How does a brand that sells mostly decades-old sneaker models stay relevant in the internet age?
On a Wednesday night in the Los Angeles Arts District, Vans held the finals for its seventh annual Vans Custom Culture design competition. The contest asks high school art departments from around the United States to customize four pairs of white Vans sneakers, focusing on the themes of action sports, art, music and “local flavor.” Six months, 3000 entries and three rounds of voting later, the grand prize was won by John P. Stevens High School, earning them a $50,000 donation to the school's art department and an opportunity for one of the student's designs to be reproduced and sold by Vans at retail. The Edison, N.J. school's diner-themed sneakers put them over with a panel of judges including pro surfer Dylan Graves, restaurateurs Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo, YouTube personality Maddi Bragg, and indie pop band Echosmith. If you don't know who these people are, it's OK. You might just be too old.
Vans has always been a brand for the younger generations. Consider that two of Vans' biggest pop culture moments of the past decade were created by high schoolers: From Lil B and The Pack racking up views in the early days of YouTube with the song “Vans,” to Joshua Holz and Daniel Lara ascending to the meme hall of fame with their “Damn Daniel” Snapchat videos, the brand continues to benefit from the cosign of youth culture. Now, with Custom Culture, Vans can further collaborate with their young fans, reinforcing a relationship that has kept the brand cool for so many years.
To learn more about the event and its importance to the brand, we sat down with Vans and VF Action Sports President Kevin Bailey.
Let's talk about the emergence of Vans Custom Culture. How did it start, and how did it get to where we are today?
Custom Culture is an idea that was started by one of our sales reps in Colorado and his best friend, who's an arts teacher at a local high school. They were sitting around talking one day and the art school teacher was trying to figure out a project for his kids. Our sales rep suggested he give him a bunch of white Vans to let the kids paint on 'em. That became this idea that they then pitched to us, like “Hey this could be cool.” Through that, it eventually became this idea that we can raise awareness of the underfunding of arts and give kids a platform to create on. That started with 300 schools seven years ago, and now we're up to almost 3,000 schools in all 50 states.
And Vans Custom Culture has expanded even outside of this contest now?
Yeah, one of our surf shops in Virginia Beach does their own local Custom Culture contest. Vans Brazil has also launched a Custom Culture program. They just decided to create one on their own by modeling after this one. We'd love to push it further, but there's certain legal limitations, because in some countries–believe it or not–if we provide product, it's perceived as “we're trying to buy the students affections,” essentially. And there's laws around what brands and companies can do in public education. We're trying to figure out how to make it happen. We can't do it everywhere yet, but we're encouraged that people want to do it.
Vans Custom Culture is reaching parts of the country that maybe weren't huge markets for the brand in the past. Have you noticed a difference?
If you're from Southern Cal, you grew up with the brand and you know about it and kids drawing on shoes. I think reaching art classes in places like, this year we have Louisville, Ky. here. Edison, N.J. , Honolulu, Hawaii and Sandy, Ore. For a brand that started as a Southern California entity to be able to reach an audience that broad… how much do those guys really know about our brand? How deep is their knowledge? At the end of the day, if they know it's about allowing them to express who they are through their art, then we feel really cool about being able to do that. I'm definitely surprised sometimes by what comes out of schools in different pockets of the country and how talented kids are.
There is a tradition of people drawing on their Vans that extends back decades now. It's become a great “canvas” for creators. How important are special projects and collaborations to the brand, whether it's with artists, musicians, or fashion labels?
It's been really important to us, more in the way in how organic it is. We often get approached by people that we idolize that say, “Hey I love Vans and I want to do something with you guys.” I mean, when [Takashi] Murakami said our brand is “like water. It's just there.” We just melted when he said that. The fact that these people think so much of us that they want to be a part of our brand… we like that people view our shoes as a canvas for them to create on. Because the brand resonates with them, it give us unbelievable opportunities.
That's a good point. The fact that there are so many people that aren't necessarily associated with you, business-wise, that still just like the brand. Even Kanye West saying, “Sometimes I'm in my Yeezys, sometimes I'm in my Vans.” That was a really cool moment for sneaker culture, I think, because nowadays it's always about “who's his/her sponsor?” If you're not wearing your sponsor, you might have to Photoshop it out of the picture. I understand that from a business perspective, but this was refreshing.
We are honored by the number of celebrities, athletes, and designers that choose us, and the fact that it happens organically. They view us as a brand that they can believe in because of who we are and what we do. That we do things like Custom Culture, and we elevate young people's desire to be creative.
For Kanye, creativity is really important to him. It's a beautiful thing that he sees us as a brand that represents creativity, and we support his right to be creative. These things are amazing because they just happen. We don't ask for them, and the other thing is we don't monopolize on them. Some people have given us some digs about not taking those moments and creating some big buzz and going out and writing some big check to say, “You're our dude now.” That's not who we are. Then we wouldn't have those moments.
We've talked about how closely Vans is tied with collaborators and youth culture in different regions. Today, those things really converge on social media. Being able to see different styles on the other side of the globe, what people are into, how they're drawing on their sneakers. Everyone's seen Damn Daniel. How big of a role does social media play in Vans' business currently?
We see that that's where young people live today. We view it as a community, and a chance for us to have a real one-on-one relationship. I think so many brands screw up. They think about “how would I sell my brand around the world?” When I first got to Vans we talked about, “Are we selling California? Are we selling sunshine?” And it was like no, youth culture is global.
The youth create the trends...
They're connected instantaneously, and the amount of knowledge about what's “cool” that kids have today, about something that's happening everywhere from Beijing to Sao Paolo... they just know. Kids are so worldly now, much more than I was when I was a kid. We're a global brand. We represent creativity and self expression and youth culture globally. We don't care where you come from or what you do. We welcome you in, we want to include you. There's a curation that goes on between all of us. We're out trying to make sure kids feel the stoke and feel like they're part of something bigger and feel connected.
Creating art, whether it's through your sneaker photos or through shoes you painted on, is such a personal, emotional experience. Being able to say “this is me” and express it through social media, to us, that's what Vans is all about. From the early days of skateboarders being viewed as freaks, to bands on Warped Tour playing music people weren't sure was cool, we're just like “OK, stir it up. This is youth culture. You gotta love all of it.”
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
