Vans
Vans Authentic
The original 1966 deck shoe that skaters claimed as their own.
Year Released
1966
Silhouette
Low
Category
Skateboarding
About
Vans' very first shoe, originally called the Style 44, debuted on March 16, 1966, when Paul Van Doren, his brother James, and Gordon Lee opened the Van Doren Rubber Company's first store in Anaheim, California. Unlike other footwear brands, Vans manufactured and sold shoes directly to customers on-site; on opening day, twelve people bought the deck shoe, a design similar to Keds but built with a thicker sole. Its waffle-pattern outsole came about almost by accident: after Paul Van Doren noticed the original diamond tread cracking at the ball of the foot, he added extra lines to reinforce it, creating the pattern that remains a Vans signature today. The shoe's sturdy canvas upper and grippy rubber sole made it an unlikely favorite among Southern California skateboarders in the early 1970s, who adopted it well before Vans marketed to the scene directly. Later renamed the Authentic, it remains Vans' simplest and longest-running silhouette, and the direct ancestor of nearly every low-top the brand has released since.
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