Inside Vans, there are two wolves and they are both unrelentingly luxe. There's the self-described "pinnacle" OTW line, soon to be home to Vans' most avant offerings, and Vans Premium, Vans' humbly opulent all-star collection.
Vans Premium launches on March 6, mere days after OTW By Vans' splashy debut and Sterling Ruby collaboration. It's not launching through a partnership with a big-time artist or by dramatically reinventing Vans' skateboard wheels.
In fact, Vans Premium is hardly even launching at all: its first drop has been quietly available on OTW's web store since the OTW collection released in late February.
This is mostly down to logistics — it simply made more sense to stock Vans Premium alongside the existing OTW product so as to fill out the website — but it's also indicative of the Vans Premium ethos. No nonsense, no frills, just well-made Vans classics.
"While OTW by Vans is future-forward and rooted in progressive expression and design, Vans Premium is about modern comfort, elevated materializations, and updated form, fit, and feeling," Ian Ginoza, Vans' vice president and pinnacle creative director, told Highsnobiety.
The lines serve two different purposes, as Ginoza tells it, with OTW offering Vans' most advanced fare and Vans Premium promising a "refined" selection of sneakers and clothes, "setting a new standard in quality and craft for Vans. Here the pursuit is in modern craft of our classic models."
And thus Vans Premium retooled Geoff Rowley's XLT signature shoe for the Lunar New Year, printing dragon-y spikes on the Jazz Stripe and glossing up the lace aglets with gold.
It glazed the Premium Old Skool 36 with metallic bronze, dip-dyed the Premium Authentic 44 for a uniquely washed-out, faded finish, and softened the Premium Half-Cab 33 with lightweight canvas and cow suede.
But beyond the upgraded designs, Vans Premium also reconstructed the skate company's inimitable models with sturdier fabrics à la Vault.
The changes are not only obvious in big ways, like with the Premium Sk8-Mid 83's hairy cowskin upper, but also in the details, like the Premium Authentic's leather collar lining and the new "Sola Foam ADC" insoles fitted inside each modestly elegant skate shoe.
But Vans Premium is not merely Vault 2.0.
"Vault was rooted in celebrating our past and heritage," said Ginoza.
But with Premium, "we paid homage to some of Vans' iconic design aesthetic and cues while giving them a completely modern update. We’re taking the best from our past and making it better."
