus Cycles, right there where everybody could see it. That was the deal back then — you didn't have a fleet and a warehouse. You had a ramp in your yard and a truck you loaded up and drove to the next show. Eddie Fiola was already one of the best ramp riders in the world. Todd and Danny could ride. And the three of them wearing the Vans name meant something, because the shoe was already on every kid's feet anyway.

I'll tell you something about that era. It wasn't corporate. It was a shoe company that got it. They didn't try to dress freestyle up into something it wasn't. They just put their name on the side of a truck and let us go ride.

The shoe goes mainstream — and survives

In 1982 Sean Penn pulled on a pair of checkerboard slip-ons as Spicoli in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and the whole country saw the shoe at once. The checkerboard — another pattern Vans lifted straight off kids who were already drawing it on their own shoes — went from a Southern California thing to a coast-to-coast thing overnight.

Then it almost ended. In 1984, between heavy competition and a flood of counterfeits, Vans filed for Chapter 11. Paul Van Doren came back in as president and told the whole company they might not get a raise for three years, and they'd cut back on everything except the quality of the shoe. Read that again. Everything except the quality. That's the line that saved them. They dug out, went public in 1991, and eventually became part of VF Corporation in 2004. But the shoe never got cheaper to make. That's the part that matters.

Vans and BMX today

Vans never let go of the bike side, and these days they're all the way back in. In 2016 they put out Illustrated, their first full-length BMX film. In 2017 they launched the Vans BMX Pro Cup, a global park series, and Larry Edgar took the first world title. In 2022 they ran the BMX Waffle Cup down at the US Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach — named for the sole that started all of it.

The team is stacked — riders like Dennis Enarson and Larry Edgar carry the name now, and Vans builds real signature BMX shoes, like Enarson's Old Skool Pro, made to take the beating that riding hands out. Sixty years on, it's still the same idea: a sole that grabs, on the feet of kids who ride.

The collabs — my brands and Vans, again

The story came full circle for me. We did our first Supercross x Vans shoe drop in 2024, for Supercross BMX's 35th anniversary. Then in 2026 we did the Torker x Vans Old Skool drop, for Torker's 50th anniversary, and a second Supercross x Vans drop that same year. Two BMX names I've poured my life into, on the side of the shoe I had parked out front of my shop forty years ago. You don't plan that. It just lines up if you stay in long enough.

Timeline

• 1966 The Van Doren Rubber Company opens in Anaheim, March 16. The #44 deck shoe — the Authentic — is born.
• early 1970s Skateboarders all over Southern California ride Vans for the grippy sole.
• 1976 The #95 Era, designed with Tony Alva and Stacy Peralta. “Off the Wall” logo debuts.
• 1977 The #36 Old Skool arrives with the side stripe. The #98 Slip-On takes off with skate and BMX riders.
• 1981 Vans and Oakley back the first Haro Freestyle Tour — 18,000 miles of BMX trick shows.
• 1982 The checkerboard slip-on hits the big screen in Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
• 1984 Chapter 11. Paul Van Doren returns and protects the one thing — the quality of the shoe.
• 1988–89 I run the Vans Freestyle Promotion Team — Eddie Fiola, Todd Anderson, Danny Hubbard.
• 2004 Vans merges with VF Corporation.
• 2016 Illustrated, Vans' first BMX film.
• 2017 Vans BMX Pro Cup launches. Larry Edgar wins the first world title.
• 2022 Vans BMX Waffle Cup at the US Open of Surfing.
• 2024 Our first Supercross x Vans shoe drop, for Supercross BMX's 35th anniversary.
• 2026 Torker x Vans Old Skool drop for Torker's 50th anniversary, plus a second Supercross x Vans drop.

Related Legend Bike Co. chapters

Sources

Vans official brand history, “Off The Wall — Since 1966” (vans.com/en-us/about) — founding date and address, the #44/Authentic, the waffle sole, the #36 Old Skool side stripe, the #98 Slip-On “with the help of skateboarders and BMX riders,” the 1984 Chapter 11 and Paul Van Doren's return, the 2016 Illustrated film, the 2017 BMX Pro Cup and Larry Edgar's first title. Wikipedia: “Vans” — the founders Paul and James Van Doren, Gordon Lee and Serge Delia, 704 East Broadway, the twelve first-day customers, the Sean Penn / Fast Times moment, the VF Corporation merger, the 2022 BMX Waffle Cup. Legend Bike Co. Haro chapter (legendbikeco.com/pages/haro-history) — Vans and Oakley backing the 1981 Haro Freestyle Tour. Firsthand, Bill Ryan: running the Vans Freestyle Promotion Team for Eddie Fiola, Todd Anderson, and Danny Hubbard; the ramp and truck stored at his house and parked out front of Power Plus Cycles; and the Supercross x Vans and Torker x Vans Old Skool collaborations.