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VANS Global Media Summit

February 04, 2025

In 1977, Vans released the first edition of their Old Skool shoe, originally known as “Style 36.” The shoe—a low-top sneaker instantly recognizable to anyone who has spent time around skaters, musicians, or the residents of Southern California—has graced the feet of legendary skaters like Stacy Peralta, photographed decades ago in a red suede style, riding through an empty Pomona pool; punk icon Henry Rollins, who posed for goofy portraits in the shoe during his early ‘80s tenure as the lead singer of Black Flag; and even Dame Vivienne Westwood, who collaborated with the company.

The shoe, with its signature long stripe, has been omnipresent at Warped Tour, hip-hop shows, and skate parks for decades. “Still got my Vans on laced up classics,” Bay Area rap group The Pack declared in 2006. “Holla at a bad chick Vans worth magics.”

Text by Jocelyn Silver
Photography Vivian Kim

Over the weekend, Vans presented the Vans Global Summit in Los Angeles, intended to celebrate the launch of their new Premium Old Skool Music Collection. The new shoes—the first batch of which drop on February 6th—celebrate Vans’ long-held connection to the music industry. The first capsule is inspired by 1970s and ‘80s punk, featuring leopard print and solid styles; the second by the ‘90s and Y2K era of Warped Tour, showing the famed Vans checkerboard along with two-tones and flame prints; and a third draws inspiration from 2010s hip-hop, featuring bright, vibrant colorways on gum soles. For the campaign, Vans enlisted musicians that embodied the spirit of the brand, like The Paranoyds and Little Simz. What’s Old Skool is new again.

For the Vans Global Summit, Vans enlisted musicians, skaters, and creatives representing all facets of the brand for a weekend honoring its history and connection to the culture. The celebration kicked off with a dinner at West Hollywood restaurant Great White, featuring the dulcet tones of musician and Vans skate team member Ray Barbee on guitar. Following the serenade, guests were shuttled to Hollywood’s Kohn Gallery, where archivist Catherine Acosta lead press through an immersive exhibition showcasing Vans history, including everything from a note-perfect replica of a teenage boy’s bedroom, to never-before-seen archival imagery of Warped Tour, to unearthed portraits of musicians and skaters, all displayed alongside rare editions of the shoe.

“We’re taking inspiration from hip-hop, street culture, sport culture, and punk culture,” Acosta noted on the tour. “And trying to keep it playful.” She noted that the bedroom replica had everything you might expect, except for, crucially, “the actual smell of a teenage boy.”

Next up was a panel, where Acosta interviewed artist and musician Jahlil Nzinga (a founding member of The Pack), iconic drummer and producer Travis Barker, Bela Selazar of teen punk band The Linda Lindas, and the one and only Henry Rollins. Upon seeing Rollins, this reporter hyperventilated and needed to fan herself, but only a little and hopefully not in such a way that interrupted others’ viewing experiences.

Barker hails from Fontana, California, where he was immersed in rap and hardcore music from an early age. “In Fontana, the only shoe store we knew about was a Vans shoe store, where you could go to customize your Vans,” he said. “They were the first shoes I ever walked in.”

Acosta highlighted how Nzinga’s music with The Pack drew attention to the connection between hip-hop and skateboarding. “2006 was a hell of a year,” he said with a laugh. “Vans was for skateboarders. And I would look at skateboarding magazines and see that I wasn’t alone in this, see other people of color having this experience with skating and the shoes. With Vans, it felt like I could still be fresh to death.”

The panelists and other members of the greater Vans universe all could pinpoint times when they found their style through the company. Pro skater Beatrice Domond, who has designed her own shoes for Vans, has been wearing them ever since she can remember. Her Mary Janes-style Vans collection serves as a tribute to Haiti, where her mother and grandmother are from. “In my culture, you dress well,” she told office. “I was raised to dress up!”

Growing up in Miami, Domond “wanted to look like a skateboarder.”

“I wanted to be a skateboarder,” she said. “And from what I knew, Vans were what skateboarders wore, that's what they looked like.” The first pair of shoes she ever bought with her own money were a pair of Vans blue high-tops.

The Global Summit repeatedly demonstrated how Vans are organically connected to numerous subcultures and scenes, a thread (or shoelace) tying radically different communities together. They’re for the unique, and unique themselves (no two pairs of Vans are exactly alike), and thus perfectly suited to alteration. Teenagers have been leaning over their desks to color in their Vans checkerboard patterns for as long as the shoes have been available. As a nod to that history of personalization, for the day following the panel, Vans enlisted artist and designer Nicole McLaughlin to lead a customization workshop. McLaughlin—famed for sustainable, quirky projects that surprise and delight, like vests concocted from edible bread and heels constructed from old electronics—lead the group in adding vintage charms and strips of fabric to their Old Skools.

“Vans are like the perfect blank canvas, because they're simple enough that you can add things to them so that they feel like you, but they also have enough personality to stand on their own, too,” she told office. McLaughlin, whose own release with Vans was inspired by gardening totes, pocket included at the toe, has also worn the shoes since childhood.

“When I was 10 years old, I had the checkerboard slip-ons, and I colored in all of the squares, and my mom got mad that I colored the whole shoe in,” she said, laughing. “But it's funny, because that was literally the very first pair of shoes that I decided to customize.” The first of very, very many.

After McLaughlin’s workshop, during which this writer displayed a profound lack of motor skills (I was unable to attach a single charm to my shoes, but I was very proud when she complimented my charm selection), famed graffiti artist Chito conducted a live performance, tagging shoes and their boxes. Chito, known for his trademark dog illustration, has been tagging for decades, and has released several fashion collaborations with brands like Supreme and Arc’teryx. Observers gathered around his table, gently huffing in the smell of spray paint, as the master worked, writing out the words “Bad Idea” with a silver marker. It was a good joke, though letting Chito customize dozens of pairs of Vans could only be a good idea. Everyone lunged to get their own boxes.

To finish out the weekend, Vans held a raucous party at the Kohn Gallery, with performances from the band Horsegirl and hip-hop duo Paris Texas. Rollins DJed, too. “For me, Vans always spoke to alt culture and alt ways of thinking,” he said on the panel. “It’s a sub-language. You see someone in those shoes, and you know they’re onto something. And that’s how I’ve approached all of the things that I do. I’m not trying to be like everyone else. I’m doing it in my own screwed up way.”