Part of a limited-edition release to celebrate the Lunar New Year, Vans classic skate shoes are dressing up like my Grandma.

Seriously, the brand’s Skate Rowley, Old Skool, and Knu Skool models have been redesigned with a beige, tweed base and pearls — AKA, the finery worn by the average English Grandma.

And this is in quick succession to the release of a pair of Grandad-coded Vans Slip-Ons. I guess designers at the Californian footwear label are really listening to their elders. 

The latest elderly reimagining of Vans’ skateboarding shoes comes courtesy of Chinese artist Zhang Quan, part of the creative team behind the label Melting Sadness.

Quan adds a knitted tweed pattern to the base of these three shoes, pearls running along Vans’ signature wavy jazz stripe logo, and, in the case of the Old-Skool model, an extended foldover tongue like you find on football boots (or soccer cleats, for American readers). 

The link between these pearly sneakers and the Year of the Snake is, admittedly, unclear to me. However, that isn’t the case for another sneaker dropping as part of Vans’ New Year celebrations.

Shared on Instagram by Vans designer Ricki Dai, who is also posting the first images of the Vans x Zhang Quan collaboration, a pair of Vans Premium Old Skool Year of the Snake sneakers are also arriving, complete with scaly snake-skin details and printed with graphics depicting snakes. A far less ambiguous link to the theme of the Lunar New Year. 

No release date has been set for any of these sneakers so far, however, with the Lunar New Year kicking off on January 29, 2025, it’s safe to assume they will be arriving next month.

And there’ll be a lot more snake-themed sneakers where these came from, with other brands also getting in early and preparing scaly, snakey sneakers for the occasion.