VANS

Vans shoes was founded by Paul Van Doren with a simple idea; to make shoes and sell them directly to the public instead of using a middleman. Paul moved west to Southern California with his partners, Jim Van Doren, Gordy Lee and Serge D'Elia. The first official day of business was March 15, 1966, when the first Vans shoe store opened in Anaheim, California. They offered three styles of vans shoes on that first day, but had only made display shoes.
The first Vans old skool shoes had a diamond pattern in the sole across the entire bottom of the shoe. Vertical lines were then added later to make it stronger, a design which is now vans proprietary waffle sole. In 1976, skateboarders and skaters began wearing Vans shoes and asked to have different colours combined on them. In march 19, 1976, Vans came out with the first Era in red and blue vans authentic shoe. This shoe was designed by two professional skaters, Tony Alva and Stacy Peralta. That craze spread across the nation when Jeff Spicoli, a California surfer dude in the hit movie "Fast Times at Ridgemont High", wore a pair of Vans checkerboard slip ons.