Latest / Building Brands with Fexingo: Identity, Reputation, and Long-Term Business Equity / How the Vans Off The Wall Logo Built a Subculture Brand
Transcript
- Lucas: So there is a moment in the late 1970s where a twelve-year-old kid in Southern California buys a pair of canvas slip-ons and draws a checkerboard pattern on them with a felt-tip pen. And that kid is basically doing what thousands of other kids are doing that same year. Luna: A felt-tip pen. That's the origin story of one of the most recognizable patterns in footwear. Lucas: Exactly. And it's not a corporate design studio that comes up with the checkerboard. It's the customers. Vans just happened to be the canvas. That's the thing about the brand we're talking about today — Vans, and the whole Off The Wall ethos. It's one of the rare cases where the brand was built more by its community than by its marketing department. Luna: And the brand's been around since the mid-sixties. So how did a shoemaker from Anaheim become shorthand for skate punk and counterculture? Lucas: Well, let's start with the product itself. In 1966, Paul Van Doren and his partners open a small store in Anaheim, California. They call it the Van Doren Rubber Company. And they do two things differently from day one. First, they make shoes on-site. You walk in, you pick a style, you pick a fabric, and they stitch it up for you. Second, and this is huge, they sell directly to the public. No middlemen. So you're getting a custom shoe for a price that undercuts the big brands. Luna: Custom shoes in the sixties. That's pretty ahead of its time. I mean, Nike and Adidas were still pretty standard off-the-shelf. Lucas: Right. And that custom element becomes the seed of the brand's identity. The original store had a big wall of canvas rolls — red, green, blue, you name it. Kids would come in and pick a color combination, and the shoes were ready in about forty minutes. So you get this sense of individual expression baked into the product from the very beginning. And the soles were sticky. That's the other technical detail. The waffle sole — a diamond-tread pattern that gripped skateboard decks in a way that other sneakers just didn't. Luna: The grip thing is crucial. Because skateboarding in the seventies was still pretty primitive, and if your shoes slipped, you were eating pavement. Lucas: Exactly. And that's where the Z-Boys come in. The Zephyr skateboard team in Santa Monica, a bunch of surfers who brought surf-style carving to skateboarding. They started wearing Vans because the grip let them do things no one else could. And when they won the 1975 Del Mar Nationals, the photos of them in their Vans circulate through the skate world. That's the moment the brand gets its first real subculture credibility. Luna: It's interesting because they didn't pay for placement. The Z-Boys just wore them because they worked. So the brand's early marketing was essentially performance and word of mouth. Lucas: Right. And that's a pattern you see again and again with brands that earn their cool — the product genuinely serves the subculture first. The brand isn't chasing the culture; the culture adopts the brand. And that's the foundation of what becomes the Off The Wall tagline. Which, by the way, comes from a skateboarding trick — the off the wall air, where you launch off the side of a pool and come back in. It's a move that was considered pretty radical in the seventies. Luna: So the name itself is embedded in skate lingo. That's authentic to the core. Lucas: Yeah. And they start putting the Off The Wall logo on the shoes in the late seventies. But here's a key thing — they don't trademark it until 1980. Because for a while, it's just something the skaters say. The brand grows out of the culture, not the other way around. Luna: But then we get to the eighties, and the culture shifts. Skateboarding loses some of its mainstream momentum. What happened to Vans? Lucas: The early eighties are actually a wild time for Vans. They get this huge pop-culture push — Sean Penn wears a pair of checkered slip-ons in the 1982 movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High. That's a gift from the movie gods. But they also make some questionable decisions. They expand into basketball shoes, they launch a clothing line that doesn't really land, and they take on a bunch of debt. By the mid-eighties, they're staring at bankruptcy. Luna: So the movie exposure wasn't enough to save them. What went wrong? Lucas: I think the core issue is that they tried to be everything to everyone. They lost the subculture focus. And the skate scene itself had gone underground — it wasn't the commercial force it was in the seventies. So Vans had built a brand on a community that was still there, but the company wasn't speaking to them anymore. They were trying to be a generic athletic brand, and in that space, they were up against Nike and Reebok, who had way more resources. Luna: So how do they pull out of that nosedive? Lucas: They go back to the root. In the late eighties, a new generation of skaters — the Bones Brigade, the Powell-Peralta guys — are wearing Vans again. And Vans starts showing up in skate magazines, not because they're paying, but because the riders are wearing them. So the company recalibrates. They drop the basketball ambitions, they refocus on the core skate product, and they start putting more of their marketing budget into grassroots events and sponsorships. That's the beginning of the long climb back. Luna: So the lesson is: when you lose your authentic core, you lose your brand. You have to go back to what made you special. Lucas: Exactly. And that's what they do in the nineties. The skateboarding boom of the nineties is huge for Vans. But they also expand strategically — they launch the Vans Warped Tour in 1995, which becomes this massive traveling punk and extreme sports festival. That's a smart move because it aligns the brand with the music and the lifestyle that skaters actually live. It's not just about shoes anymore; it's about being part of a culture. Luna: And the Warped Tour goes on to define an entire generation of alternative culture. So they're building brand equity beyond the product itself. Lucas: Right. And by the late nineties, Vans is profitable again, but they're still kind of niche. The real explosion happens in the 2000s, when the checkerboard slip-on becomes a mainstream fashion staple. You start seeing them on everyone from rock stars to suburban kids. And that's when the tension starts — the subculture that built the brand starts to wonder if the brand has sold out. Luna: That's the classic dilemma for any subculture brand. How do you grow without losing the authenticity that made you cool in the first place? Vans seems to have navigated that tension better than most. How? Lucas: I think it comes down to a few things. One, they never abandoned the core skate product. The authentic skate shoe is always in the lineup, and they keep sponsoring real skaters. Two, they maintain that democratic price point — Vans are affordable, unlike a lot of sneaker culture that's become super exclusive and expensive. Three, they lean into the custom culture again. The Vans Customs program lets you design your own pair, just like those kids did with felt-tip pens in the seventies. It's a nod to their roots. Luna: The custom thing is a nice callback. And it's interesting that they kept the price low. That's a deliberate choice to stay accessible to the kid who's just getting into skating. Lucas: Yeah. And that accessibility is a big part of their brand equity. You can buy a pair of Vans for fifty bucks and they're the same shoes that pros wear. That's not true for a lot of other brands. In the sneaker world, you often pay a premium for the logo. Vans is more like a uniform — it's not about status, it's about identity. Luna: So let's talk about that identity. What does the Off The Wall logo actually communicate? Because it's not just a logo, it's a mindset. Lucas: Right. Off The Wall is about pushing boundaries, doing things that are unconventional, and not following the rules. It's about the skateboarder who launches off the wall of a pool and lands back in. That's a symbol of risk-taking and creativity. And that's a powerful emotional connection for a consumer. You're not just buying a shoe, you're buying into that mindset. Luna: It's almost like a badge of belonging. If you wear Vans, you're signaling that you're part of that community, even if you've never stepped on a skateboard. Lucas: Exactly. And that's the genius of the brand. It's inclusive in a way that says 'you're welcome here if you share this spirit.' And that's why Vans can sell to both a twelve-year-old skater and a forty-year-old accountant without diluting the brand. The core message is consistent. Luna: So how does Vans stack up against other brands that came from subcultures? I'm thinking of brands like Supreme or Stussy. They're more exclusive, they do drops, they're all about scarcity. Vans is the opposite. Lucas: That's a great comparison. Supreme builds its brand on scarcity and hype — limited drops, long lines, resale market. Vans is more about ubiquity and accessibility. And yet both are seen as authentic by their respective communities. The key is that they're consistent with their own values. Supreme doesn't try to be for everyone, and Vans doesn't try to be exclusive. They've each found their lane. Luna: So does Vans ever get accused of selling out? Because at some point, they did become a mass-market brand. You see Vans in every mall. Lucas: Oh, sure. There's always a segment of the hardcore skate community that thinks Vans sold out a long time ago. But I would argue that Vans has managed that tension better than most. They keep a strong presence in the actual skate world. Their skate team is still legit. They sponsor events like the Vans Park Series. They invest in skatepark building. So they're not just extracting from the culture; they're giving back to it. That's a key part of maintaining authenticity. Luna: That's a really good point. It's not enough to just use the culture in your marketing. You have to actually support the culture. And Vans has done that for decades. Lucas: Right. And I think that's the lesson for any brand that wants to build long-term equity on a subculture foundation. You have to be a genuine participant, not just a tourist. You have to earn your place every day. And Vans has done that by staying true to their product, their price point, and their community. Luna: So what's the future for Vans? Is there a risk that they lose their edge as they become even bigger? Lucas: There's always that risk. But I think the bigger threat is something else — the kind of cultural dilution that comes from being everywhere. When a brand becomes a default choice, it can start to feel like a uniform in a bad way. But Vans has a few things going for them. They have a deep archive of styles and collaborations. They have a strong direct to consumer business. And they have this authentic history that they can keep mining. The question is whether they can keep innovating within their own framework. Luna: Before we wrap up, I want to circle back to something you mentioned earlier — the felt-tip pen story. That's such a perfect example of how a brand can be co-created by its customers. And it reminds me that sometimes the best brand building isn't about the company at all. Lucas: Absolutely. And that's what makes Vans such a fascinating case study. They gave people a canvas, and the people made it their own. That's the kind of brand equity that can't be manufactured in a boardroom. It has to be earned. Luna: And that's why we keep coming back to these stories. They're not just about shoes or logos; they're about how brands become part of people's lives. Lucas: Speaking of that, I want to take a quick moment. You know, these conversations — they take time to research and produce. And a lot of listeners have asked how they can support the show. The truth is, a couple of dollars a month genuinely makes a difference. If you've gotten something out of these episodes, you can help keep them going by buying us a coffee at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's a small gesture, but it really does keep us ad-free and independent. Luna: Yeah, and it's not about big commitments. Every little bit helps us keep bringing you these deep dives into brand history. We really appreciate the ones who do. Lucas: So, back to Vans. I think the takeaway is that a brand's most valuable asset isn't its logo — it's the trust and meaning it holds in the minds of its community. And Vans has been remarkably consistent in nurturing that meaning for over sixty years. That's rare. Luna: It is. And I think that's why Off The Wall remains more than just a slogan. It's a promise that the brand has kept. Lucas: Exactly. And that's the foundation of true brand equity. Thanks for joining us on Building Brands. We'll see you next time.