Vans launches the Blur Check Pack

For over 50 years, since it was founded in the late '60s in California by brothers Paul and James Van Doren together with partners Gordon Lee and Serge Delia (here the complete history of the iconic brand), Vans has always stood out for the ability to present customizations and interesting special versions of their most iconic models. This "tradition" continues in 2019 with the Blur Check Pack, a new project that includes Authentic, Old Skool, Classic Slip-On and Sk8-Hi, all characterized by psychedelic and graphic uppers, as the name of the project says, out fire that, thanks to digital printing, create a surprising double visual effect. Find each shoe at a price between $60 and $70 on vans.com, but, as we mentioned before, this is just the last of the many reinterpretations of the legendary black and white checkered pattern, loved and worn by surfers, skaters, BMX riders, artists, musicians.

The history of this two-color graphic, now become iconic, has, in fact, distant roots. We are in 1977, Vans has already opened its first store for a few years immediately obtaining immediate success, linked to the successful and cool partnership with the world of surf and skater and legends of the industry as Tony Alva and Stacy Peralta, when the fate of the brand is about to have its decisive turn.

All thanks to Steve Van Doren, son of one of the founders of the company who had noticed an interesting detail: the children used the felt-tip pens to color the rubber soles on the sides of their sneakers, often with chess boards. Hence the intuition to start producing shoes with chessboard soles, and then, shortly thereafter, also to achieve the upper in the same way.

Luckily, while Van Doren is trying to develop the new slip on concept, a new musical current is emerging from Europe, a mix between the raw voice and the punk style with the melodic undertones of Caribbean music, note like Ska. With the Two Tone wave the genre begins to coincide with a fight for racial equality and the Vans shoe with its combination of black and white becomes a symbol of this social idea, but above all, one of the favorite accessories for fans and ska musicians.

The popularity of the briefs with the paintings rises more and more definitely explodes in 1982 with the release to the cinema of the cult teenager comedy Fast Times at Ridgemont High, in which the protagonist played by a young Sean Penn wears it in almost every scene. The shoe is so central in the film that even the soundtrack has a close-up image of the Vans product on the cover.

From this moment on the sneaker checkboard will define the style of a generation, becoming the most emblematic creation of Vans, loved and worn by everyone: punk, ska-addicted, rapper, boys, adults, skaters, surfers, fashionistas and ordinary people.