Jon Warren's 25 Favorite Vans Sneakers of All Time

Before we even get started, yes, Jon Warren is the head of footwear design classics for Vans. Which makes him perhaps the perfect person to give a list of his favorite Vans, no? Also, he's one of the most influential people in sneakers both right now, and of all-time, so his words should carry weight. And rankings aside, he has some great stories to tell about some legendary Vans sneakers. So head on in and check out Jon Warren's 25 Favorite Vans Sneakers of All Time. We think you'll like it.

Year Released: 2010

Luke told me once on the phone that a lot of people bitch about bad product but do nothing about it. He said as designers it was our job to create good design and not to settle for mediocre product. I still carry that with me today and when I think of his shoe I think he nailed it. The shoe is called "Destroy Luxury" and combines the best of high end with the destructive nature of skateboarding... he couldn't have done it better.

Year Released: 2008

Max Schaaf wanted to work with one of our old BMX shoes called the Mt. Edition. We renamed his shoe the Oakland Edition because of the loading dock logo and the asymmetrical collar shape. We designed that because he kept burning holes in his jeans and shoes, so the internal collar is higher and made of fire-retardant suede. Plus we got Vans to do waffle motorcycle grips that came with the shoes. Max is one of my all-time favorite collaborators and now someone I call a friend

Year Released: 2012

We met with Humberto and Carol almost two-three years ago to talk about doing something with Vans. They said that while growing up in Southern California that they wore Vans and that they were fans of the brand. They said because of that love they wanted to take their time to do something new and fresh. When we got the phone call for their debut line with Kenzo we were blown away, and the collections we are working on for the future keep getting better.

Year Released: 2009

We got to be involved in a Malcolm McLaren project, that alone is almost unbelievable. I don't need to explain this, you should know it. If not, Wikipedia "Buffalo Gals."

Year Released: 2007

I had this poster on my wall along with a girl laying on top of a Lamborghini Countach. I think I had a mullet at the time and I would headbang to this album in my room. Then we got to take my favorite album as a kid and put it on a shoe. You do the math...

Year Released: 2010

Taka Hayashi is such an incredible designer and I have the pleasure of working side by side with him. He is someone who is always pushing the brand in new directions and this shoe was the one that let the world know he had his own collection. It's a great twist on a shoe that has been out for a long time and one of the better stand-out designs for Vans.

Year Released: 2012

Nick Horween and his family are the last of a dying craft in America. This was an honor to be involved with them and the way that they treat leather is something to be seen. If you ever get a chance to see the video, you will hear the passion they put into it. We were lucky enough to take part in this American legacy.

Year Released: 2010

We met Tetsu and the W-taps crew through Berto from Supreme. Our common bond was skateboarding and music and the idea that we could make shoes for a small group of people who understood that the devil is in the details. I really admire the way that Tetsu designs product and it was an honor to work with him for the last seven years. I think he took the Sk8-Mid in a route that I had never thought of and the quote on the sidestripe was great. Take time to consider that English is Tet's second language...

Year Released: 2012

Mike Carroll used to have a pro model on Vans, it was a shoe that you had to be involved in skateboarding to remember .We talked about figuring out how to bring it back, but it took James Jebbia and the Supreme crew to reach out to Mike to get the sign-off. It's a shoe for skateboarders from the '90s, I just wish we made the beef and broccoli colorway.

Year Released: 2005

Mr. Cartoon came up with the crooked "S" Syndicate logo, he called us and said to come up to his studio. When we got there he pulled out his sketchbook and was casually flipping through it, after he was done he pulled out another design from his bag and it was the crooked "S." Cartoon said it represented what the category was about, just subtle twists that you had to look at closer to understand. The shoe is reflective of the painting he was doing at the time and I still think that these are as hard as they come. I'm still sitting on a pair of fresh blue ones.

Year Released: 2011

These are great because the guys at Ludwig stumbled onto a pile of deadstock Vans prints and approached us to do a project. This is one of the projects that the planets had to align to make happen. Since we were limited to the material they found it became a hard-to-get shoe, and unlike most shoes you could say you were buying a piece of history.

Year Released: 2010

I know nothing about baseball, and I think that why I like these so much. It was amazing to work with such iconic teams and have so many people talk shit on each others rival teams. We spent days at the factory getting the logos just right and matching the team Pantones. I was in a restaurant in Los Angeles wearing the San Francisco Giants shoes and had a mom tell me that she was on my side... It took me a while to figure out I was in Dodger country wearing rival shoes .Go team.

Year Released: 2007

One of our footwear designers lived next door to an illustrator for The Simpsons, and he loved Vans. So when they made the movie we got the opportunity to work with them and jumped at it. We reached out to a number of artists to reinterpret our shoes and the Simpsons characters. My favorite of the pack was the Kaws Chukka Boot, it was a great design and was in my opinion the easiest to wear.

Year Released: 2011

Robert Verdi is friends with Steve Mills, the Category Business Director of Vault. They had lunch together in New York and the idea came up to design some Slip-Ons using vintage Hermés scarfs. It's amazing that he was willing to part with such an expensive collection of scarfs and each was meticulously laid out to make sure the best part of the scarf was used. It took almost two weeks to lay everything out, but the end result was truly amazing and each was a one of a kind. I just need to come up with $400 to get my own pair.

Year Released: 2007

I am going to say that without Marc Jacobs stepping in and taking a spin on some Vans I'm not sure we'd be able to play around with high-end brands like we do. At the time people thought of us as strictly a skate brand and Marc thought that we could be a fashion play. These shoes still look relevant today, and we were very lucky to have him say yes.

Year Released: 1987

I like this shoe because it was so ugly, seriously no one but a skateboarder would want to wear this thing. But that's what made it amazing. Fly Grip flies on the quarter panel, giant suede ollie panels, rubber toe cap, and the Madrid logo in neon colors. We remade this shoe and I still cannot believe anyone let us bring this one back

Year Released: 1990

This shoe came out only one year and no one was into it. This older punk kid we looked up to would wear them and no one knew where to get them. This is another one that we had to remake. However with this one we worked with the original pattern maker (Bunny Caminiti) she had all the original templates in her garage. I knew it was the right shoe to bring back when Jeff Grosso came in and said it was his favorite shoe. Now he has his own version and we tricked it out to skate vert ramps... ask him about it, you'll get an earful.

Year Released: 1989

This shoe was one that I had to remake in order to get my first pair. When I got to Vans they had stopped making them so we had to recreate the pattern, logos, and develop the Croc emboss. I couldn't afford the shoes as a kid so I made them as an adult. I just love how tall they are and how cool they make me feel when I wear them, plus I changed the original black sole to white. Sorry to the purists out there, I wanted a white sole.

Year Released: 1992

When we saw Guy Mariano's part in the Girl Mouse video we knew something had changed. We would rewind the videotape over and over trying to figure out what was switch and what was regular. It was scary how good his part was. At the time we would see him skateboarding Lockwood High in Half Cabs, and we ran out and got them immediately. People already thought they were retro, that was in 1996. That shoe is still going strong and most skateboarders will agree that it was the most important pro skateboard shoe made.

Year Released: 1990

Matt Hensley's skating mini ramp in the Not the New H-Street Video in 1990. Matt Hensley was pushing street skateboarding in a new direction and that mini ramp part was insane at the time. Tre-flip to fakie on a mini ramp was mental, and Hensley skated and dressed in style. I think any kid that liked him at that time had a shaved head, bleached white hair, and a chain wallet. The Chukka boot was good enough for him and still is to me.

Year Released: 1978

My crew back in high school used to add tongues from Etnies skate shoes and fat lace these. The uniform at the time was white Beefy-T's and khaki Dickies. At the time I was broke and going though shoes quickly, so we would go to the Vans store and buy the weird-colored custom ones that people wouldn't even pick up on sale. A secret from back in the day was that no matter what color the suede upper was as soon as you bleached them the shoes would turn brown. Looking back we probably looked like we were going to private school, but that is what we skated in.

Year Released: 1978

This was another skateboard classic, Steve Van Doren told me that the sidestripe was created because his dad liked the exhaust pipes of the 1967 Shelby Cobra. If you look at both, its clear as day and it gave us our first shoe icon. This holds a soft spot in my heart because all of the original Bones Brigade wore them in the first Powell videos.

Year Released: 1976

Tony Alva, Jay Adams, and Stacy Peralta took the Authentic and gave it a heel panel and a padded collar and created the first ever skateboard-specific shoe. This is what shaped skateboarding in Dogtown and created the equipment that would take skateboarding from its surfing roots and push it into its own universe. This shoe made history and that is something that only happens once, plus the skateboarders who created it created style in skateboarding.

Year Released: 1966

I had a conversation with Michael Koppelman of Hideout and he said the beauty of Vans is that it is a utility product. For me, the Authentic is the epitome of the best utility shoe consisting of only three panels, five eyelets, and a simple lace-up. It has come in a million colors, but for me the STV navy colorway is the strongest because it goes with everything and the blue canvas fades into the best shade after wearing in. This also was the foundation in which Vans was built. Paul Van Doren took a basic deck shoe and gave it that magic twist of the Waffle Gum tread.

Year Released: 1979

This shoe is what made Vans become a global brand and the story behind it is even better. When Steve Van Doren was in high school, kids were drawing checkerboard patterns on their shoes. Steve came home and told Paul Van Doren and the next day they were screen printing the first checkerboard Slip-On. But what really made this shoe special was when Jeff Spicoli (Sean Penn) was taking bong hits and hitting himself in the head with the checkerboard Slip-Ons in Fast Times At Ridgemont High. From that point forward Vans was a brand that represented the So Cal Surfer dude and the attitude that came with it.