In the Desert with Curren Caples x Vans

office had the opportunity to trek across the country and enter Caples’ world firsthand. From chandeliers held up by cranes in the desert, to the sparkling serenity of the wave pool, we had the chance to see inside Caples’ brain— all while getting to see him in action. To have the honor of creating your own signature sneaker with a company you’ve been a pro skater with since the age of twelve, we sat down with the prodigy to get some insight into this part of his career.

Continue reading below to find out the inspiration behind the sneaker, the fragrance, and his thoughts on combining fashion and skating.

How's it going?

It's going good.

Good!

It's going to be a long couple of days.

And you're here until when?

I'm here until the 16th.

Okay, cool. How's your day been so far?

It's been mellow. Interviews describing my shoe. [Laughs]

Well, this is going to be another one! [Laughs]

No, it's all good. I'm ready for it.

How has it been working with Vans and what's that partnership been like?

It's been good. I started skateboarding for Vans when I was, I think, 12 years old. I've been with them for a long time now. I think it's coming up on 17 years.

17 years? That's sick!

I'm almost 30 now. So it’s been a long road together and the opportunity to have a shoe with them has always been a dream of mine. When that became a reality, it was pretty scary. When you go to design a shoe, you're kind of reinventing the wheel a little bit because so much has been done. It's also Vans' legacy and what they're known for in their shoes and the shoes that I have grown up skating in. It's scary to put your name onto something and then have to wear it, be proud of it, and like the way it looks when you look down at your feet. But yeah, it came out as good as I could ever imagine.

Nice! What was it like working with the team to make the sneaker?

It was pretty easy. I mean, everyone at Vans is really cool and they all come from skating. They get it and they know what I want and how to get there. There was a lot of fine-tuning when it came down to the proportions of the shoe. It's been a cool process and definitely a learning curve as well on shoe design and also structure of shoe and materials and all those kinds of stuff.

Was there any specific inspiration behind the design of it?

So there are three models of shoes that I've always skated. One would be the Authentic, another one would be the Slip-On, and then the Old Skool. Those were the three shoes that I've skated my entire life. And it's kind of scary too, because, in a way, I like those shoes so much that I felt like I didn't know how to make a shoe better than what those already feel like. So it was just diving into figuring out what the shoe is going to look like and then figuring out all the little things to make it as good as possible. Basically, my favorite shoe to wear is the Slip-On just because of the feeling of it, where there's nothing kind of restricting you at all. And that's what I was kind of trying to go for— that feeling of that shoe. Then it was just trying to put that into a shoe that looks like Vans but still has its own design. And that you can also tell it apart from other Vans.

And you made a fragrance too, right?

Yeah.

So what was that about?

The whole fragrance came about because I sent in the idea as a joke... the Johnny Depp Savauge ad.

Oh, no way.

I've always thought that was the funniest ad.

Aw, wait, that one!

It's like driving to the desert. So I sent that in as a joke, and then it kind of just snowballed into meetings without me knowing, and then all of a sudden it's a whole thing. So I just figured going all in on it would be the best thing for it. Let's just make it as funny as possible. And then also might as well just come up with a scent.

So now you have your own Savauge ad.

Pretty much. But it's mainly supposed to be just funny and almost poking fun at the fashion world. I've done DKNY and Wang and stuff and I thought it'd be funny to do something that looks like it, but also skateboarders will understand that it's a joke.

I feel like more recently there's that crossover between skating and fashion. How relevant do you think that kind of crossover is and how do you feel about it?

Personally, I don't really like it. I think that sometimes when stuff like that happens, when high fashion comes into skateboarding, I think that if they don't hire the right people or they're not the right people behind it, it comes off pretty cheesy. That's why I was just trying to make something funny and cheesy.

But do it for yourself in your own way. Because I feel like maybe you don't get a lot of your own voice and your own sayings in these kinds of things. So it's nice that you were able to do this and make it your own.

That was the fun part of it. It's hard to talk about this thing myself, but I think a lot of skateboarders expected me sometimes to maybe go down the fashion road and do more stuff like that. There was that time period in my life where that could have been a road, but I never wanted to do it. And I think that was maybe the reason for this ad and making a joke of it, where it's like I am a skateboarder at the core of it.

What has been the reaction from your skate friends when they saw the video?

I mean, everyone thinks it's pretty funny. There's subtle things that we did for sure, where I was more scared of what skateboarders would have to say about it. And then there were just little things that we did inside. There's hidden jokes in the ad that only a skateboarder would know the reference of.

Cool. Do you have an example?

Yeah. There's this guy, Anthony Van Engelen, who rides for Vans, and he is dragging this big bench, and the bench is very nostalgic in skateboarding. It has this crazy backstory where he made it a long time ago, skated it in his video parts, and then the bench ended up disappearing for years. And then somebody ended up finding it.

It's one of those skate things that if, you know, you know. Do you think there is a standout highlight of your career, Vans aside, that maybe you don't really get to talk about often?

I'm not really sure. I mean, I used to skate contests and stuff, but I never really liked them. I've had highlights over there on that kind of contest world side of winning events. I guess it's maybe to reach the age that I am now and still kind of almost feel like the height of my career has just started. I feel like I've been kind in the limelight of skating since I've been 13 years old. Now I'm almost 30 and kind of now just reaching my peak is kind of what I may be most proud of.

That's cool.

Yeah. It was that classic thing of “peaked in high school.”

But you didn't!

I feel like I'm peaking way later than I thought I would be. If I was to go back in time, I really wouldn't perceive this right now. If somebody was telling me, "Oh yeah, when you're almost 30, you'll get a shoe." I feel like that's really cool.

What is something that you would tell your 13-year-old self now knowing what you do now?

Probably I would say work a little harder. I'm so good at putting stuff off and not caring, but also maybe at the same time that got me to where I am today where it's like the lack of care maybe comes through a little more authentic than being jockey about it.

Cool. I like that, makes sense! And last question is, is there anything exciting happening down the pipeline that you want to talk about?

So I have a video coming out in a month, but it's been like two years of my life pretty much dedicated just to the shoe campaign and everything else leading up to it has been a big part of my life. So once that video comes out, then I can finally feel like I can chill again for a little bit.