Vans' New Sneaker is Five Shoes in One
Personally, I've been split on Vans skate shoes for some time. Sometimes, I feel these waffle-soled skateboard sneakers are just too normie to wear seriously as stylish footwear, a pair of kicks I've left behind during my Odd Future-era as a high school freshman.
At the same time, I fully understand why Vans are a reliable stone-cold classic. Every time I see that chill squiggly line (the Jazz Stripe!) across a pair of Old Skools or that checkerboard pattern on a pair of Slip-Ons, I remember why I fell in love with Vans in the first place. Those iconic motifs are timeless. Word to The Pack.
At last, there's now a pair of Vans that perfectly encapsulates my back-and-forth take on how stylish these shoes are: Vans' Premium Clash the Wall sneaker.
The best way to describe these shoes is that it's like Vans freaky AF version of Nike SB's "What The Dunk."
Designed by Vans newly-formed OTW (Off The Wall) design studio, these Premium Clash the Wall Vans blend together motifs from four of Vans' most iconic shoes: The Sk8-Hi 38, Mid-Skool 37, Old Skool 36, and Authentic 44. Outside of this general release (that's still available for a mere $77) Sterling Ruby actually used this mashed-up Vans silhouette for his S.R. Studios collaboration with OTW in February, which was also the first OTW release from Vans.
This Frankenstein operation on a skate shoe is something we've been seeing a lot from the Vans OTW team recently.
Personally, my favorite Vans OTW design lately has been this techy take on a classic pair of Vans Half Cabs, which swaps out Vans classic waffle bottoms for a chunky Vibram sole. It's the perfect hybrid skate-trail shoe.
The hype for Vans has cooled down tremendously since its popularity peaked in the 2010s. Since then, the skate shoe brand has been desperately trying to hop back on board and find its grip within the footwear market again.
In late May, Vans' parent company, VF Corporation, reported declining sales for Vans in its latest quarterly report. Granted that most of the brands under VF Corp didn't fare too well this quarter, including Supreme, Vans has been struggling for years.
However, OTW is offering fresh new takes on Vans sneakers that're otherwise certifiable footwear classics. It hasn't even been half a year since OTW's first major release and it's already up to wild things.
There's only ample room for experimentation at Vans, which are so classic that they really don't need to be re-invented. But if the results look this good, more risks should only be taken.
So we'll just sit back and see if Vans can really land this frontside 180 for the sake of its business.
