THIS is the collector! ¬ MADE IN USA vintage VANS collector profile

 in honour of dimitri coste, THE pioneering made in usa collector of the last decade, we reveal a new 'app' for the blog profiling fellow collectors around the world. does your vintage vans collection rival all others?

THE original made in usa advocate & his bicycle moto cross inspiration earlier this year at house of vans in berlin

 

 another frenchman with impeccable taste coming out of paris! it appears he's a connoisseur of style #36 & #38 et al. stoked to see a couple a our pairs made the step up. collectors of the world unite!!

this feature was in attempt to facilitate my man renaud's desire to attend this years vans pool party at at the combi bowl however i have since heard he has his ticket & his dreams have come true! check his collect nonetheless!

vintage VANS blue red blue DOGTOWN slip-on style #98 MADE IN USA 1980'S off the wall 2-tone blue & red zephyr skate

 last week we had the pleasure of welcoming 1 of our biggest supporters & 1 of the finest parisian connoisseurs of original vans to the shop. its so satisfying seeing young kids come up through the ranks with such a discerning eye for made in usa vans despite the dry global landscape. & of course tVAN walked away in something special.....

 dogged town!

vintage vans style #98 slip-on

blue/red/blue 2-tone dogtown canvas

made in usa circa 1983

used

size N/A

TOSOTP x LUDWIG VAN deadstock canvas 30's nosalgia

 @ludwigclothing ¬ a tribute. thank you

 global gratitude goes out to mike @ludwigclothing for helping out a fellow connoisseur in the intimidating expanse that is LA. you may remember ludwig from their deadstock canvas vans project last year. here's mike in his office, original '30's nostalgia' in hand, which he hand delivered upon our meet last month. mike you are indeed ludwig van the man! now to find an original specimen.

 keep your ear to the ground peoples, for the timely collaboration which is surely inevitable!

i n s p i r e

 DAMN! this inspires me on so many levels!! but where do i categorise it? skate? bmx? stock hunting? vans? can't quite see what vans he rolls. some variation of killer #95 print & scene!! well like sal says, as the bid-minator he gets what he wants ha! love the extra pair bound up on his bike to thrash in the pool. who remembers his signature #23 e's release mid 90's? every breath is inspiring

style profile; celebrity (s) & vintage VANS- kristen stewart, weird al yankovic

 vans are omnipresent at the moment & there's countless celebrities who walk the waffle sole including the (dis)likes of kanye & rhianna. to spot a celebrity in original vans is somewhat more challenging however, not that i had searched with any real motivation (until this post) but unless someone is wearing a well recognised original, or wearing vans pre-1995 it is difficult to 'spot a native' american made van.

this blog was flooded over 1 year ago when some scary kristen stewart stalkers had spotted her in an original disney style #44 & permalinked us. further investigation revealed the young actress has a favouring for originals! here you can see her sporting asymmetrical socks with a classic 90's square root sid model, & a fresh 4-tone style #95. the highlight was her mickey mouse #44 spotted on set while filming some years ago. not condoning the type of obsession given to kristen online by fashion-mongers (by the way these are not vault!), but she does wear her originals well. that said i might just have to do some digging (in her trash), find her shoe size & do some shameless twitter stalkage.

that was to be the end of this post until i remebered the music vid of talking heads my friend sent my waY(ne). it turns out that david byrne is sadly not in fact wearing original #44's as he walks on stage at the intro to psycho killer. that will not prevent me from posting the intro to what could arguably be the best live band film of all time?! & this was where this style profile itslef did 'stop making sense' as i uncovered the most weird of original vans celebrity. psycho killer!

i reblogged this image on tumblr recently (via classickicksnyc & originally wearestudied) & thought.... damn they look like custom MTV #95's! the moment passed like tumblr weed in the draft of instagram until today. i google imaged mister weird al yankovic, known for his garish attire, satire & vans! i was stoked to uncover 1st a record cover complete with custom tropical print style #98 similar to that about to be re-issued by vans this summer.... & then to uncover the following, after the leap of faith.

 weird al is a vans head, with 1 of the best collections i've seen, most of which are originals! he did this true obsessions bit for cnn money back in 2009 exhibiting that it's vans that strikes an accordion with him. he seems to be mostly a slip-on man but does have some #95's & hi-tops, but his style is defiantly off the wall! he's got checkerboard, pirate skulls, several island beach, 2-tone, 3-tone, 4-tone & some unintelligible uppers, downers, screamers, laughers & yes indeed some MTV's! he's california born & been a fan since the 80s & must have taken advantage of the early custom-culture vans were reknowned for. something tells me we are only scratching the surface of weird's documented love for vans. 

we are forever reinforcing metaphors of transcending to the next level/phase/paradigm of business & here's hoping links with celebrities the likes of kristen, kanye & weirdo facilitate the inevitability of which.