Vans Sk8 Hi
In March 1966, the Van Doren Rubber Company opened its doors in Anaheim, California. The family-run business (founded by brothers Paul and James Van Doren), known for its rubber-soled shoes, eventually became Vans.
Today, Vans' 50th birthday blowout is centered around this shoe, the one and only Sk8 Hi. Yes, it’s one of Vans' most distinctive styles — but why put all that focus on the high-top style?? According to Steve Van Doren, son of Paul Van Doren and current vice president of events and promotions at Vans, it’s more about what the Sk8-Hi represents in the history of the company. “It ties into all our tenets: art, music, skating, and street culture," he says.
The Sk8-Hi officially arrived in 1976 and was first called “Style 38,” as Vans used to number its shoes in lieu of properly naming them. But this particular
style's story actually begins with the Old Skool, “Style 36,” and is deeply rooted in the company’s history with skateboarding. Skaters already loved Vans’ sneakers for the rubber soles, but these weren’t expressly designed for the sport. In 1977, that changed with Style 36, which featured a new leather-and-canvas construction that really lent itself to wear and tear. This came out around the same time as the Era, Vans’ first designated skate shoe.
While these releases were a pretty big deal, skateboarders’ experiences with the shoes led the brand to realize there was an important element missing from them: ankle protection. Vans already made separate ankle guards that could be Velcro-ed around the ankles, but there was a need for shoes that accomplished this protection, too. So the brand released its mid-top called Style 37, but that wasn't enough. That’s where the Sk8-Hi comes in. “Skaters liked the padding in the ankle guards (sold separately), so we took that material and designed a high-top with padding.”
For Style 38, Vans kept the two features of the Old Skool that skaters loved:the brand’s signature waffle sole and its canvas-leather construction. The
original Style 38 came in navy blue leather with light blue canvas, cinnamon-hued rust leather on rust canvas, and brown leather on beige canvas.
But wait there's more to the story: "At that time, we knew Adidas had stripes, and we knew that Nike had the swoosh,” Van Doren remembers. “My dad was doodling and he came up with what we call the jazz stripe.” (This slash of color, which came about in the mid-1970s, now adorns the side panels of every Sk8-Hi and Old Skool.) He took it to George Greenwood, Vans’ pattern maker, to incorporate it into the shoe that would become the Sk8-Hi.
Pretty cool when you get to know way more for a sneaker right?
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